I CATHOLIC I CHURCH I AND WORLD PROGRESS Our Sunday Visitor Press Huntington, Indiana THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WAS THE WORLD’S GREATEST CIVILIZER. MACAULAY. ' (Histor of England, Vol. I, p. 33). “Before the Reformation came, she (the Church) had enfranchised al- most all the bondsmen in the kingdom.” GUIZOT. (History of Civilization, Vol. I, Lecture 3). “No society ever made greater eiforts than the Christian Church did from the fifth to the tenth century to influence the world about it and assimi- late it. It attacked barbarism at every point in order to civilize it and rule over it.” LECKY. (History of European Morals, Vol. 2, Ch. 4). “By the monks the nobles were overawed, the poor protected, the sick • tended, travelers sheltered, prisoners ransomed, the remotest spheres of suffering explored.” ANCILLON. (European Revolutions, Vol. I, p. 106). “It (the papacy) prevented and arrested the despotism of the emperors, compensated for the want of equilibrium, and diminished the inconveniences of the feudal system.” REV. DR. J. A. PATTERSON (Presby.) (The Venango, Pa., Herald, February 15, 1916). “From the sixth to the eleventh century all the civilizing that was done was done by the Church. The history of the Roman Catholic Church during that period is the history of civilization.” REV. PHILIP SCHAFF. (Before General Conference of Evangelical Alliance). “She is backed by inspiring memories, as the Alma Mater of the Middle ~ Ages, the Christlanlzer and civilizer of the Northern and Western Barbar- ians, the Church of the Fathers, the Schoolmen and the Mysteries; the Church of St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine, of St. Benedict and St. Francis, of St. Bernard and St. Thomas Aquinas, of Thomas a Kempis and Fenelon. She is still full of missionary zeal and devotion, and abounds in works of charity. She embraces millions of true worshippers and followers of Christ, and has the capacity for unbounded usefulness. We honor her for all she has done in the past, and wish her God’s blessing for all the good she may do in the future.” DR. NEHEMIAH BOYNTON (Cong.) (At Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 11, 1914). “The Roman Catholic Church is making and has been making one of the greatest contributions to civilization in the history of the world. If you should Withdraw from the City of New York today the power of the Roman Catholic Church thef«.^WQuld»be. bedlam within a month.” THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. 3 RELIGION AND PROSPERITY. Antagonists of the Catholic Church hold that Protestant countries enjoy a higher degree of civilization than Catholic countries, then conclude that the Catholic religion cannot be the true one. They will compare, for instance, Mexico with the United States, one of the South American Republics with England. Mexico's people should rather be compared with the body of American Indians,^ because 84 per cent of Mexico's population is either pure Indian, or half-breeds. Most people in the northern countries of South America are of the same race as the people of Mexico, but even these will compare favorably with the vast Negro population of our own Southland. In addition to these handicaps the people of Mexico and of the greater part of South America, including Brazil (the bulk of whose population is Negro not inferior to our own) live in the tropics, and perpetual summer does not conduce to ambition nor build up energy. Our own mild summers of short duration have a depressing effect on the people. A comparison is fair only if countries quite uniform in size, in the same degree of latitude, with the same natural resources, similar races, are considered. A very fair com- parison would be between Belgium and Holland ; Ireland and Scotland ; France and England ; the Catholic German States and Protestant German States; the Catholic and Protestant Cantons of Switzerland, Quebec and Ontario. When such fair comparisons are made, if there be superi- ority at all on the part of one over the other country, the superiority will be on the side of the Catholic country or state. Belgium was the most prosperous little country in the world before the war, and therefore far in advance of Hol- land, her neighbor. Ireland, with all the oppression she has endured, is still industrially and socially ahead of Scotland. While England has more men of great wealth than France, on the whole, the French people are vastly more prosperous than the English people. Nowhere does such extreme pov- erty and destitution exist as in the large cities of England. