SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION 



We need not go into the details of the evolu- 

 tion of Christianity at this stage. Suffice it to 

 say that henceforth it was lost to the proletariat 

 as a weapon in its struggles against the ruling 

 classes, and has ever since proven itself a bulwark 

 of retrogressive counter-revolutions. 



VI. IN THE SLOUGH OF ECCLESIASTIC FEUDAL- 

 ISM 



No sooner had the church of the ruling Chris- 

 tians become the Roman state, than the " souls " 

 of men were " saved " by suppressing their free 

 intellectual development. Science was tied hand 

 and foot. The strictest regulations were issued, 

 forbidding practices which were then almost the 

 only means of inductive research, such as the 

 anatomical study of human corpses. This was 

 still vetoed by the church in the I5th century. In 

 ancient Greece, natural philosophy owed most of 

 its inductive facts to physicians. Under the rule 

 of the Roman Christians, physicians were prac- 

 tically compelled to take up metaphysics, if they 

 cared at all for philosophical research. Science 

 fell almost entirely into the hands of the priests. 



