History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom Part 33

From the science of Anthropology, when rightly viewed as a whole, has come the greatest aid to those who work to advance religion rather than to promote any particular system of theology; for Anthropology and its subsidiary sciences show more and more that man, since coming upon the earth, has risen, from the period when he had little, if any, idea of a great power above him, through successive stages of fetichism, shamanism, and idolatry, toward better forms of belief, making him more and more accessible to n.o.bler forms of religion. The same sciences show, too, within the historic period, the same tendency, and especially within the events covered by our sacred books, a progress from fetichism, of which so many evidences crop out in the early Jewish wors.h.i.+p as shown in the Old Testament Scriptures, through polytheism, when Jehovah was but "a G.o.d above all G.o.ds," through the period when he was "a jealous G.o.d," capricious and cruel, until he is revealed in such inspired utterances as those of the n.o.bler Psalms, the great pa.s.sages in Isaiah, the sublime preaching of Micah, and, above all, through the ideal given to the world by Jesus of Nazareth.

Well indeed has an eminent divine of the Church of England in our own time called on Christians to rejoice over this evolution, "between the G.o.d of Samuel, who ordered infants to be slaughtered, and the G.o.d of the Psalmist, whose tender mercies are over all his works; between the G.o.d of the Patriarchs, who was always repenting, and the G.o.d of the Apostles, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, between the G.o.d of the Old Testament, who walked in the garden in the cool of the day, and the G.o.d of the New Testament, whom no man hath seen nor can see; between the G.o.d of Leviticus, who was so particular about the sacrificial furniture and utensils, and the G.o.d of the Acts, who dwelleth not in temples made with hands; between the G.o.d who hardened Pharaoh's heart, and the G.o.d who will have all men to be saved; between the G.o.d of Exodus, who is merciful only to those who love him, and the G.o.d of Christ--the heavenly Father--who is kind unto the unthankful and the evil."

However overwhelming, then, the facts may be which Anthropology, History, and their kindred sciences may, in the interest of simple truth, establish against the theological doctrine of "the Fall"; however completely they may fossilize various dogmas, catechisms, creeds, confessions, "plans of salvation" and "schemes of redemption," which have been evolved from the great minds of the theological period: science, so far from making inroads on religion, or even upon our Christian development of it, will strengthen all that is essential in it, giving new and n.o.bler paths to man's highest aspirations. For the one great, legitimate, scientific conclusion of anthropology is, that, more and more, a better civilization of the world, despite all its survivals of savagery and barbarism, is developing men and women on whom the declarations of the n.o.bler Psalms, of Isaiah, of Micah, the Sermon on the Mount, the first great commandment, and the second, which is like unto it, St. Paul's praise of charity and St. James's definition of "pure religion and undefiled," can take stronger hold for the more effective and more rapid uplifting of our race.(198)

(198) For the resolution of the Presbyterian Synod of Mississippi in 1857, see Prof. Woodrow's speech before the Synod of South Carolina, October 27 and 28, 1884, p. 6. As to the action of the Board of Directors of the Theological Seminary of Columbia, see ibid. As to the minority report in the Synod of South Carolina, see ibid., p. 24. For the pithy sentences regarding the conduct of the majority in the synods toward Dr. Woodrow, see the Rev. Mr. Flynn's article in the Southern Presbyterian Review for April, 1885, p. 272, and elsewhere. For the restrictions regarding the teaching of the Copernican theory and the true doctrine of comets in German universities, see various histories of astronomy, especially Madler. For the immaculate oath (Immaculaten-Eid) as enforced upon the Austrian professors, see Luftkandl, Die Josephinischen Ideen. For the effort of the Church in France, after the restoration of the Bourbons, to teach a history of that country from which the name of Napoleon should be left out, see Father Loriquet's famous Histoire de France a l'Usage de la Jeunesse, Lyon, 1820, vol.

ii, see especially table of contents at the end. The book bears on its t.i.tle-page the well known initials of the Jesuit motto, A. M. D. G. (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam). For examples in England and Scotland, see various English histories, and especially Buckle's chapters on Scotland. For a longer collection of examples showing the suppression of anything like unfettered thought upon scientific subjects in American universities, see Inaugural Address at the Opening of Cornell University, by the author of these chapters. For the citation regarding the evolution of better and n.o.bler ideas of G.o.d, see Church and Creed: Sermons preached in the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital, London, by A. W. Momerie, M. A., LL. D., Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in King's College, London, 1890. For a very vigorous utterance on the other side, see a recent charge of the Bishop of Gloucester.

