182 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 



clergy. Hence, he should have confined 

 his censures at all events to the Roman 

 priests of the 16th, and not to the Protes- 

 tant clergy of the 19th century, for as 

 soon as the grand discovery of Copernicus 

 began to circulate amongst the literati of 

 Europe, the suspicions of the Roman theo- 

 logians were aroused, and the opinion of 

 the earth's motion was authoritatively cen- 

 sured ; first of all in the person of Coperni- 

 cus, who was accused by the Cardinals of 

 tjie Congregation of the Index of teaching 

 the Pythagorean doctrine respecting the 

 earth's motion and the immobility of the 

 sun; and seventeen years later, "in the 

 condemnation, the imprisonment, and per- 

 haps the torture of Galileo." * 



About two years after the episode at 

 Sion College, I find the same learned pro- 

 fessor replying to a courteous invitation 

 of the Committee of the Dialectical Society 

 of June 29th, 1869, who were seeking to 

 induce men of science to investigate the 



* See Appendix N. 



