very well in the unsuitable climate of Madrid, made the trip to the
Holy Land, partly for reasons of health, but partly also for reasons
of piety. While returning he was shipwrecked on the island of Zante
and died from exposure. Vesalius had been born in Brabant, at that
time one of the most faithful Catholic countries in Europe. Like most
of the other great men of his time, the reformation utterly failed to
tempt him from his adhesion to the Catholic Church. His greatest
colleagues in anatomy and in medicine were Italians, most of whom were
in intimate relations with the Catholic ecclesiastics of the time and
continued this intimacy in spite of the disturbing influences that
were abroad. Many of these men will be mentioned in our account of the
Papal Medical School and of the Papal Physicians during the next two
or three centuries. The distinguished anatomists and physicians of
France in Vesalius's time were quite as faithful Catholics as he was.
Even Paracelsus, the Swiss, whose thorough-going independence of mind
would, it might naturally seem, have tempted him to take up with the
reformed doctrines, had no sympathy with them at all. He recognized
the abuses in the Church, but said that Luther and the so-called
reformers were doing much more harm {119} than good, and that until
they were gotten rid of no improvement in ecclesiastical matters could
be looked for. When Paracelsus came to die he left his money mainly to
the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin in his native town of Einsiedeln and
for masses for his soul. Since their time most of the distinguished
medical scientists have been quite as faithful in their Catholicity as
these two great medical colleagues of the Renaissance period. While
medicine is supposed to be unorthodox in its tendencies, the really
great thinkers in medicine, the men to whose names important
discoveries in the science were attached, were not only faithful
believers in the doctrines of Christianity, but were much more often
than has been thought even devout Catholics.
At the death of Vesalius the Golden Age of the development of anatomy
was not at its close, but was just beginning. Eustachius, Caesalpinus,
Harvey and Malpighi were during the course of the next century to make
anatomy a science in the strict sense of that word. After Vesalius's
time the history of anatomy in Italy centers around the Papal Medical
School to a great extent. During Vesalius's lifetime his greatest
rival became the professor of anatomy there. The anatomical school of
Bologna, in connection with that city, became an important focus of
anatomical investigation. At this time Bologna was a Papal city. It
was in the dominions of the Popes, then, as we shall see, that anatomy
was carried on with the most success and with the most ardor. Far from
there being any opposition to the development of the science, every
encouragement was given to it, and it was the patronage of the Popes
and of the higher ecclesiastics that to a great degree made possible
the glorious evolution of the science during the next century.
{120}
SUPPOSED PAPAL PROHIBITION OF CHEMISTRY.
A false impression, exactly corresponding to that with regard to
anatomy, has been created and fostered by just the same class of
writers as exploited the anatomy question, with reference to the
attitude of the Popes and the Church of the Middle Ages toward the
study of chemistry. This is founded on a similar misrepresentation of
a Papal document. When it was pointed out that this Papal document,
like Pope Boniface's bull, had no such purport as was suggested, just
the same subterfuge as with regard to anatomy was indulged in. If the
Papal document did not forbid chemistry directly, as was said, at
least it was so misinterpreted, and chemistry failed to develop
because of the supposed Papal opposition. These expressions were used,
in spite of the fact that, just as in the case of anatomy, it is not
hard to trace the rise and development of chemistry, or its
predecessor, alchemy, during the years when it is supposed to be in
abeyance. Certainly there was no interruption of the progress of
chemical science at the date of the supposed Papal prohibition, nor at
any other time, as a consequence of Church opposition.
The similarity of these two history lies is so striking as to indicate
that they had their birth in the same desire to discredit the Popes at
all cost, and to make out a case of opposition on the part of
ecclesiastical authorities to scientific development, whether it
actually existed or not. The surprise is, however, that the same form
of invention should have been used in both cases. One {121} might
reasonably have expected that the ingenuity of writers would have
enabled them to find another basis for the story on the second
occasion. Still more might it have been expected that when the error
with regard to the tenor of the Papal document was pointed out to
them, a different form of response would be made in the latter
instance. The whole subject indicates a dearth of originality that
would be amusing if it were on a less serious matter, and does very
little credit either to those who are responsible for the first draft
of the story, but still less to those who have swallowed it so readily
and given it currency.
