Bishop Virgil--Roger Bacon--Galileo--Jordano Bruno--Thomas
Campanella--De Lisle de Sales--Denis Diderot--Balthazar Bekker--Isaac de
la Peyrère--Abbé de Marolles--Lucilio Vanini--Jean Rousseau.
Science in its infancy found many powerful opponents, who, not
understanding the nature of the newly-born babe, strove to strangle
it. But the infant grew into a healthy child in spite of its cruel
stepmother, and cried so loudly and talked so strangely that the
world was forced to listen to its utterances. These were regarded with
distrust and aversion by the theologians of the day, for they were
supposed to be in opposition to Revelation, and contrary to the received
opinions of all learned and pious people. Therefore Science met with
very severe treatment; its followers were persecuted with relentless
vehemence, and "blasphemous fables" and "dangerous deceits" were the
only epithets which could characterise its doctrines.
The controversy between Religion and Science still rages, in spite of
the declaration of Professor Huxley that in his opinion the conflict
between the two is entirely factitious. But theologians are wiser now
than they were in the days of Galileo; they are waiting to see what the
scientists can prove, and then, when the various hypotheses are shown to
be true, it will be time enough to reconcile the verities of the Faith
with the facts of Science.
To those who believed that the earth was flat it was somewhat startling
to be told that there were antipodes. This elementary truth of cosmology
Bishop Virgil of Salzbourg was courageous enough to assert as early as
A.D. 764. He wrote a book in which he stated that men of another race,
not sprung from Adam, lived in the world beneath our feet. This work
aroused the anger of Pope Zacharias II, who wrote to the King of Bavaria
that Virgil should be expelled from the temple of God and the Church,
and deprived of God and the Church, and deprived of his office, unless
he confessed his perverse errors. In spite of the censure and sentence
of excommunication pronounced upon him, Bishop Virgil was canonised by
Pope Gregory XI.; thus, in spite of his misfortunes brought about by his
book, his memory was revered and honoured by the Western Church.
If the account of his imprisonment be true (of which there is no
contemporary evidence) our own celebrated English philosopher, Roger
Bacon, is one of the earliest scientific authors whose works proved
fatal to them. In 1267 he sent his book, _Opus Majus_, together with
his _Opus Minus_, an abridgement of his former work, to Pope Clement
IV. After the death of that Pope Bacon was cited by the General of the
Franciscan order, to which he belonged, to appear before his judges
at Paris, where he was condemned to imprisonment. He is said to
have languished in the dungeon fourteen years, and, worn out by his
sufferings, to have died in his beloved Oxford during the year of his
release, 1292. The charge of magic was freely brought against him. His
great work, which has been termed "the _Encyclopaedia_ and the _Novum
Organum_ of the thirteenth century," discloses an unfettered mind and
judgment far in advance of the spirit of the age in which he lived.
In addition to this he wrote _Compendium Philosophiae_, _De mirabili
Potestate artis et naturae, Specula mathematica, Speculum alchemicum_,
and other works.
The treatment which Galileo received at the hands of the ecclesiastics
of his day is well known. This father of experimental philosophy was
born at Pisa in 1564, and at the age of twenty-four years, through
the favour of the Medicis, was elected Professor of Mathematics at the
University of the same town. Resigning his chair in 1592, he became
professor at Padua, and then at Florence. He startled the world by the
publication of his first book, _Sidereus Nuntius_, in which he disclosed
his important astronomical discoveries, amongst others the satellites
of Jupiter and the spots on the sun. This directed the attention of the
Inquisition to his labours, but in 1632 he published his immortal
work _Dialogo sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del monda, Tolemaico et
Copernicano_ (Florence), which was the cause of his undoing. In this
book he defended the opinion of Copernicus concerning the motion of the
earth round the sun, which was supposed by the theologians of the day to
be an opinion opposed to the teaching of Holy Scripture and subversive
of all truth. The work was brought before the Inquisition at Rome, and
condemned by the order of Pope Urban VIII. Galileo was commanded to
renounce his theory, but this he refused to do, and was cast into
prison. "Are these then my judges?" he exclaimed when he was returning
from the presence of the Inquisitors, whose ignorance astonished him.