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. The two Catholic States of Germany are not one whit behind the Protestant States either from the viewpoint of literary or material prosperity. The same may be said of the Catholic Cantons of Switzerland, compared with the Protestant Can- tons. Quebec’s population is by far the most prosperous and contented in the whole Dominion of Canada. There are as many universities in Italy as in Germany, although the population of the latter exceeds that of the for- mer by eighteen million. There are more universities in Italy than in Great Britain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Nor- way combined. Even Spain, whose population is only one- half that of England, has ten universities while England has only eleven. We have taken for granted, for the sake of argument, that England, the United States, and Germany are Protestant nations. As a matter of fact, Protestantism has lost its hold on the people in all these countries ; the vast bulk of the peo- ple belong to no church, and the only church which is pro- gressing is the Catholic. Another important factor in the creation of material prosperity is coal, without which factories cannot be oper- ated. There is practically no coal within the reach of the people in any of the South American countries. The religion which prevails in a country has nothing to do with the material prosperity of the country. Spain was most prosperous when she was most Catholic ; a century ago France was able to challenge the world; Holland was the most prosperous when her Protestantism was most deep- seated. Japan’s prosperity has nothing to do with her pagan- ism, and that of the United States is not due to the indiffer- entism of three-fourths of her people. The prosperity of Germany before the war was not due to the breaking up of the state religion. It is unphilosophical to hold that when two things are concomitant, one is caused by the other. With an over-crowded population, Italy, with no native coal, is bound to be a second-rate power. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. 5 WHAT WORLD OWES TO PRIESTS AND MONKS. Monks of the tenth century did hand-printing and engraving, which were examined at a recent electrical exhibition in New York and declared to be superior to anything that can be produced today. The first printing press in England was set up by Carton in Westminster Abbey. Names by which persons and things in print-shops are called are of monastery origin: “fonts,” “aisles,” “devils,” etc. The first reliable map of known lands was drawn by the Monk Fra Maura. Bells were invented by Pope Sabinianus. The priest, Francis Bacon, invented the telescope and microscope. Copernicus, the priest, taught that the sun does not move. We find Agricola’s work on “Mining and Metallurgy” written in Venice in 1549, and Memelli’s “Mechanical Engineering” printed in Rome in 1588. The priests, Pedro de Ponce and de T Epee, taught deaf-mutes several cen- turies ago. Gun powder was invented by the Monk Bethold Schwarz. Scales and rules for music harmonization were introduced by the Monk Guido d’ Arreze. Stained-glass windows owe their origin to a Monk of 900 years ago. Father Cavalieri invented Polychrimy and Father Secchi the spectral analysis. Dean Flavis Giva, 1300, perfected the compass. The first fire engine had as its inventor a Cistercian Monk. Alexander Spina, thirteenth century, invented spectacles. The watch was invented by Cassiodorus, and Pope Sylvester II perfected the same. The Monk, Richard Wallinfort, made the first astronomical clock. Divisch, a Monk, invented the lightning rod, which is usually credited to Franklin. Rev. A. J. Shaw, of Melbourne, Austrania, made many discoveries in wireless telegraphy. Rev. T. F. Glynn, of Beaver Falls, Pa., only recently invented an auto- matic device that will stop railroad trains, whether or not the engineer sees the signal, and without action of either the trainmen or towerman. The bicycle was invented by Father Pianton. L’Abbe Dauey, of France, recently invented a self-acting method of ex- tinguishing forest fires. Father Antonio de Capistrano has supplied Italian railways with an in- vention to avoid collisions on railways. Father Cerobotani has just invented a system of printing by telegraph. During 1911 the gTeat prizes awarded by the Royal Academy of Bel- gium for science went to the Catholic clergy, though many men on the jury which decided on the winners were anti-Catholics. The Quinquennial prize for Social Sciences was awarded to Father Vermeersch, S. J.; the Decennial prize in Philosophic Science went to Cardinal Mercier; the Decennial prize for Philosophy was won by Father Delchaye. 6 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. Discussing one aspect of the ^eat Exposition held a few yeaCrs ago in its home-city, the Western Watchman says: “A priest from Portugal and a priest from Manila contributed more to the interest of the late Exposition, from a scientific point of view, than any ten other professedly scientific men on the grounds.” CATHOLICS HAVE ALWAYS LED IN ART AND SCIENCE. ART AND ARCHITECTURE. Will you be led to the domain of architecture? You must go to a Roman Catholic Cathedral for either the Gothic , or the Italian styles. Or will you be shown the domain of music? Leave out the Catholic composers, and what is left? Beethoven, Bach, Palestrina, Gounod, Verdi and others were grand in their genius, and grander in their Catholicity. Or does painting interest you most? Then you will be compelled to go to Catholic paintings—to Raphael’s, Murillo’s, Michael Angelo’s, Reubens*. CATHOLICS LEAD IN MEDiaNE. Pasteur was the first to teach the germ theory of disease, which has re- sulted in the reduction of the death rate in civilized countries from 30 to 15 per 1000. Schwann discovered the cell theory; Johannes Muller the Mullerian ducts; Nicholas Stensen, the Stensen duct. Dr. John B. Murphy, of Chicago, who died in 1916, was held to be America’s leading surgeon; he was the author of many standard works, espe- cially on Bone Surgery and Surgery of the Lungs. Dr. M. Herzog, dean of Loyola Medical School (Chicago) discovered a cure for Infantile Paralysis. Roentgen, the inventor of X-Ray, was a Catholic. Madame Curie and her husband, the inventors of Radio treatment, are Catholics. Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk, gave to the world the principles of heredity now generally acknowledged. CATHOLICS LEAD IN ELECTRICITY. Electrical terms have been named after some of these Catholics: Galvani, Volta, Coulomb, Ampere, Gramme, Plante, Nollet, Caselli, Foucault, Carre, Pacinotti. Here is a roster of Catholics, who were leaders in some department of science: Astronomy—Regiomontanus, Copernicus, Galileo, Cassini, Picard, Piazzi, Le Verrier, Scochi, Gassendi, DeVico, Boscovich, Maraldi, Castelli, Bianchini, Perry and Plana. Chronology—Clavius, Chacon, Danti, Gregory XIII. Geography—Carpino, Rubruquis, Ascelin, Marco Polo, Columbus, Casco da Magellan, Vespucci, Toscanelli, Santa Cruz, Mercator, Balboa, Pizarro, Cortes, Orellana, Juan Ponce de Leon, De Soto, Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, Hennepin, Membre, DeSmet, and a countless number of missionaries. Mechanics—Descartes, Galileo, Borelli, Castelli, Torricelli, Pascal, Mer- senne Piccolomini, Benedetti, Grimaldi, Mariotte and Cauchy, not to men- tion those of more recent times. Mathematics—Planudes, Luca Borgo, Ludovico, Ferrari, Francois Viete, Descartes, Gaspard Monge, Charles, Reisch, Puisieux, Moigno, Riccati, Bos- covich, Maco, and Sestini. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. 7 Acoustics—Galileo, Mersenne, Gassendi, Cassini and Picard. Optics—Fresnel, Biot, Malus, Fizeau, Monge, Maraldi, and Ampere. Thermotics—Fourier, Melloni, Regiiault, Mariotte, Sanctorious, Biot and Nobili. Chemistry—Lavoisier, Roger Bacon, Agricola, Van Helmont, Becquerel, Chevreul. Botany—Caesalpinus, Jussieu, Charles and Louis Rene Tulasne. Ph>-siology—Versalius, Fallopius, Eustachius, Columbus, Fabricius, Spallanzani, Malpighi, Santorini, Bichat, Morgagni, Buffon, Daubenton. Geology—DaVinci, Colonna, Steno, Spada, Sorignet, Bourgeois, Delauny, Johannes Muller. X-Ray—Roentgen. Thomas Lloyd, born in 1756, was the author of “shorthand.” He took down Washington’s inaugural address in shorthand. The first authority on the subject of Pacific Ocean Typhoons is the Jesuit Algue. He is the head of the observatory of Manila. One of the few scientists of America who can boast of a recognition by the Royal Astronomical Society of England, is the director of the observa- tory of Creighton University of Omaha, Father Rigge, S. J. A FEW MORE. (By Dr. J. J. Walsh, Prof, at Fordham University) “Theodoric, who discovered anaesthesia and antisepsis in the thirteenth century, was a B.shop. The father of modern surgery, Guy de Chauliac, in the fourteenth century, was a cleric as well as a Papal physician. The father of modern astronomy in the fifteenh century, Regiomontanus, was a Papal astronomer and a B shop. Copernicus’ great text book of astronomy with his new theory was dedicated to the Pope. He himself was a clergyman. It was a Jesuit who, under Papal direction, reformed the calendar. Columbus, who discovered the circulation of the blood in the lungs, was a papal phy- sician. Caesalpinus, who described the circulation of the blood a generation before Harvey (it is easy to get that description in English) was his suc- cessor in the post of Papal physician. Let us come to the seventeenth cen- tury. Steno, whose book laid the foundation of modern geology, was a priest and a personal friend of the Pope. Malpighi, whose great books on botany were published at the expense of the Royal Society of England because they were thought so much of, was a Papal physician. Malpighi’s name, by the way, is attached to more structures in the human body than that of any other man because of his discoveries. The first great series of text books in science for general use in colleges and universities were issued at the Roman College by Father Kircher, the Jesuit, who made the great Kirchenian Museum at Rome. In the eighteenth century Lancist, the father of modern clinical medicme, was a Papal physician. Morgagni, the father of modern pathology, (so hailed by Virchow), was the personal friend of four Popes and always stayed wAh them at the Quirinal when he visited Rome.” THE THRILLING ACCOUNT OF CATHOLIC SER- VICE TO AMERICAN PROGRESS. Rev. Thomas F. Coakley, D.D., is the author of a pamphlet entitled “America’s Debt to Catholics,” in which he establishes facts concerning tha contributions of Catholics to Progress in every line of endeavor. As shown. Catholics discovered America, any way you may choose. If Lief Ericson