392 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



Galileo and the Copernican Theory. 



It is often said, even by those who should be 

 better informed, that the greatest obstacle in the 

 way of the general acceptance of the Copernican 

 theory was the Church, and that the cause of all of 

 Galileo's woes was the ignorant officials of the In- 

 quisition. The fact is, however, that it was not 

 churchmen, as such, who were opposed to the views 

 which Galileo so ardently and so successfully cham- 

 pioned. It was rather the old peripatetic system 

 of philosophy, which, after dominating the world of 

 thought for two thousand years, saw itself finally 

 face to face with what, it was felt on all sides, was 

 destined to prove the most formidable adversary it 

 had yet encountered. For the. Ptolemaic system 

 was so closely bound up with the philosophy of Aris- 

 totle, and this in turn was so intimately connected 

 with theology, especially since the time of St. 

 Thomas Aquinas, that any attack on the geocentric 

 system was at once regarded as an onslaught on 

 both philosophy and theology. So great, indeed, 

 was the authority of the " Master," as Aristotle was 

 called, and so long had his dicta been accepted with- 

 out question, that in the minds of many it was 

 almost as impious to assail his opinions as it was to 

 attack the dogmas of faith. 



One of the fundamental teaching's of the Stagir- 

 ite was, for instance, that concerning the incorrupti- 

 bility and immutability of the heavens. Galileo's 

 telescopic discoveries showed that this opinion was 