There he remained for five long years; until at length, wearied by his
confinement, the squalor of the prison, and by his increasing years, he
consented to recant his "heresy," and regained his liberty. The old man
lost his sight at seventy-four years of age, and died four years later
in 1642. In addition to the work which caused him so great misfortunes
he published _Discorso e Demonstr. interna alle due nuove Scienze,
Delia Scienza Meccanica (1649), Tractato della Sfera (1655)_; and
the telescope, the isochronism of the vibrations of the pendulum, the
hydrostatic balance, the thermometer, were all invented by this
great leader of astronomical and scientific discoverers. Many other
discoveries might have been added to these, had not his widow submitted
the sage's MSS. to her confessor, who ruthlessly destroyed all that he
considered unfit for publication. Possibly he was not the best judge of
such matters!
Italy also produced another unhappy philosophic writer, Jordano Bruno,
who lived about the same time as Galileo, and was born at Nole in 1550,
being fourteen years his senior. At an early age he acquired a great
love of study and a thirst for knowledge. The Renaissance and the
revival of learning had opened wide the gates of knowledge, and there
were many eager faces crowding around the doors, many longing to enter
the fair Paradise and explore the far-extending vistas which met their
gaze. It was an age of anxious and eager inquiry; the torpor of the
last centuries had passed away; and a new world of discovery, with
spring-like freshness, dawned upon the sight. Jordano Bruno was one of
these zealous students of the sixteenth century. We see him first in
a Dominican convent, but the old-world scholasticism had no charms for
him. The narrow groove of the cloister was irksome to his freedom-loving
soul. He cast off his monkish garb, and wandered through Europe as a
knight-errant of philosophy, _multum ille et terris jactatus et alto_,
teaching letters. In 1580 we find him at Geneva conferring with Calvin
and Beza, but Calvinism did not commend itself to his philosophic mind.
Thence he journeyed to Paris, where in 1582 he produced one of his more
important works, _De umbris idearum_. Soon afterwards he came to London,
where he became the intimate friend of Sir Philip Sidney. Here he wrote
the work which proved fatal to him, entitled _Spaccio della bestia
triomphante_ (The expulsion of the triumphing beast) (London, 1584).
[Footnote: The full title of the work is: _Spaccio della bestia
triomphante da giove, effetuato dal conseglo, revelato da Mercurio,
recitato da sofia, udito da saulino, registrato dal nolano, divisa in
tre dialogi, subdivisi in tre parti. In Parigi, 1584, in-8_.] This was
an allegory in which he combated superstition and satirised the errors
of Rome. But in this work Bruno fell into grievous errors and dangerous
atheistic deceits. He scoffed at the worship of God, declared that the
books of the sacred canon were merely dreams, that Moses worked his
wonders by magical art, and blasphemed the Saviour. Bruno furnished
another example of those whose faith, having been at one time forced
to accept dogmas bred of superstition, has been weakened and altogether
destroyed when they have perceived the falseness and fallibility of that
which before they deemed infallible.
But in spite of these errors Bruno's learning was remarkable. He had an
extensive knowledge of all sciences. From England he went to Germany,
and lectured at Wittenberg, Prague, and Frankfort. His philosophy
resembled that of Spinosa. He taught that God is the substance and life
of all things, and that the universe is an immense animal, of which God
is the soul.
At length he had the imprudence to return to Italy, and became a teacher
at Padua. At Venice he was arrested by order of the Inquisition in 1595,
and conducted to Rome, where, after an imprisonment of two years,
in order that he might be punished as gently as possible without the
shedding of blood, he was sentenced to be burned alive. With a courage
worthy of a philosopher, he exclaimed to his merciless judges, "You
pronounce sentence upon me with greater fear than I receive it." Bruno's
other great works were _Della causa, principio e uno_ (1584), _De
infinito universo et mundis_ (1584), _De monade numero et figura_
(Francfort, 1591).
