disputing with the first martyr of the Christian Church, that they were not able to resist the wisdom, and the spirit by which he spake. And, although his disputers, as very often happens in such cases, substituted clamour, and abuse, for truth and soberness, yet, such was the overwhelming power of true religion, in the soul of Stephen, that "all that sat in the Council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." In like manner, though one cannot expect such miraculous manifestations in these days, yet, if "the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ hath shined in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in Jesus Christ,"* we, too, shall be to some extent angel-like, and they who see us will be impressed, and we shall gain adherents to the cause of Christ, though we were born dumb, and never opened our mouth in any other controversy during our lives. The light of this controversy will give form to every other, and without it every other will prove comparatively worthless. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians,† says that the unity of the faith is dependent on our knowledge of the Son of God. And, therefore, just in proportion as we see the largeness that is in Him, in the same proportion shall we see the littleness of everything else. With such * 2 Cor. iv. 5, 6. ↑ Ephes. iv. 13, a spirit generally diffused throughout the Church of Christ, there should not be any practical difficulty in carrying into effect the principle involved in the well known formula, viz. :— IN THINGS NECESSARV-UNITY. IN THINGS INDIFFERENT-LIBERALITY. IN ALL THINGS-CHARITY. Mobilis Constantia. APPENDIX. NOTE A.---PAGE 13. As an instance of the evil results of Ecclesiastical intolerance against the promoters of Natural Science, the history of Galileo furnishes a melancholy example : "On the 5th March, 1616, a decree of the congregation of the Index condemned all books which taught the Copernican system, but neither Galileo nor any one of his books was specified. A few months after Galileo was called before the Inquisition, and Cardinal Bellarmine commanded him not to teach by word or writing the Copernican system. He promised obedience, but was at the same time so certain that he knew the truth, he could not be silent. His "Dialogue on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems" (a discussion between three fictitious persons) was published in 1632. The discussion is conducted between a Copernican and a Ptolemaist. The wit and irony of the third speaker is turned against the Ptolemaist, who comes off the worse in the argument. "The Inquisition considered this publication an evasion of his promise, and the feeble old man, 70 years of age, with broken health, was cited before the Inquisition. By a solemn sentence, signed by seven Cardinals, he was condemned to certain penances, and to be imprisoned at the pleasure of the Inquisition. His friends were anxious to save him from punishment, and, at their urgency, he was induced, against his better judgment, to make a solemn abjuration of his belief in the motion of the earth, whispering, however, to one of his friends on rising from his knees, 'And yet it does move.' The apologists for the Inquisition say that Galilea trifled with the authority to which he professed to submit, and was punished for obstinate contumacy, not for heresy.' The sentence of the Inquisition against Galileo was based on the charge of heresy. The charge appears in some respects not unlike that preferred against the Apostles before the Heads of the Jewish Church. They were punished for their contumacy in standing to the truth, notwithstanding the plea of Gamaliel. And it is clear from the account (Acts, ch. iv., v.), that the High Priest and his Council then would, if they could, have precluded the Gospel of 'peace on earth and good will to men' from ever being proclaimed to the world. "In a decree of August 13th, 1634, the congregation solemnly condemned the Dialogue of Galileo under the hand and seal of the alleged Infallible Head of the Roman Church. From that date the name and book of Galileo have kept their place in all the Indexes issued from Rome for about 200 years, and at length in the year of grace 1835, the name of Galileo and his Dialogue silently disappear from the Index issued in that year. This course of procedure cannot be regarded by honest men as a repeal of all the Edicts issued by infallible authority against the Copernican system. There is no admission that Galileo held the truth, and the Inquisition the falsehood. So solemn a sentence of condemnation of an an innocent man, in justice, claims as solemn a revocation of the unjust sentence. The bare omission in 1835 of Galileo's name and book from the Index does not, however, cancel the decree of 5 March, 1616, which condemns the Copernican doctrine as false and contrary to Scripture.-Life of Galileo, L. U. K., 1833. - "John Milton, in his "Areopagitica," alluding to his travels in Italy, writes: There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo, grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking in Astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licencers thought.' It is obvious, from many lines in the Paradise Lost, that Milton sympathised with the heretical opinions of Galileo; but let the 'heretic' Galileo be allowed to speak for himself :-'I am inclined to believe that the intention of the Sacred Scriptures is to give to mankind the information necessary for their Salvation, and which, surpassing all human knowledge, can by no other means be accredited than by the mouth of the Holy Spirit. But I do not hold it necessary to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, with speech, and intellect, intended that we should neglect the use of these, and seek, by other means, for knowledge which they are sufficient to procure us; especially in a science like Astronomy, of which so little notice is taken in the Scriptures, that none of the planets, except the sun and moon, and, once or twice only, Venus, under the name of Lucifer, are so much as named there. This, therefore, being granted, methinks that in the discussion of natural problems we ought not to begin at the authority of texts of Scripture, but at sensible experiments and necessary demonstrations: for, from the Divine Word, the Sacred Scripture and Nature did both |
