'N the month of September, 1904, Ernst LITTLE 

 Haeckel was one of the delegates to the JOURNEYS 

 Freethinkers Congress at Rome. To hold 

 such a convention in the Eternal City, 

 right under the eaves of the Vatican, was 

 surely a trifle "indelicate," to use the 

 words of the Pope. And it was no wonder that at the close 

 of the Congress the Pope at once ordered a sacred house- 

 cleaning, a divine fumigation. Forty years ago he would 

 have acted before the Congress convened, not after- 

 ward. Special mass was held in every Catholic Church 

 in Rome " to partially atone for the insult done to Al- 

 mighty God." 



Over three thousand delegates were present at the 

 Congress, every civilized country being represented. 

 A committee was named to decorate the statue of 

 Bruno that stands on the spot where he was burned 

 for declaring that the earth revolved, and that the stars 

 were not God's jewels hung in the sky each night by 

 angels. 



On this occasion, in the course of his speech, Haeckel 

 said, " This Congress is historic. It marks a white mile 

 post in the onward and upward march of freedom. We 

 have met in Rome not accidentally or incidentally, 

 but purposely. We have met here to show the world 

 that times have changed, that the earth revolves, and 

 to prove to ourselves in an impressive and undeniable 

 way that the power of superstition is crippled, and at 

 last Science and Free Speech need no longer cringe 

 and crawl. We respect the Church for what she is, 



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