The story of the Supposed Papal Prohibition of Chemistry was
characteristically told by William J. Cruikshank, M. D., of Brooklyn,
New York, in an address bearing the title, "Some Relations of the
Church and Scientific Progress," published in The Medical Library and
Historical Journal of Brooklyn for July, 1905. The writer called
emphatic attention to the fact that chemistry, during the Middle Ages,
had come under the particular ban of the ecclesiastical authorities,
who effectually prevented its cultivation or development. "The
chemist," Dr. Cruikshank says, "was called a miscreant, a sorcerer,
and was feared because of his supposed partnership with the devil. He
was denounced by Pope and priest and was persecuted to the full extent
of Papal power. Pope John XXII. was especially energetic in this
direction, and in the year 1317 A.D., issued a bull calling on all
rulers, secular and ecclesiastical, to hunt down the miscreants who
were afflicting the faithful, and he thereupon increased the power of
the Inquisition in various parts of Europe for this purpose."
At the suggestion of the editor of the Medical Library {122} and
Historical Journal, I answered these assertions of Dr. Cruikshank,
pointing out that the Papal document which he mentioned had no such
purport as he declared, and that the history of chemistry or alchemy
presented no such break as his assertions would demand. Dr. Cruikshank
immediately appealed by letter to his authority on the subject, whose
words, in the History of the Warfare of Theology with Science in
Christendom, though I did not realize it at the time, he had repeated
almost literally. In his chapter on From Magic to Chemistry and
Physics, Dr. Andrew D. White says: "In 1317, Pope John XXII. issued
his bull _Spondent pariter,_ levelled at the alchemists, but really
dealing a terrible blow at the beginning of chemical science. He
therefore called on all rulers, secular and ecclesiastical, to hunt
down the miscreants who thus afflicted the faithful, and he especially
increased the power of inquisitors in various parts of Europe for this
purpose." It will be seen that, as I have said, Dr. Cruikshank's words
are almost a verbatim quotation from this paragraph. It is true that
he has strengthened the expressions quite a little and added some
trimmings of his own, still I suppose his expressions could be
justified if those of President White had a foundation in fact. A
little comparison of the two sets of phrases will show how a history
lie grows as it passes from pen to pen. _Crescit eundo_--like rumor,
it increases in size as it goes.
In defense of this passage in the History of the Warfare of Science
with Theology in Christendom, Dr. White wrote a letter of reply to Dr.
Cruikshank, which was incorporated into Dr. Cruikshank's response to
my article in the Medical Library and Historical Journal. I presume
that this was done with Dr. White's permission. {123} In this letter
he admitted that Pope John's decretal had no such significance as he
originally claimed for it, but he still maintained his previous
opinion, that this decretal, like Boniface's bull for anatomy, had
actually prevented, or at least greatly hampered the study of
chemistry. To this I replied with a brief story of chemistry in the
fourteenth century, and though that article was published more than a
year ago, no admission has been made and nothing further has been
published on the subject. The material of the reply to Dr. White, to
which as yet there has been no answer, is comprised in this chapter.
As I have already hinted, the most surprising thing about this
citation of a Papal decree forbidding chemistry, is that it proves on
investigation to be founded on just exactly the same sort of
misinterpretation of a Papal document as happened with regard to
anatomy. The bull of Pope Boniface VIII. forbidding the boiling of
bodies and their dismemberment for burial in distant lands, did
nothing to hinder the progress of anatomy, had no reference to any
preparations required for dissection, and was not misinterpreted in
any such sense until the nineteenth century, and then only for the
purpose of discrediting the Popes and their relations to science. Pope
Boniface's bull, far from being harmful in any way to education or to
the people, was really beneficial, and constituted an excellent
sanitary regulation which doubtless prevented, on a number of
occasions, the carriage of disease from place to place.
