THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT LEARNING 47 



come." "It is not through ignorance, but through con- 

 tempt of such useless labor that we think little of these 

 matters and turn our souls to better things," writes Eusebius. 

 " It is a matter of no interest to us," writes Basil, " whether 

 the earth is a sphere or a cylinder or a disc." These and 

 many similar pronouncements are representative of pre- 

 vailing convictions that were unfavorable to scientific 

 progress. 



As time went on, the dogma that the Scriptures were the 

 direct word of God to man, to be interpreted as literally true 

 in all respects, led to the doctrine that anything in conflict 

 with Biblical statements was sinful; and further, that 

 promulgation of such an error should be punished. The 

 famous saying of St. Augustine, "Nothing is to be accepted 

 save on authority of Scripture, since greater is that authority 

 than all the powers of the human mind," came to be the 

 basis of faith; and in this atmosphere of blind belief it is 

 small wonder that ignorance reigned. The idea of God's 

 will as the source of all causation was fostered by the doc- 

 trine of the inscrutability of God's ways to man, while 

 always and everywhere there was a tendency to warp 

 facts to fit theological conceptions. In brief, the Scriptures, 

 and not the book of nature, became the authority in the 

 interpretation of natural phenomena, while the existence and 

 overwhelming importance of supernatural phenomena were 

 accepted as a matter of course. 7 



7 The following pagan characterization of the Christian view of knowledge 

 illustrates the existence of a measure of active hostility to knowledge: "The 

 Christians passed with the heathen as a race averse to all that is great, fair 

 and noble in our humanity, as even hostile to it, and haters of mankind. In 

 its origin their religion was barbarian: they despised all science. This is the 

 rule laid down by them, writes Celsus: ' Let no one come to us who has been 

 educated, or who is wise or prudent, for such qualifications are deemed evil 

 by us; but if there be any ignorant, or uncultivated, or unintelligent, or foolish 

 person, let him come with confidence.' Their teachers, he affirms, say: "See 

 that none of you lay hold of knowledge! Knowledge is an evil. Knowledge 

 causes men to lose their soundness of mind; they perish through wisdom.' " 

 Uhlhorn, G., loc. tit., p. 229. 



