INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN CHURCH ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 76, 10 October 1874, Page 14

INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN CHURCH ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE.

AFFAIR OF GALILEO.

Tns Roman Church hns rendered multiplied and signal servicei to th« arts sciences, and belles lettres. Still" it is oI&^MLSSdS£? w,thmthe last ages, rather opposed their improvement ; S wore we^ £anhi!7/ ert -T Bttth ?f fl in their P oe «^r astronomical, and ge^!graphical descriptions, the very land and city in which there hL and a s y o B lidT fOU - nd 'M 0 tho pr r nt d , a * a *™ tw *«VtETti£ a h X ld kararog than any where else, should be considered a half. a ,mn^7. ?Dd I ! ar ? 3 L Cmh ? ed , resion * The P»ncipal fact adduced to support tins unjust charge « the affair of Galileo, whom a muSudl *lZ™ • iT eßCnt - a 9 havi , DR been P er^«ted on accouSof hit astronomical discoveries, and condemned by the RomaH inaufaitoJ merely lor teaching, according to tho opinion of CopemLsT/e tru « ' system of the world. But it is now well proved, fS the letters of Gmchardm and of Marquis Nicolini, botli of them disciples, £ds and pro ectors of Galileo, from the letters and writings of O^Hleo Tim! self that, for a long time, the public has been grossly impo ed uK with respect to this point of history. ">e»*vu. upon h o^ T . hi3 . cel . ebratod 11 mm * a was not arraigned as an astronomer, but as a bad theologian, and for having pretended to impute to the Bible dogmas of his own invention. His great discoveries, it is true, provoked envy against him ; but his pretention to prove the CoDernican system from the Bible was the real cause of his being summoned before the inquisitors at Borne; and the restlessuera of his mind, the only source of the troubles which he underwent on that account In his first journeys to Rome (1611, &c), Galil o found only admirers among the Cardinals and other distinguished personages. - llie Pope himself granted him a favorable audience, and Cardinal ■Bellarmmo merely forbade him, in the name of his Holiness, to blend m luture tho Bible with his astronomical systems. Other learned prelates equally pointed out to him the couwe of prudence to beobaerved by him on this point ; but his obstinacy and raniey did not permit him to follow their advice. Some years after, he published his "Dialogues and Memoirs," in which he again took upon himself to raise the system of the rotation ot the earth to the dignity of a dogmatical tenet. Being summoned betore the tribunals of Eome, the lodging assigned to him in that city was not a gloomy prison, not a frightful dungeon, but the palace of luscany, and, for eighteen days, the apartments of the attorney-general, where he had every facility to take exercise and carry on his correspondence. During the trial, the main objeot of his answers was nob the scientific view of the question, since he had been allowed to defend his system as an astronomical hypothesis, but its pretended association with tho Bible. Not long after having received his seutenoe and madehis recantation, Galileo obtained leave to revisit his native country, and, far from being persecuted, was dismissed with new marks of esteem for his talents and of regard for hi 9 person. For these interesting documents respecting tho affair of Galileo,, we are indebted to the researches of an impartial Protestant, Mr Mallet— Dupan of Geneva, who wrote a dissertation on the subject in> the 'Mercure de France,' 17 Juittet, 178i,n. 29— see BeYaut-Berc-istle, « Histoire de l'Eglise,' ad arm. 1634 ; and Bergier, Diction, de Theol., art. Monde, and Sciences.

The Roman Church, far from impeding the progress of astronomy or of other sciences, on this or any other occasion, has on the contrary rendered, even iv that respect, the most undeniable and signal services* We allude chiefly to the reformation of the calendar, an event which took place under Pope Grregory XIII., some years before the time of Galileo, and which is well deserving- of notice.

By Calendar is meant a certain distribution of time adapted to religious and civil purposes, and pointing out the order and succession of the days, weeks, months, and festivals of the year. All civilised nations have ever felv the necessity of having such a regular distribution of time ; but it requires a long series of ages, a deep study of astronomy, and innumerable calculations, to contrive a good and exact calendar.

In former times, the year wa3 believed to be eleven minutes longer than it is in reality. This difference, though apparently trifling, had become, by being repeated from year to year during the course of many centuries, so very sensible and material, that in the year 1582, the vernal equinox fell on the eleventh of March, whereas the calendar marked it on the twenty-first of the same month, a day which had been assigned to it by the astronomers of Alexandria, in 325. The oonsequeace was, that festivals were no longer celebrated in their proper time ; and Easter, in particular, which depends on the full moon of' Murcli, would, in the course of ages, have been successively found, iv Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

To remedy this confusion, Gregory XIII. suppressed at oncefrom the year 1582 ton entire days (those between the 4th and 15th of October), by which the real equinox was in advance of the equinox of the calendar; thus making them again coiucide, and restoring all Christian festivals to their proper epoch throughout the year. Moreover, measures and precautions, suggested by skilful mathematician 8 " and astronomers, were taken to prevent the like confusion in futur e » and tlio whule work being completed, received the solemn sanction of the Pope, in hh bull of the same year, 1582. These corrections in the calendar were successively adopted by nearly all Christian nations, even those separated from the See of Eome ; v. g., by the English, in 1752 5 by the Sweedea, in 1753 ; by the Grerir.au States, in 1776. The Russians are the only civilised peo~ ple in Europe who have hitherto refused to admit the important improvement, and still adhere to the old style ; the consequence of which is that they are now, in their computation of t\e year, twelve days behind the real time : thus preferring, n9 a judicious author pointedly remarks, rather to be at variance with the heavens and the stars, than to agree with the .Roman Pontiff. — Fredet'a Modem. History.