1 2 2 Science Religion and Reality 



how we may we shall fail to find any special influence of the 

 experimental philosophy in the establishment of the Reformed 

 Religion. The reforming leaders were, if anything, less sympa- 

 thetic to scientific investigation than were the Catholic leaders. 

 The most that can be urged is that the unsettling discoveries of 

 the new-born experimental method helped the ferment of dis- 

 content which expressed itself in religious matters as the R.eforma- 

 tion. Even that interpretation, however, somewhat strains the 

 facts, and it is an argument, moreover, which may be used both 

 ways. For one sixteenth-century man of science of the reformed 

 faith, such as Paracelsus, a dozen Catholics might be named. In 

 truth the reforming leaders from Wycliff to Calvin showed no more 

 sympathy with the experimental method than did their opponents. 

 Thus Calvin was responsible for the burning of Servetus, the dis- 

 coverer of the lesser circulation of the blood, and Servetus is some- 

 times described as a martyr of science. The guilt lies with Calvin, 

 but only after Servetus had escaped from a Catholic prison. Nor 

 did Calvin show any interest whatever in the discovery of Servetus, 

 nor did it make any part in the indictment. Indeed, Servetus 

 himself esteemed his discovery lightly or not at all. The conflict 

 between Catholic and Protestant assuredly does not concern us here. 

 It may be a cause of surprise that we propose to omit discussion 

 of the Revival of Learning as irrelevant to our subject. Yet so 

 far as the Renaissance meant anything for science it meant a rebirth 

 or resurrection of ancient science. The earlier humanists were as 

 little sympathetic to, or understanding of, the experimental method 

 as were the great religious leaders. The backward-looking habit, 

 strong in man from his nature, was further enforced, not weakened, 

 by these humanists. From Petrarch onward they were ever 

 brooding on the past that had been Greece and Rome. Their 

 attitude was often not without opposition to the current religion, 

 but again that conflict has nothing to do with the relation of 

 religion and science. Improved access to Greek works of observa- 

 tional science gradually became possible through the agency of 

 Humanism, On the renewed acquaintance with Greek science 

 the modern application of the experimental method was based, but 

 Humanism as such hardly comes into our story. After all, the 

 scientific views of the Middle Ages were substantially those of the 

 classical decline, and it was long before any great change was made 

 in them by the revival of antiquity. For the purpose of our theme 



