[-7] 



of the Trinitarian Calvin, and a check was thereby given 

 to the propagation of the Arian doctrines. It is satis- 

 factory to note that a Unitarian College now stands upon 

 the very spot where Servetus was murdered. 



Again progress was arrested, and this time it seemed 

 as though a mortal blow had been dealt at all acquirement 

 of knowledge, for shortly afterwards, in 1559, Pope 

 Paul IV. established the Congregation of the Index 

 ~icPurgatorius for the purpose of examining all books and 

 manuscripts intended for publication, and of deciding 

 whether the people should read them. The usual counter- 

 poise, however, quickly made its appearance, proving 

 once more that progress cannot be arrested for long. 



In 1563 the first newspaper was produced in Venice, 

 which again set the ball of intellect rolling along, never 

 more to be stopped by priest or prince. The new 

 Copernican philosophy was now accepted by many 

 learned men, among whom even were some of the 

 priesthood. Giordano Bruno, an Italian Dominican 

 monk, among others, embraced these truths, and was 

 not afraid to openly teach them, for which daring act 

 he was soon obliged to seek refuge in Switzerland, where 

 he prosecuted his studies for some time in peace. The 

 fiends of the Inquisition, however, soon discovered his 

 whereabouts and drove him into France, then into 

 England, and then back to Germany ; in the end arrest- 

 ing him at Venice. He was taken thence to Rome, 

 publicly accused of teaching the plurality of worlds, and 

 burnt at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600. Eighteen 

 years after the murder of this noble Italian, Kepler, of 

 Wiirtemberg, published his " Epitome of the Copernican 

 System," in which he demonstrated for the first time 

 that all the heavenly bodies are bound in their courses 

 by various laws. This work, like those of Copernicus 

 and Bruno, was prohibited by the Congregation of the 

 _Jfodex^Purgatorius, and Kepler himself declared a 

 dangerous infidel. Still, in spite of the fury of the 

 priesthood, Catholic and Reformer alike, the study ot 

 the sciences made rapid strides, and in 1632 the vener- 

 able Galileo published his " System of the World," in 

 which he maintained the accuracy of the Copernican 

 theory. For this daring disregard of the Church's 