The decree of Pope John XXII., which has been falsely claimed to
forbid chemistry, was another example of Papal care for Christendom,
and not at all the obscurantist document it has been so loudly
proclaimed. Pope {124} John learned how much imposition was being
practiced on the people by certain so-called alchemists who claimed to
be able to make silver and gold out of baser metals. In order to
prevent this, within a year after his elevation to the pontificate he
issued not a bull, but a very different form of document--a
decretal--forbidding any "alchemies" of this kind. The punishment to
be inflicted, however, instead of being the penalty of death, as Dr.
Cruikshank, Dr. White and many others have declared, or at least let
it be understood from their mode of expression, was that the person
convicted of pretending to make gold and silver and selling it to
other people, should pay into the public treasury an amount equal to
the supposed amount of gold and silver that he had made. _The money
thus paid into the public treasury was to be given to the poor._
The best way to show exactly what Pope John intended by his decree is
to quote the decree. It does not occur in the ordinary collection of
the bulls of John XXII., for it was not, as we have said, a bull in
the canonical sense of the term, but a Papal document of minor
importance. There is an important distinction between a decree and a
bull, the former being but of lesser significance, usually referring
only to passing matters of discipline. The decretal may be found in
the Corpus Juris Canonica, Tome II., which was published at Lyons in
1779. It is among the decrees or constitutions known as Extravagantes.
[Footnote 14]
[Footnote 14: The meaning of this term we discussed in the previous
chapter on Anatomy in relation to the bull of Boniface and Liber VI.
The motto of the publisher of the volume in which it occurs deserves
quotation because of its apt application in the present circumstance.
It is in Latin: "Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris"--"What
you would not have done to yourself, don't do to another." If writers
about the Popes were as careful to substantiate accusations against
them as fully as they would like any accusations against themselves to
be corroborated before being accepted and circulated, we should hear
much less of Papal intolerance and of Church opposition to science.
Even a dead Pope must be considered as a man whose reputation one
should not malign without good reason and substantial proof. I must
add that, as with regard to the other Papal documents mentioned, I owe
the copy of this decree to Father Corbett, of St. Charles Borromeo
Seminary, Overbrook, Pennsylvania, and am indebted to him besides for
many helpful suggestions.]
{125}
We quote the decree as it is found in Canon Law:
The Crime of Falsification.
"Alchemies are here prohibited and those who practise them or
procure their being done are punished. They must forfeit to the
public treasury for the benefit of the poor as much genuine gold and
silver as they have manufactured of the false or adulterate metal.
If they have not sufficient means for this, the penalty may be
changed to another at the discretion of the judge, and they shall be
considered criminals. If they are clerics, they shall be deprived of
any benefices that they hold and be declared incapable of holding
others." (See also the Extravagant of the same John which begins
with the word 'Providens' and is placed under the same title.)
[Footnote 15]
[Footnote 15: The decree referred to here was issued by John XXII.
against the counterfeiting of the money of France. The fact that the
two decrees should be considered by canonists as connected in subject
shows just what was thought to be the purport of the first, namely, to
prevent the debasement of the currency by the admixture of adulterate
gold as well as to protect the ignorant from imposition.]
