LECTURES AND ESS A YS 



But why go back to 1456 and 1616 ? 

 Far be it from me to charge bygone sins 

 upon Monsignor Capel, were it not for 

 the practices he upholds to-day. The 

 most applauded dogmatist and champion 

 of the Jesuits is, I am informed, Perrone. 

 No less than thirty editions of a work of 

 his have been scattered abroad for the 

 healing of the nations. His notions of 

 physical astronomy are virtually those of 

 1456. He teaches boldly that "God 



does not rule by universal law that 



when God orders a given planet to stand 

 still He does not detract from any law 

 passed by Himself, but orders that 

 planet to move round the sun for such 

 and such a time, then to stand still, and 

 then again to move, as His pleasure may 

 be." Jesuitism proscribed Frohschammer 

 for questioning its favourite dogma, that 

 every human soul was created by a 

 direct supernatural act of God, and for 

 asserting that man, body and soul, came 

 from his parents. This is the system 

 that now strives for universal power ; it 

 is from it, as Monsignor Capel graciously 

 informs us, that we are to learn what is 

 allowable in science, and what is not ! 



In the face of such facts, which might 

 be multiplied at will, it requires extra- 

 ordinary bravery of mind, or a reliance 

 upon public ignorance almost as extra- 

 ordinary, to make the claims made by 

 Monsignor Capel for his Church. 



Before me is a very remarkable letter 

 addressed in 1875* by the Bishop of 

 Montpellier to the Deans and Professors 

 of Faculties of Montpellier, in which the 

 writer very clearly lays down the claims 

 of his Church. He had been startled 

 by an incident occurring in a course of 

 lectures on Physiology given by a pro- 

 fessor, of whose scientific capacity there 

 was no doubt, but who, it was alleged, 

 rightly or wrongly, had made his course 

 the vehicle of materialism. "Je ne me 

 suis point donne," says the Bishop, " la 

 mission que je remplis au milieu de 



1 The next four paragraphs, as this date indi- 

 cates, were inserted only in the subsequent 

 reprints. ED. 



vous. 'Personne, au temoignage de 

 saint Paul, ne s'attribue a soi-meme un 

 pareil honneur ; il y faut etre appele de 

 Dieu, comme Aaron.' Et pourquoi en 

 est-il ainsi ? C'est parce que, selon le 

 meme Apotre, nous devons etre les 

 ambassadeurs de Dieu; et il n'est pas 

 dans les usages, pas plus qu'il n'est dans 

 la raison et le droit, qu'un envoye 

 s'accredite lui-meme. Mais, si j'ai regu 

 d'En-Haut une mission ; si 1'Eglise, au 

 nom de Dieu lui-meme, a souscrit mes 

 lettres de creance, me sierait-il de man- 

 quer aux instructions qu'elle m'a don- 

 nees et d'entendre, en un sens different 

 du sien, le role qu'elle m'a confie ? 



"Or, Messieurs, la sainte Eglise se 

 croit investie du droit absolu d'enseigner 

 les hommes ; elle se croit depositaire de 

 la verite, non pas de la verite fragmen- 

 taire, incomplete, melee de certitude et 

 d'hesitation, mais de la verite totale, 

 complete, au point de vue religieux. 

 Bien plus, elle est si sure de 1'infailli- 

 bilite que son Fondateur divin lui a 

 communiquee, comme la dot magnifique 

 de leur indissoluble alliance, que, meme 

 dans 1'ordre naturel, scientifique ou 

 philosophique, moral ou politique, elle 

 n'admet pas qu'un systeme puisse etre 

 soutenu et adopte par des Chretiens, s'il 

 contredit a des dogmes definis. Elle 

 considere que la negation volontaire et 

 opiniatre d'un seul point de sa doctrine 

 rend coupable du peche d'heresie; et 

 elle pense que toute heresie formelle, si 

 on ne la rejette pas courageusement 

 avant de paraitre devant Dieu, entraine 

 avec soi la perte certaine de la grace et 

 de 1'eternite." 



The Bishop recalls those whom he 

 addresses from the false philosophy of 

 the present to the philosophy of the past, 

 and foresees the triumph of the latter. 

 "Avant que le dix-neuvieme siecle 

 s'acheve, la vieille philosophic scolas- 

 tique aura repris sa place dans la juste 

 admiration du monde. II lui faudra 

 pourtant bien du temps pour guerir les 

 maux de tout genre, causes par son 

 indigne rivale; et pendant de longues 

 annees encore, ce nom de philosophic, le 