CHAPTER XI. FROM "THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR" TO METEOROLOGY

I. GROWTH OF A THEOLOGICAL THEORY.

The popular beliefs of cla.s.sic antiquity regarding storms, thunder, and lightning, took shape in myths representing Vulcan as forging thunderbolts, Jupiter as flinging them at his enemies, Aeolus intrusting the winds in a bag to Aeneas, and the like. An attempt at their further theological development is seen in the Pythagorean statement that lightnings are intended to terrify the d.a.m.ned in Tartarus.

But at a very early period we see the beginning of a scientific view. In Greece, the Ionic philosophers held that such phenomena are obedient to law. Plato, Aristotle, and many lesser lights, attempted to account for them on natural grounds; and their explanations, though crude, were based upon observation and thought. In Rome, Lucretius, Seneca, Pliny, and others, inadequate as their statements were, implanted at least the germs of a science. But, as the Christian Church rose to power, this evolution was checked; the new leaders of thought found, in the Scriptures recognized by them as sacred, the basis for a new view, or rather for a modification of the old view.

This ending of a scientific evolution based upon observation and reason, and this beginning of a sacred science based upon the letter of Scripture and on theology, are seen in the utterances of various fathers in the early Church. As to the general features of this new development, Tertullian held that sundry pa.s.sages of Scripture prove lightning identical with h.e.l.l-fire; and this idea was transmitted from generation to generation of later churchmen, who found an especial support of Tertullian's view in the sulphurous smell experienced during thunderstorms. St. Hilary thought the firmament very much lower than the heavens, and that it was created not only for the support of the upper waters, but also for the tempering of our atmosphere.(199) St. Ambrose held that thunder is caused by the winds breaking through the solid firmament, and cited from the prophet Amos the sublime pa.s.sage regarding "Him that establisheth the thunders."(200) He shows, indeed, some conception of the true source of rain; but his whole reasoning is limited by various scriptural texts. He lays great stress upon the firmament as a solid outer sh.e.l.l of the universe: the heavens he holds to be not far outside this outer sh.e.l.l, and argues regarding their character from St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians and from the one hundred and forty-eighth Psalm. As to "the waters which are above the firmament," he takes up the objection of those who hold that, this outside of the universe being spherical, the waters must slide off it, especially if the firmament revolves; and he points out that it is by no means certain that the OUTSIDE of the firmament IS spherical, and insists that, if it does revolve, the water is just what is needed to lubricate and cool its axis.

(199) For Tertullian, see the Apol. contra gentes, c. 47; also Augustin de Angelis, Lectiones Meteorologicae, p. 64. For Hilary, see In Psalm Cx.x.xV. (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. ix, p. 773).

(200) "Firmans tonitrua" (Amos iv, 13); the phrase does not appear in our version.

St. Jerome held that G.o.d at the Creation, having spread out the firmament between heaven and earth, and having separated the upper waters from the lower, caused the upper waters to be frozen into ice, in order to keep all in place. A proof of this view Jerome found in the words of Ezekiel regarding "the crystal stretched above the cherubim."(201)

(201) For Ambrose, see the Hexaemeron, lib. ii, cap. 3,4; lib. iii, cap.

5 (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xiv, pp. 148-150, 153, 165). The pa.s.sage as to lubrication of the heavenly axis is as follows: "Deinde c.u.m ispi dicant volvi orbem coeli stellis ardentibus refulgentem, nonne divina providentia necessario prospexit, ut intra orbem coeli, et supra orbem redundaret aqua, quae illa ferventis axis incendia temperaret?" For Jerome, see his Epistola, lxix, cap. 6 (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xxii, p.659).

The germinal principle in accordance with which all these theories were evolved was most clearly proclaimed to the world by St. Augustine in his famous utterance: "Nothing is to be accepted save on the authority of Scripture, since greater is that authority than all the powers of the human mind."(202) No treatise was safe thereafter which did not breathe the spirit and conform to the letter of this maxim. Unfortunately, what was generally understood by the "authority of Scripture" was the tyranny of sacred books imperfectly transcribed, viewed through distorting superst.i.tions, and frequently interpreted by party spirit.

(202) "Major est quippe Scripturae hujas auctoritas, quam omnis humani ingenii capacitas."--Augustine, De Genesi ad Lit., lib. ii, cap. 5 (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. x.x.xiv, pp. 266, 267). Or, as he is cited by Vincent of Beauvais (Spec. Nat., lib. iv, 98): "Non est aliquid temere diffiniendum, sed quantum Scriptura dicit accipiendum, cujus major est auctoritas quam omnis humani ingenii capacitas."