"Poor themselves, the alchemists promise riches which are not
forthcoming; wise also in their own conceit they fall into the ditch
which they themselves have digged. For there is no doubt that the
professors of this art of alchemy make fun of each other because,
conscious of their own ignorance, they are surprised at those who
say anything of this kind about themselves; when the truth sought
does not come to them they fix on a day [for their experiment] and
exhaust all their arts; then they dissimulate [their failure] so
that finally, though there is no such thing in nature, they pretend
to make genuine gold and silver by a sophistic transmutation; to
such an extent does their damned and damnable temerity go that they
stamp upon the base metal the characters of {126} public money for
believing eyes, and it is only in this way that they deceive the
ignorant populace as to the alchemic fire of their furnace. Wishing
to banish such practices for all time, we have determined by this
formal edict that whoever shall make gold or silver of this kind or
shall order it made, provided the attempt actually follows, or
whoever shall knowingly assist those engaged (actually) in such a
process, or whoever shall knowingly make use of such gold or silver
either by selling it or giving it for debt, shall be compelled as a
penalty to pay into the public treasury, to be used for the poor, as
much by weight of genuine gold and silver as there may be of
alchemic metal, provided it be proved lawfully that they have been
guilty in any of the aforesaid ways; for those who persist in making
alchemic gold, or, as has been said, in using it knowingly, let them
be branded with the mark of perpetual infamy. But if the means of
the delinquents are not sufficient for the payment of the amount
stated, then the good judgment of the justice may commute this
penalty into some other (as, for example, imprisonment, or another
punishment, according to the nature of the case, the difference of
individuals, and other circumstances.) Those, however, who in their
regrettable folly go so far as not only to sell moneys thus made but
even despise the precepts of the natural law, pass the bounds of
their art and violate the laws by deliberately coining or casting or
having others coin or cast counterfeit money from alchemic gold or
silver, we proclaim as coming under this animadversion, and their
goods shall be confiscate, and they shall be considered as
criminals. And if the delinquents are clerics, besides the aforesaid
penalties they shall be deprived of any benefices they shall hold
and shall be declared incapable of holding any further benefices."
[Footnote 16]
[Footnote 16: The Latin text of this decretal will be found entire in
the appendix.]
It is evident that John's decree against "The Crime of Falsification"
did not directly forbid chemistry, nor alchemy in the proper sense of
the word, nor did it in any way interfere with the study of substances
to {127} determine their composition, or the synthesis of materials to
produce others, provided there was no pretense of making gold and
silver in order to obtain genuine gold and silver from ignorant dupes.
There seems to be no doubt that had the famous scheme to obtain gold
from sea water, which caused serious loss to so many foolish and even
poor people a few years ago, come up during the time of John XXII., he
would have prevented it from being so lucrative to its promoters, by
publicly denouncing them and promulgating a law for their punishment.
It may be considered that excommunication was not a very severe
penalty for such dishonest practices, and that the sharpers who gave
themselves to such a profession, which would be about that of the
confidence or green goods men of our time, were not likely to be
affected much by this merely religious deprivation. It must not be
forgotten, however, that in those ages of faith, excommunication
became an extremely telling social punishment. It was forbidden that
anyone, even nearest and dearest friends, should have anything to do
with the one excommunicated until the ban was removed. It was bad
enough in a town where everyone belonged to the same church, and all
went to church frequently, to be forbidden to go there; it was
infinitely worse, however, to have everybody who passed refuse to
greet you or have relations of any kind with you. President Hadley, of
Yale, said, not long since, that social ostracism is the only
effective punishment for such manifest extra legal irregularities,
which are yet not so essentially criminal as to bring those guilty of
them under legal punishment. The sentence of excommunication was an
effective social ostracism--the {128} completest possible. This is an
aspect of excommunications usually missed, but well deserving of study
by those who resent the use of such an instrument by ecclesiastical
authorities. Just as soon as the man repented of what he had done and
promised to do so no more, he was received back into the Church, and
the ostracism ceased, so long as he did not relapse into his forbidden
ways.
When the eminently beneficial character of this Papal document is thus
appreciated, it is indeed painful to have to realize, that for its
issuance John has been held up more to scorn and ridicule than perhaps
has ever been the case for any other single formal document that has
ever been issued by an ecclesiastical or political authority. He was
simply correcting an abuse in his day, the existence of which we
recognize and would like to be able to correct in ours. For this
eminently proper exercise of the Papal power, however, his whole
character has been called into question, and a distinguished modern
educator has used every effort to place him in the pillory of history,
as one of the men who have done most to hamper progress in science and
education in all world history. The amusing thing is the utter
inequality between the document itself and its supposed effects. Of
course it had no such effect as President White claims for it, and,
indeed, he seems never to have seen the document in its entirety
before it was called forcibly to his attention long after his
declarations with regard to it were published. The real attitude of
Pope John XXII. with regard to education and the sciences, which was
exactly the reverse of that predicated of him by his modern colleague
in education, will be the subject of the next chapter.