The Inquisition at Rome at this period was particularly active in its
endeavours to reform errant philosophers, and Bruno was by no means the
only victim who felt its power. Thomas Campanella, born in Calabria, in
Italy, A.D. 1568, conceived the design of reforming philosophy about the
same time as our more celebrated Bacon. This was a task too great for
his strength, nor did he receive much encouragement from the existing
powers. He attacked scholasticism with much vigour, and censured the
philosophy of Aristotle, the admired of the schoolmen. He wrote a work
entitled _Philosophia sensibus demonstrata_, in which he defended the
ideas of Telesio, who explained the laws of nature as founded upon
two principles, the heat of the sun and the coldness of the earth. He
declared that all our knowledge was derived from sensation, and that
all parts of the earth were endowed with feeling. Campanella also wrote
_Prodromus philosophiae instaurandae_ (1617); _Philosophia rationalis_,
embracing grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, poetry, and history;
_Universalis Philosophatus_, a treatise on metaphysics; _Civitas
solis_, a description of a kind of Utopia, after the fashion of Plato's
_Republic_. But the fatal book which caused his woes was his _Atheismus
triumphatus_. On account of this work he was cast into prison, and
endured so much misery that we can scarcely bear to think of his
tortures and sufferings. For twenty-five years he endured all the
squalor and horrors of a mediaeval dungeon; through thirty-five hours
he was "questioned" with such exceeding cruelty that all his veins and
arteries were so drawn and stretched by the rack that the blood could
not flow. Yet he bore all this terrible agony with a brave spirit, and
did not utter a cry. Various causes have been assigned for the severity
of this torture inflicted on poor Campanella. Some attribute it to
the malice of the scholastic philosophers, whom he had offended by his
works. Others say that he was engaged in some treasonable conspiracy to
betray the kingdom of Naples to the Spaniards; but it is probable that
his _Atheismus triumphatus_ was the chief cause of his woes. Sorbière
has thus passed judgment upon this fatal book: "Though nothing is dearer
to me than time, the loss of which grieves me sorely, I confess that
I have lost both oil and labour in reading the empty book of an empty
monk, Thomas Campanella. It is a farrago of vanities, has no order,
many obscurities, and perpetual barbarisms. One thing I have learned in
wandering through this book, that I will never read another book of this
author, even if I could spare the time."
Authorities differ with regard to the ultimate fate of this author. Some
say that he was killed in prison in 1599; others declare that he was
released and fled to France, where he enjoyed a pension granted to
him by Richelieu. However, during his incarceration he continued his
studies, and wrote a work concerning the Spanish monarchy which was
translated from Italian into German and Latin. In spite of his learning
he made many enemies by his arrogance; and his restless and ambitious
spirit carried him into enterprises which were outside the proper
sphere of his philosophy. In this he followed the example of many other
luckless authors, to whom the advice of the homely proverb would have
been valuable which states that "a shoemaker should stick to his last."
The book entitled _De la Philosophie de la Nature, ou Traité de morale
pour l'espèce humaine, tiré de la philosophie et fondé sur la nature_
(Paris, _Saillant et Nyon_, 1769, 6 vols., in-12), has a curious
history. It inflicted punishment not only on its author, De Lisle
de Sales, but also on two learned censors of books who approved its
contents, the Abbé Chrétien and M. Lebas, the bookseller Saillant, and
two of its printers. De Lisle was sent to prison, but the severity of
the punishment aroused popular indignation, and his journey to
gaol resembled a triumph. All the learned *men of Paris visited
the imprisoned philosopher. All the sentences were reversed by the
Parliament of Paris in 1777. This book has often been reproduced and
translated in other languages. De Lisle was exposed to the persecutions
of the Reign of Terror, and another work of his, entitled _Eponine_,
caused him a second term of imprisonment, from which he was released
when the terrible reign of anarchy, lasting eighteen months, ended.
The industrious philosopher Denis Diderot wrote _Lettres sur les
Aveugles à l'usage de ceux qui voient_ (1749, in-12). There were "those
who saw" and were not blind to its defects, and proceeded to incarcerate
Diderot in the Castle of Vincennes, where he remained six months, and
where he perceived that this little correction was necessary to cure
him of his philosophical folly. He was a very prolific writer, and
subsequently with D'Alembert edited the first French Encyclopaedia
(1751-1772, 17 vols.). This was supposed to contain statements
antagonistic to the Government and to Religion, and its authors
and booksellers and their assistants were all sent to the Bastille.