Following this precept of St. Augustine there were developed, in every field, theological views of science which have never led to a single truth--which, without exception, have forced mankind away from the truth, and have caused Christendom to stumble for centuries into abysses of error and sorrow. In meteorology, as in every other science with which he dealt, Augustine based everything upon the letter of the sacred text; and it is characteristic of the result that this man, so great when untrammelled, thought it his duty to guard especially the whole theory of the "waters above the heavens."

In the sixth century this theological reasoning was still further developed, as we have seen, by Cosmas Indicopleustes. Finding a sanction for the old Egyptian theory of the universe in the ninth chapter of Hebrews, he insisted that the earth is a flat parallelogram, and that from its outer edges rise immense walls supporting the firmament; then, throwing together the reference to the firmament in Genesis and the outburst of poetry in the Psalms regarding the "waters that be above the heavens," he insisted that over the terrestrial universe are solid arches bearing a vault supporting a vast cistern "containing the waters"; finally, taking from Genesis the expression regarding the "windows of heaven," he insisted that these windows are opened and closed by the angels whenever the Almighty wishes to send rain upon the earth or to withhold it.

This was accepted by the universal Church as a vast contribution to thought; for several centuries it was the orthodox doctrine, and various leaders in theology devoted themselves to developing and supplementing it.

About the beginning of the seventh century, Isidore, Bishop of Seville, was the ablest prelate in Christendom, and was showing those great qualities which led to his enrolment among the saints of the Church. His theological view of science marks an epoch. As to the "waters above the firmament," Isidore contends that they must be lower than, the uppermost heaven, though higher than the lower heaven, because in the one hundred and forty-eighth Psalm they are mentioned AFTER the heavenly bodies and the "heaven of heavens," but BEFORE the terrestrial elements. As to their purpose, he hesitates between those who held that they were stored up there by the prescience of G.o.d for the destruction of the world at the Flood, as the words of Scripture that "the windows of heaven were opened" seemed to indicate, and those who held that they were kept there to moderate the heat of the heavenly bodies. As to the firmament, he is in doubt whether it envelops the earth "like an eggsh.e.l.l," or is merely spread over it "like a curtain"; for he holds that the pa.s.sage in the one hundred and fourth Psalm may be used to support either view.

Having laid these scriptural foundations, Isidore shows considerable power of thought; indeed, at times, when he discusses the rainbow, rain, hail, snow, and frost, his theories are rational, and give evidence that, if he could have broken away from his adhesion to the letter of Scripture, he might have given a strong impulse to the evolution of a true science.(203)

(203) For Cosmas, see his Topographia Christiana (in Montfaucon, Collectio nova patrum, vol. ii), and the more complete account of his theory given in the chapter on Geography in this work. For Isidore, see the Etymologiae, lib. xiii, cap. 7-9, De ordine creaturarum, cap. 3, 4, and De natura rerum, cap. 29, 30. (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. lx.x.xii, pp.

476, 477, vol. lx.x.xiii, pp. 920-922, 1001-1003).

About a century later appeared, at the other extremity of Europe, the second in the trio of theological men of science in the early Middle Ages--Bede the Venerable. The nucleus of his theory also is to be found in the accepted view of the "firmament" and of the "waters above the heavens," derived from Genesis. The firmament he holds to be spherical, and of a nature subtile and fiery; the upper heavens, he says, which contain the angels, G.o.d has tempered with ice, lest they inflame the lower elements. As to the waters placed above the firmament, lower than the spiritual heavens, but higher than all corporeal creatures, he says, "Some declare that they were stored there for the Deluge, but others, more correctly, that they are intended to temper the fire of the stars."

He goes on with long discussions as to various elements and forces in Nature, and dwells at length upon the air, of which he says that the upper, serene air is over the heavens; while the lower, which is coa.r.s.e, with humid exhalations, is sent off from the earth, and that in this are lightning, hail, snow, ice, and tempests, finding proof of this in the one hundred and forty-eighth Psalm, where these are commanded to "praise the Lord from the earth."(204)

(204) See Bede, De natura rerum (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xc).

So great was Bede's authority, that nearly all the anonymous speculations of the next following centuries upon these subjects were eventually ascribed to him. In one of these spurious treatises an attempt is made to get new light upon the sources of the waters above the heavens, the main reliance being the sheet containing the animals let down from heaven, in the vision of St. Peter. Another of these treatises is still more curious, for it endeavours to account for earthquakes and tides by means of the leviathan mentioned in Scripture.