discovered it, he was on a voyage, at the time, to plant the 8 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. Catholic faith in the strange new lands to the west. Columbus’ voyage was financed by 16,000 golden ducats supplied by a Catholic Cardinal, from the funds of a Christian brotherhood of monks. John Cabot and his son Sebas- tian, Catholics, laid claim to Newfoundland in the name of England, and thus laid the foundation for the English co^lonies, on June 24, 1497, years be- fore the rise of the Protestant Reformation and many years before the schism under Henry VIII. Cabot and his son were Italians in the service of the king of England. A Catholic, Americas Vespucci, bequeathed his name to the new continent. Parkman, a Protestant historian says, of the explor- ers of the new world: “Not a cape was turned, nor a river entered but a Jesuit led the way.” Consider the names of cities, rivers, mountains and whole districts. It is impossible to go anywhere without encountering Catholic names, and re- minders 0(f the Catholic explorers, whose intrepid enterprise first gave knowl- edge of the infinite resources of America. Catholic missionaries first grew v/heat on the plains of Illinois; they first introduced the orange and lemon into the United States. Catholics had established a right to the soil of Amer- ica 130 years before the landing of the much lauded Pilgrims. In Maryland religious liberty was granted to all, by Catholics, at the time when the Pil- grims were burning witches and hanging Quakers. Father White, a Catholic prirest, set up the first printing press in the English colonies; but this press was destroyed by Gov. Berkeley, a Protest- ant, who declared he hoped there would not be another one in the colonies for the next 100 years! Father Martinez established the first publishing house in America. The first free-schools were opened by Catholics at St. August- ine, and the first University in America was established by Catholics, as also the first public library. The first hospital in America was the famous Jlospital de la Puresima Conception. A Catholic laid the first rail for the first railroad in 1827. To Bishop Mul- lock of Newfoundland is due the laying of the great Atlantic Cable. Thomas Lloyd, the Father of American shorthand, learned it from the Jesuits. A Catholic owned the ground on which the American capitol at Washington now stands. The architect of the White Ho!use, James Hoban, was a Cath- olic. To a Catholic is due the idea of the Erie Canal and the New York City acqueduct system. Holland, a Catholic, invented the submarine. On April 29, 1905 a Cath- olic successfully flew an aeroplane a distance of eight miles. His name was Montgomery. Without the help of Catholic France, Ireland and Holland, America would never have won her independence. Washington publicly expressed his thanks for the help of the Canadian Catholics. There were thousands of na‘- tive-born and foreign-born Catholics in the Continental army. A Polish Catholic folunded the West Point Military Academy. A Catholic was the father of the American navy. On the other hand, Canada was lost to Amer- ica because of anti-Catholic bigotry. Benedict Arnold urged his hatred of the Catholic Church as one of the causes of his treason. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. 9 It is impossible to get away from things Catholic. Every park, glade or glen, in which bigots meet in masks and gowns to plot the overthrow of the American government and the oppression of the Catholic Church, liter- ally reeks with the memory of Catholic enterprise, patriotism and devotion. The only way in which the so-called “native-born American movement” can get away from all things Catholic is to leave these shores. Catholics have always been here, and they are here now to stay. WHEN DID THE CHURCH BECOME THE ENEMY OF PROGRESS? We wish to ask our enemies when the Catholic Church ceased to be the Mother of Christian Civilization, and when she began to .put the brakes on the chariot of Christian ProgTess ? One will hardly deny that Europe made some progress in so-called Chris- tian Civilization from the reign of Caesar Augustus to the advent of Martin Luther and Henry VIII upon the stage of European affairs. Did the progress of those ages happen in spite of the Catholic Church, or because she presided over the first fifteen hundred years of so-called Christian Civilization ? Take a concrete example—the building of the great Cathedrals of Europe which to this day have defied modern architecture to reproduce their like; had the Catholic Church anything to do with those Cathedrals, or were they erected in the very teeth of the Papal system, doing its utmost to stay the march of progress ? The artistic triumphs of Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Giotto; were these made under the inspiration and patronage otf the Catholic Church, or in spite of the Catholic Church? The great Universities of Europe, such as Padua, Bologna, Paris, Heidel- berg, Cambridge, and Oxford, all of which were founded before the much magnified light of the Reformation dawned on Europe; did they