_Chambers' Cyclopaedia_ had existed in England some years before a
similar work was attempted in France, and the idea was first started
by an Englishman, John Mills. This man was ingeniously defrauded of the
work, which owed its conception and execution entirely to him. Perhaps
on the whole he might have been congratulated, as he escaped the
Bastille, to which the appropriators of his work were consigned.
An author who dares to combat the popular superstitious beliefs current
in his time often suffers in consequence of his courage, as Balthazar
Bekker discovered to his cost. This writer was born in West Friezland
in 1634, and died at Amsterdam in 1698. He was a pastor of the Reformed
Church of Holland, and resided during the greater part of his life
at Amsterdam, where he produced his earlier work _Recherches sur les
Comètes_ (1683), in which he combated the popular belief in the malign
influence of comets. This work was followed a few years later by his
more famous book _De Betoverde Weereld_, or _The Enchanted World_,
[Footnote: _Le Monde enchanté, ou Examen des sentimens touchant les
esprits, traduit du flamand en français_ (Amsterdam, 1694, 4 vols.,
in-l2). One Benjamin Binet wrote a refutation, entitled _Traité
historique des Dieux et des Démons du paganisme, avec des remarques
sur le système de Balthazar Bekker_ (Delft, 1696, in-l2).] in which he
refuted the vulgar notions with regard to demoniacal possession. This
work created a great excitement amongst the Hollanders, and in two
months no less than four thousand copies were sold. But, unfortunately
for the author, it aroused the indignation of the theologians of the
Reformed Church, who condemned it, deprived Bekker of his office,
and expelled him from their communion. Bekker died shortly after his
sentence had been pronounced. A great variety of opinions have been
expressed concerning this book. Bekker was a follower of Descartes,
and this was sufficient to condemn him in the eyes of many of the
theologians of the day. The Jansenists of Port-Royal and the divines
of the old National Church of Holland were vehement opponents of
Cartesianism; consequently we find M.S. de Vries of Utrecht declaring
that this fatal book caused more evil in the space of two months than
all the priests could prevent in twenty years. Another writer states
that it is an illustrious work, and full of wisdom and learning. When
Bekker was deposed from his office, his adversaries caused a medal to be
struck representing the devil clad in a priestly robe, riding on an ass,
and carrying a trophy in his right hand; which was intended to signify
that Bekker had been overcome in his attempt to disprove demoniacal
possession, and that the devil had conquered in the assembly of divines
who pronounced sentence on Bekker's book. The author was supposed to
resemble Satan in the ugliness of his appearance. Another coin was
struck in honour of our author: on one side is shown the figure of
Bekker clad in his priestly robe; and on the other is seen Hercules with
his club, with this inscription, _Opus virtutis veritatisque triumphat_.
Bekker also wrote a catechism, entitled _La Nourriture des Parfaits_
(1670), which so offended the authorities of the Reformed Church that
its use was publicly prohibited by the sound of bells.
The science of ethnology has also had its victims, and one Isaac de
la Peyrère suffered for its sake. His fatal book was one entitled
_Praeadamitae, sive exercitatio super versibus xii., xiii., xiv.,
capitis v., epistolae divi Pauli ad romanos. Quibus inducuntur primi
homines ante Adamum conditi_ (1655, in-12), in which he advocated a
theory that the earth had been peopled by a race which existed before
Adam. The author was born at Bordeaux in 1592, and served with the
Prince of Condé; but, in spite of his protector, he was imprisoned at
Brussels, and his book was burnt at Paris, in 1655. This work had a
salutary effect on the indefatigable translator Abbé de Marolles, who
with extraordinary energy, but with little skill, was in the habit of
translating the classical works, and almost anything that he could lay
his hands upon. He published no less than seventy volumes, and at last
turned his attention to the sacred Scriptures, translating them with
notes. In the latter he inserted extracts and reflections from the
above-mentioned book by Peyrère, which caused a sudden cessation of
his labours. By the authority of the Pope the printing of his works was
suddenly stopped, but probably the loss which the world incurred was not
very great. Peyrère seems to have foretold the fate of his book and his
own escape in the following line:--
_Parve, nec invideo, sine me, liber, ibis in ignem_.
