The warfare of science / [Andrew Dickson White].

  • White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The warfare of science / [Andrew Dickson White]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    logians of tlie period immediately wheeled their batteries of sacred learning to support the Church in its effort to beat back the terrible doctrine that the earth revolves about the sun. Among the most vigorous of them in hlorthem Em’ope was Fromundus. From the shadow of the Cathedral of Antwerp he sent forth his famous treatise, the AnU-Aristarchm, full of the strongest ar- guments against the new theory. His very title- page was a contemptuous insult to the memory of Kopemik, since it paraded the assumption that the new truth was only an old and exploded theory of Aristarchus. He declares that “ sacred Script- ure fights against the Copemicans.” To prove that the sun revolves about the earth, he cites the passage in the Psalms which speaks of the sun “ which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber.” To prove that the earth stands still, he quotes the passage from Ecclesiastes, “ the earth standeth fast forever.” To show the utter futility of the Copernican ideas, he indulges in scientific reasoning as he understands it—declar- ing that, if the hated theory were true, “ the wind would constantly blow from the east; we should with great difficulty hear sounds against such a wind; ” that “ buildings, and the earth itself, cap. 8, p. 6. For scholarly account of the relation of the Prohibi- tory and Expurgatory Indexes to each other, see Mendham, Liter- ary Policy of the Church of Rome.