{129}
There is another document of John XXII., the bull _Super Illius
Specula_, that has been sometimes quoted, or rather misquoted, and
which indeed at first I was inclined to think was the bull referred to
by Dr. Cruikshank. This second Papal document, however, was not issued
until 1326. It is concerned entirely with the practice of magic. The
Pope knew that many people, by pretended intercourse with the devil or
with spirits of various kinds, claimed to be able to injure, to obtain
precious information, to interpret the future and the past, and to
clear up most of the mysteries that bother mankind. We have them still
with us--the palmist, the fortune-teller, the fake-spiritist. In order
to prevent such impostures, John issued a bull forbidding such
practices under pain of excommunication. It is almost needless to say
that this Papal document must have effected quite as much good for the
people at large as did the previous one forbidding "alchemies," which
must have prevented the robbing of foolish dupes who were taken with
the idea that the alchemists whom they employed could make gold and
silver. Of this second Papal document, this time really a bull, we
shall, because President White has given it an even falser
construction than the one we have just been discussing, have more to
say in the next chapter.
We must return, however, to the decretal _Spondent pariter,_--the
decree supposed to have forbidden chemistry; for as with regard to the
bull of Boniface VIII., previously discussed, it seems that it is
necessary not only to show that the decree was not actually intended
by the Popes to prohibit chemistry, but also it will have to be made
clear that it was not misinterpreted so as to hamper chemical
investigation. This is indeed a very {130} curious state of affairs in
history. First, it is solemnly declared, that certain bulls and Papal
documents were directed deliberately against the sciences of anatomy
and chemistry by the Head of the Church, who wished to prevent the
development of these sciences lest they should lessen his power over
his people. Then, when it is shown that the documents in question have
no such tenor, but are simple Papal regulations for the prevention of
abuses which had arisen, and that they actually did accomplish much
good for generations for which they were issued, the reply is not an
acknowledgement of error, but an insistence on the previous
declaration, somewhat in this form: "Well, the Popes may not have
intended it, but these sciences, as a consequence of their decrees,
did not develop, and the Popes must be considered as to blame for
that." Then, instead of showing that these sciences did not develop,
this part is assumed and the whole case is supposed to be proved.
Could anything well be more preposterous. And this is history! Nay, it
is even the history of science.
When I called attention to the fact that this decretal contained none
of the things it was said to, and published the text of it, Dr. White
very calmly replied: "Dr. Walsh has indeed correctly printed it, and I
notice no flaw in his translation." Instead of conceding, however,
that he had been mistaken, he seemed to consider it quite sufficient
to add, "I have followed what I found to be the unanimous opinion of
the standard historians of chemistry." He did not mention any of the
historians, however. I asked him by letter to name some of the
standard historians of chemistry who made this declaration, but though
I received a courteous reply, it contained no names, and, indeed,
avoided the question {131} of chemistry entirely. It is not too much
to expect that an historian shall quote his authorities. Dr. White
seems to be above this. Some documents that he quotes are distorted,
and prove on examination, as we have seen, to have quite a different
meaning to that which he gives them. As might be expected, his
supposed facts prove to have as little foundation. It will be
remembered that he completely ignored or was ignorant of the history
of anatomy. He seems to have been just as ignorant of the history of
chemistry, in spite of his confident assurance in making far-reaching
statements with regard to it. In order to satisfy myself, I went
through all of the standard histories of chemistry in German, English
and French that are available in the libraries of New York City, and I
failed to find a single one of them which contains anything that might
be supposed even distantly to confirm President White's assertion.