Lucilio Vanini, born in 1585, was an Italian philosopher, learned in
medicine, astronomy, theology, and philosophy, who, after the fashion
of the scholars of the age, roamed from country to country, like the
knight-errants of the days of chivalry, seeking for glory and honours,
not by the sword, but by learning. This Vanini was a somewhat vain
and ridiculous person. Not content with his Christian name Lucilio, he
assumed the grandiloquent and high-sounding cognomen of Julius Caesar,
wishing to attach to himself some of the glory of the illustrious
founder of the Roman empire. As the proud Roman declared _Veni, Vidi,
Vici_, so would he carry on the same victorious career, subduing all
rival philosophers by the power of his eloquence and learning. He
visited Naples, wandered through France, Germany, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, and England, and finally stationed himself in France, first
at Lyons, and then in a convent at Toulouse. At Lyons he produced
his famous and fatal book, _Amphitheatrum aeternae providentiae
divino-magicum Christiano-Physicum, nec non Astrologo-Catholicum_
(Lugduni, 1616). It was published with the royal assent, but afterwards
brought upon its author the charge of Atheism. He concealed the poison
most carefully; for apparently he defended the belief in the Divine
Providence and in the immortality of the soul, but with consummate skill
and subtilty he taught that which he pretended to refute, and led his
readers to see the force of the arguments against the Faith of which he
posed as a champion. By a weak and feeble defence, by foolish arguments
and ridiculous reasoning, he secretly exposed the whole Christian
religion to ridicule. But if any doubts were left whether this was done
designedly or unintentionally, they were dispelled by his second work,
_De admirandis naturae reginae deaeque mortalium arcanis_ (Paris, 1616),
which, published in the form of sixty dialogues, contained many profane
statements. In this work also he adopted his previous plan of pretending
to demolish the arguments against the Faith, while he secretly sought
to establish them. He says that he had wandered through Europe fighting
against the Atheists wherever he met with them. He describes his
disputations with them, carefully recording all their arguments; he
concludes each dialogue by saying that he reduced the Atheists to
silence, but with strange modesty he does not inform his readers what
reasonings he used, and practically leaves the carefully drawn up
atheistical arguments unanswered. The Inquisition did not approve of
this subtle method of teaching Atheism, and ordered him to be confined
in prison, and then to be burned alive. This sentence was carried out
at Toulouse in 1619, in spite of his protestations of innocence, and
the arguments which he brought forward before his judges to prove the
existence of God. Some have tried to free Vanini from the charge of
Atheism, but there is abundant evidence of his guilt apart from his
books. The tender mercies of the Inquisition were cruel, and could not
allow so notable a victim to escape their vengeance. Whether to burn a
man is the surest way to convert him, is a question open to argument.
Vanini disguised his insidious teaching carefully, but it required a
thick veil to deceive the eyes of Inquisitors, who were wonderfully
clever in spying out heresy, and sometimes thought they had discovered
it even when it was not there. Vanini and many other authors would
have been wiser if they had not committed their ideas to writing,
and contented themselves with words only. _Litera scripta manet_; and
disguise it, twist it, explain it, as you will, there it stands, a
witness for your acquittal or your condemnation. This thought stays
the course of the most restless pen, though the racks and fires of the
Inquisition no longer threaten the incautious scribe.
We must not omit a French philosopher who died just before the outbreak
of the First French Revolution, Jean Jacques Rousseau. It is well known
that his work _Emile, ou de l'Education, par J.J. Rousseau, Citoyen de
Genève_ (_à Amsterdam_, 1762, 4 vols., in-12), obliged him to fly from
France and Switzerland, in both of which countries he was adjudged
to prison. For many years he passed a wandering, anxious life, ever
imagining that his best friends wished to betray him. Of his virtues and
failings as an author, or of the vast influence he exercised over the
minds of his countrymen, it is needless to write. This has already been
done by many authors in many works.