arise in spite of the Catholic Church, or because the Popes and the Catholic Hierarchy were leading advocates of Christian Education? We have heard much since the Great War, of the University of Louvain in Belgium. It was created by a Bull of Pope Martin V, in 1425, and has continued to flourish under Catholic auspices ever since. How is it that it has kept pace with the other great Universities of our day if it is. true that the Papal System “has done more than any other single organization on earth to stay the march of progress.” Did the great Columbus discover America and open up the New World to the Christian Civilization of Europe because he was a Catholic who pray- ed, and seems to have been divinely inspired, or in spite of the fact that he was not only a Catholic, but a Tertiary of St. Francis and found after the wisdom of the great had rejected his proposal that a Catholic Monk named Father John Perez, believed in him, while another Franciscan Friar, the Con- fessor of Queen Isabella, induced the Queen also to believe and to pay the cost of the sailing expedition which resulted in the discovery of America ? You see others can ask questions besides the enemies of the Church; and 10 - THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. when these questions of the Editor have been satisfactorily answered it will be time enough to continue the debate as to whether or not the Papal Sys- tem “has done more than any other single organization on earth to stay the march of progress.” — ^The Antidote, June, 1923. 0 CATHOLIC INFLUENCE IN AMERICA’S CIVIC PROGRESS. (By John Paul Chew) If we accept the term civic in its broader sense—that which relates to man as a member of society—Catholic influence becomes a synonym for the cradle of American progress. Neither the deceits of the shameless historian, the blazing fires of fan- atical persecution, the blinding storms of irreligious rancor, nor the foul slanders of slimy bigots have been able to destroy the evidence. Following speedily upon the discovery of Columbus Catholicity gave me land its first explorations in all directions, and for the spread of Christ’s Gospel brought its first touches of Christian civilization. Around our coast line, across our lakes, down our rivers, through the wilderness and over the mountains went this band of Catholic explorers and with them went the Catholic Faith and its services. Unchanging monuments are everywhere to the work. So many in fact, that the Catholic American today may almost find the Litany of the Saints reproduced on the map of his country. This thought puts our subject in touch with the primal relation of creeds to country. And what a forceful illustration it presents of Catholic influence on the civic progress of the nation. But to appreciate its sweep it might be well just here to set down a few further historical facts, offering them at the same time as an irresistible refutation of the current un-American anti- Catholic slanders of the times. It has been said that Catholic influence and the cradle of American civic progress were made synonymous by the discovery of Columbus. Many who sit in the enjoyment of the wonderfully expanded progress that followed have entirely forgotten that the world-startling achievement of Columbus occurred nine years before Martin Luther saw the light of day. They seem not to know that Catholic missionaries were preaching to the American In- dians in 1526, or eight years before Henry VIII organized his Episcopal Church; that the Pilgrim Fathers were then yet unborn, and the timbers cut of which the Mayflower was made were scarcely seeds in a virgin forest; that twenty years before the founder of Wesleyism was born, the New York As- sembly, under the Catholic Governor Dongan, passed a bill of rights guaran- teeing religious liberty; that fifteen years before John Wesley established his sect. Father Rasle became an Amrican martyr; that twenty-eight years previous thereto Father Marquette had completed his labors and passed away at Pointe St. Ignace, Mich.; that thirty-seven years before, Father Peter Martinez, S.J., was murdered by the Indians of Florida—now Cumberland — off St. John’s River; that forty-seven years before. Father Joguges met a THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. 11 like glory, and 174 years before, the first Mass was 'said at St. Augustine's, Florida. Who of honest purpose can fail to recognize in this brief recital the in- fluence of Catholicity in the newly discovered world previous to its budding into a nation ? Who will be unfair enough with truth to deny the momentous influence these facts had in paving the way to the American Republic? As these, however, are days of doubt it may be well to add confirmatory evi- dence. Speaking of the arrival on the Potomac in March, 1634, of Leonard Calvert, brother of Lord Baltimore, Bancroft 4n his History of the United States, vol. I, Chapter VII, tell us: “The Catholics took quiet possession of the little place, and religious lib- erty obtained a home, its only home in the wide world, at the humble village which bore the name of St. Mary’s. “The