APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS 229 



is, the Church, in the Pontificate of Paul V., stepped in, 

 and by the mouth of the holy Congregation of the Index, 

 delivered, on March 5, 1616, the following decree: 



"And whereas it hatn also come to the knowledge of 

 the said holy congregation that the false Pythagorean doc- 

 trine of the mobility of the earth and the immobility of 

 the sun, entirely opposed to Holy Writ, which is taught 

 by Nicolas Copernicus, is now published abroad and re- 

 ceived by many. In order that this opinion may not 

 further spread, to the damage of Catholic truth, it is 

 ordered that this and all other books teaching the like 

 doctrine be suspended, and by this decree they are all 

 respectively suspended, forbidden, and condemned." 



But why go back to 1456 and 1616? Far be it from 

 me to charge bygone sins upon Monsignor Capel, were 

 it not for the practices he upholds to- day. The most ap- 

 plauded dogmatist and champion of the Jesuits is, I am 

 informed, Perrone. No less than thirty editions of a work 

 of his have been scattered abroad for the healing of the 

 nations. His notions of physical astronomy are virtually 

 those of 1456. He teaches boldly that "God does not rule 

 by universal law . . . that when God orders a given 

 planet to stand still He does not detract from any law 

 passed by Himself, but orders that planet to move round 

 the sun for such and such a time, then to stand still, and 

 then again to move, as His pleasure may be." Jesuitism 

 proscribed Frohschammer for questioning its favorite dog- 

 ma, that every human soul was created by a direct super- 

 natural act of God, and for asserting that man, body and 

 soul, came from his parents. This is the system that now 

 strives for universal power; it is from it, as Monsignor 