This characteristic pa.s.sage runs as follows: "Some say that the earth contains the animal leviathan, and that he holds his tail after a fas.h.i.+on of his own, so that it is sometimes scorched by the sun, whereupon he strives to get hold of the sun, and so the earth is shaken by the motion of his indignation; he drinks in also, at times, such huge ma.s.ses of the waves that when he belches them forth all the seas feel their effect." And this theological theory of the tides, as caused by the alternate suction and belching of leviathan, went far and wide.(205)

(205) See the treatise De mundi const.i.tutione, in Bede's Opera (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xc, p. 884).

In the writings thus covered with the name of Bede there is much showing a scientific spirit, which might have come to something of permanent value had it not been hampered by the supposed necessity of conforming to the letter of Scripture. It is as startling as it is refres.h.i.+ng to hear one of these medieval theorists burst out as follows against those who are content to explain everything by the power of G.o.d: "What is more pitiable than to say that a thing IS, because G.o.d is able to do it, and not to show any reason why it is so, nor any purpose for which it is so; just as if G.o.d did everything that he is able to do! You talk like one who says that G.o.d is able to make a calf out of a log. But DID he ever do it? Either, then, show a reason why a thing is so, or a purpose wherefore it is so, or else cease to declare it so."(206)

(206) For this remonstrance, see the Elementa philosophiae, in Bede's Opera (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol xc, p. 1139). This treatise, which has also been printed, under the t.i.tle of De philosophia mundi, among the works of Honorius of Autun, is believed by modern scholars (Haureau, Werner, Poole) to be the production of William of Conches.

The most permanent contribution of Bede to scientific thought in this field was his revival of the view that the firmament is made of ice; and he supported this from the words in the twenty-sixth chapter of Job, "He bindeth up the waters in his thick cloud, and the cloud is not rent under them."

About the beginning of the ninth century appeared the third in that triumvirate of churchmen who were the oracles of sacred science throughout the early Middle Ages--Raba.n.u.s Maurus, Abbot of Fulda and Archbishop of Mayence. Starting, like all his predecessors, from the first chapter of Genesis, borrowing here and there from the ancient philosophers, and excluding everything that could conflict with the letter of Scripture, he follows, in his work upon the universe, his two predecessors, Isidore and Bede, developing especially St. Jerome's theory, drawn from Ezekiel, that the firmament is strong enough to hold up the "waters above the heavens," because it is made of ice.

For centuries the authority of these three great teachers was unquestioned, and in countless manuals and catechisms their doctrine was translated and diluted for the common mind. But about the second quarter of the twelfth century a priest, Honorius of Autun, produced several treatises which show that thought on this subject had made some little progress. He explained the rain rationally, and mainly in the modern manner; with the thunder he is less successful, but insists that the thunderbolt "is not stone, as some a.s.sert." His thinking is vigorous and independent. Had theorists such as he been many, a new science could have been rapidly evolved, but the theological current was too strong.

(207)

(207) For Raba.n.u.s Maurus, see the Comment. in Genesim and De Universo (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. cvii, cxi). For a charmingly naive example of the primers referred to, see the little Anglo-Saxon manual of astronomy, sometimes attributed to Aelfric; it is in the vernacular, but is translated in Wright's Popular Treatises on Science during the Middle Ages. Bede is, of course, its chief source. For Honorius, see De imagine mundi and Hexaemeron (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. clxxii). The De philosophia mundi, the most rational of all, is, however, believed by modern scholars to be unjustly ascribed to him. See note above.

The strength of this current which overwhelmed the thought of Honorius is seen again in the work of the Dominican monk, John of San Geminiano, who in the thirteenth century gave forth his Summa de Exemplis for the use of preachers in his order. Of its thousand pages, over two hundred are devoted to ill.u.s.trations drawn from the heavens and the elements.

A characteristic specimen is his explanation of the Psalmist's phrase, "The arrows of the thunder." These, he tells us, are forged out of a dry vapour rising from the earth and kindled by the heat of the upper air, which then, coming into contact with a cloud just turning into rain, "is conglutinated like flour into dough," but, being too hot to be extinguished, its particles become merely sharpened at the lower end, and so blazing arrows, cleaving and burning everything they touch.(208)

(208) See Joannes a S. Geminiano, Summa, c. 75.