foundation of the colony of Maryland was peacefully and happily laid. Within six months it had advanced more than Virginia had done in as many years. . . . But far more memorable was the character of the Maryland institutions. Every other country in the world had persecuting laws; but through the benign administration of the government of that prov- ince, no person professing to believe in Jesus Christ was permitted to be molested on account of religion. Under the munificence and superintending mildness of Lord BalLmore, a dreary wilderness was soon quickened with the swarming life and activity of prosperous settlements; the Roman Catholics who were oppressed by the laws of England were sure to find a peaceful asylum in the quiet harbors of the Chesapeake; and there, too, Protestants were sheltered against Protestant intolerance.” . . . The same historian tells us that the General Assembly of Maryland on April 2, 1649, enacted the following law: “Whereas the enforcing of con- science in matters of religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequences in those commonwealths where it has been practiced, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this province, and the better to preserve mutual love and unity amongst the inhabitants, no person whatso- ever within this province, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be anyways troubled or molested for his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof, nor in any way compelled to the belief or exercise of any other religion against his or her consent.” To emphasize the importance of this enactment both in its relation to the subject in hand and to the discredit of the brazen un-American movement abroad in the land today, it is quite opportune to add the historian’s opinion of the Act itself. He says: “The design of ^he law of Maryland was to protect freedom of con- science; and some years after it had been confu’med, the apologist of Lord Baltimore could assert that his government had never given disturbance to any person in Maryland for matters of religion; that the colonists enjoyed freedom of conscience, not less than freedom of person and estate, as amply as ever any people in any place of the world. The disfranchised friends of Prelacy from Massachusetts and the Puritans from Virginia were welcomed to equal liberty of conscience and political rights in the Roman Catholic province of Maryland.” I How cogently and brilliantly, how creditably and incontrovertibly these passages from early American history show the influence of Catholicity on 12 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. the civic progress of the forming Republic. It is clear enough to all but those who will not see. However, stubbornness of dissent from the truth cannot destroy it. Therefore, we would invite those, who thus oppose them- selves against the historian’s chronicle, to a sharp scrutiny of the Constitu- tions of the States and of the Republic, asking them to note how closely these instruments conform in principle and text to the Maryland Act of 1649 on the matters of libery of conscience and political rights. What can it mean except that these provisions were copied from the Maryland Act? What does it show if not Catholic influence in the civic progress of the nation ? ^ Then, the old missions of the far Southwest tell their story of the in- fluence of Catholicity on the development, the character and the life of the country. In an order issued by George Washington on November 5, 1775, prohibit- ing Boston bigots from burning the Pope in effigy, he said; “As the Com- mander-in-Chief has been appraised of a design for the observance of that Tidiculous and childish custom of burning in effigy the Pope, he cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be officers and soldiers in this army so devoid of common sense as not to see the impropriety of such a step. It is so monstrous as not to be suffered or excused; indeed, instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to express public thanks to our Cath- olic brethren, as to them we are indebted for every late success pver the common enemy.” And, again, in answer to an address of Catholic Americans, complain- ing of unlawful restraints laid upon their worship in several States, he de- clared: “I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in ex- amples of justice and liberality, and I presume your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishment of their revo- lution, and in the establishment of our government.” Thus all too briefly, and with apologies to its real merits, runs the storj^ into the early years of the Republic; a story which triumphantly carries the influence of Catholicity in the civic progress of the nation to the point of approximate denomination; a story, too, which should be as familiar to Cath- olic Americans as their morning and evening prayers. And yet, observe how far away we are from the present—a convincing proof of the magni- tude of our theme. What, then, of the years that follow? To keep within appropriate space the answer can only hope to contain statement of most salient facts. With the Revolutionary War at an end the new nation at once embark- ed on an era of amazing upbuilding and expansion. And so did Catholicity. At the beginning of that war the Catholic population scarcely exceeded 26,- 000. Yet in less than half a century thereafter, or more definitely in 1822, we find it grown to such proportions that the Holy See divided the country into nine dioceses. Sixty-eight years subsequent to this event the Census Bureau gave us a population of 6,257,871. Sixteen years later, or ih 1906, the same authority credited us with an 'increase of 93 per cent, the exact figures being 12,079,142. Finally, in the intervening years we have added THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. IS another 10,000,000, giving us a present population—exclusive of our posses- sions—of at least 22,000,000. But covered up in the statistics of 1890-1906 are facts of such import- ance as demand specific mention, because of their brilliant illustration of our subject. For instance the changes in this period transferred the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, Michigan and Wisconsin from the Protestant to the Catholic column; that Colorado and Wyoming, which show Catholic majorities in 1890, showed Catholic pluralities in 1906; and that one State, Connecticut, had changed its Catholic plurality to a Catholic majority. Pressing upon the nation are problems which threaten the family, the home, the child, the State and the very life of the nation itself. These prob- lems indicate our duties and determine our responsibilities. All these prob- lems are projected under the banner of civic progress. Most of them, how- ever, are merely the theories of a new and vicious school of thought. They must be impressed, therefore, with the benign benefits of the same Catholic infiuence that has been so potent in the past periods of the nation's dangers. And particularly is this true of those problems which touch the people in their religious, social and political life. FLIPPANT REPUDIATION IS MISTAKEN FOR SCHOLARSHIP. Reader of Louisville Courier-Journal Answers Shallow Historian. SCIENCE AND THE CHURCH. To the Editor of The Courier-Journal, In his lecture on “Scientific Progress and Religious Reaction,’’ Dr. Mar- tin seems to fall in with the view lately exploited by writers like H. G. Wells- and Hendrick Van Loon, namely, that the Christian religion has been con- sistently hostile to scientific achievement. He presents this view with evi- dent reluctance and only, it seems, because he feels that it is “almost impos- sible to give a general survey of scientific achievement withoiut taking note of the religious reaction which has always opposed it.” One is therefore warranted in assuming that he will welcome a presentation of facts reflect- ing a more favorable attitude on the part of Christian believers toward scientific progress. Dr. Martin credits the education of Gerbert, the justly famed scientist of the Tenth Century, who was also Pope Sylvester II, to “the Arab schools in Spain,” which is a fiction invented by writers oif the Eighteenth Century, who sought to belittle the learning of medieval Christian scholars; it was. necessary for them to explain away a Pope-scientist of the Tenth Century. But in 1833 the authentic life of Gerbert, written by his pupil. Richer, wa& uncovered by Pertz in the library of Bamberg, and from this source we learn. 14 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. that while in Spain Gerbert, then a modik. was under the tuition of Hatto, Bishop of Vich, in Catalonia, who later took him to Rome and presented him to John XIII, who commended him to Otho the Great to help in the restor- ation of the Christian schools which the barbarian wars of the Ninth Century had scattered or destroyed. In speaking of the pioneers of modern science, the first person Dr. Mar- dn mentions is “Tartaglia.” But “Tartaglia” was of the faith. He was professor of Euclid at Brescia under Cardinal Andrea Conaro; he was buried in the Church of San Sylvestro, Venice, which was distinctive honor. Unim- portant facts, these, except as they tend to show how slight must have been the pressure exerted by the church as “a brake on progress.” Dr. Martin’s next scientist is Copernicus, father of modern astronomy, a Gatholic priest, who stood in high favor with bishops, cardinals and popes. Copernicus was invited by the Council of Lateran to advise the bishops in the matter of the calendar reform which was then being studied and which ^as finally accomplished by Pope Gregory XIII. He advised postponement of final action until the movements of the heavenly bodies should be better known, and this was done, with the result that the Gregorian Calendar, is- sued seventy years later, is one of the greatest scientific achievements in his- tory. Copernicus’ great work, “De Orbium Coelestium Revolutionibus,” was published at the instance of churchmen and was dedicated by special per- mission to Pope Paul III. Dr. Martin does not mention any of these facts; -he merely says that “it was a long time before the theories of Copernicus were generally accepted,” and leaves it to be inferred that the church was the brake of their progress. The truth is just the other way around. The adoption by the church of the Gregorian Calendar, based on the very calculations of Copernicus, was the most powerful of all influences exerted to advance his theories. Next, Dr. Martin mentions a group of three. Sir Thomas More, Eras- mus and Rabelais, “who sketched for the world a new order of things, and rebelled against the limitations of the old.” The inference here is that More, Erasmus and Rabelais rebelled against the Church, whereas More has been named among the Blessed on the Church’s Calendar of Saints; Erasmus wa% •offered the Cardinal’s hat by Pope Paul III, but declined it on account of the infirmity with which he died; Rabelais was the recipient of favors from Pope Clement VII, and Pope Paul III, while Cardinal du Bellay, whose physician he was, was his life-long benefactor. The next to be mentioned by Dr. Martin in his description of the grim warfare of the Church against science, is the Italian scholar Valla, “who not only demonstrated the falsity of the so-called Donation of Constantine, on which the temporal power of the Pope was largely based, but detected flaws even in the Vulgate itself. From that spring flowed a stream of de- structive historical criticism.” Thus one would think that the scholar Valla was a very terror to the Church authorities. The truth is. Valla stood high in favor with the Church -authorities; he was Apostolic Secretary to Pope Nicholas V, and Pope Calls- THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WORLD PROGRESS. 15 tus III gaye him a canonry in St. John Lateran, both subsequent to his ex- posure of the “Donation.” Indeed his researches to prove the falsity of the ^‘Donation” were prompted by Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa who had declared its falsity in h.s published writings. Valla proved its falsity, and instead of being denounced for it by the Popes, he received both honor and distinction at their hands. Following his reference to Valla, Dr. Martin next singles out for men- tion the lather of chemistry, whom we know as “Paracelsus,” and once more we have a Catholic, one who in his last will arranged for Masses for the repose of h.s soul, and to whose memory since 1752 there stands a tomb in the porch of the Church of St. Sebastian, in Salzburg. Science turned neither Paracelsus from the Church nor the Church from Paracelsus. With a mention of Harvey’s discovery of the circulation or the blood. Dr. Martin brings to a close the period which he describes as “The Revival- of Science at the Close of the Middle Ages.” In all, he has singled out for spe- cial ment on as contributors to the progress of science during this period, nine persons, and eight of them were Catholics and recipients of honor at the hands of the church for their scientific achievements. It would unduly tax the space of The Courier-Journal, not to mention its readers to follow through in this manner the other two sections of Dr. Martin’s lecture; suffice it to say that a majority of all those he mentions as contributing to the progress of science, were Catholics, devoted to their faith and honored by the church; and most of the others, while not Catholics, were nevertheless Chidstians, firm believers in divine revelation, and who suffered no restraint from their belief, in the pursuit of scientific truth.* There is no foundatiotn in fact or theory for the assumption that the Christian religion is hostile to scientific progress. Kepler was a Christian, Newton was a Christian, Descartes was a Christian, Bacon was a Christian; the founder of the “Academy of Science” in the Seventeenth Century was a priest; the founder of the famous Journal des Savants was a priest; during the Eighteenth Century no less than twenty-six priests were presidents of the Academy of Science. Steno, not inaptly called the father of geology, was a priest. Kircher, the author of “Mundus Subterraneus” (dedicated to Alex- ander VIII), in which Sir Charles Lyell said he found inspiration, was a priest. Huay, the master of Laplace, Lagrange, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and the founder of what Buckle calls “the pathology of the inorganic world,” was a priest. Secchi, the greatest astronomer in the last generaticen, and whose “Sun” is yet the most complete examination of all that is known of the struc- ture of that planet, was a priest. The list is well nigh endless. In the recent French celebration of the Centennial of Pasteur, President Millerand said in a notable address delivered at Strassburg: “Pasteur show- ed by his example how the most rigorously scientific spirit can be allied with "the sincerest religious beliefs.”—Benedict Elder, in Louisville Courier- Journal, July 4, 1923. Tiiiiiiiii».annf;irinn.tii.iii..ii.iiiiiiiiuii.iuiii.iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.iiiiniuinniiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiminimifnninnniumiiiiimuiniitimiininmuiiiiiiiiinnui»ininiiiiimu OUR BOOK LIST. 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