The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-08
NOT AN ENEMY OF. SCIENCE.
Rev.E.P. Walters Lectures at st. Joseph's
Catholic Church Last Night.
The Catholic Church and Science illustrated
by the Life Of Nicholas Copernicus,
the Great Astronomer.

Rev. E. P. Walter, of Lafayette, delivered the
closing lecture of the winter course at st.
Josephs Catholic /. Church, last evening, his
subject bearing the title of 1.-THE Catholic Church
and Science" He insisted that the Catholic
Church, contrary to modern history, which
the most ne~i 1of
--.s /" Protestant Is hot and has not
Deen opposed to science, giving in illustration
.ne NE End work Of Nicholas Copernicus. The
lecture was an exceedingly instructive one and
received the closest attention.
He said that mankind seldom gave the proper
NEED of praise to the most deserving. There is
nearly always some bias in judgment dictated
by nationality or religion, or by some other cir
cumstance When this bias is the result of re-
ligious prejudice. it is terrible for there is no
prejudice as bitter as religious prejudice, and
no bigotry as unyielding If he were
asked who was the greatest of all
mathematicians, he would answer, Nicholas
Copernicus, whose greatness consists in his dis
covery of the proper system of the universe.
For centuries men had taught that this
world was fixed and stable; that all the other
orbs in the sky, sun. moon and stars circled
around this world of ours When Copernicus,
by his grand mind, penetrated the schemes of
Gods divine providence, and saw that, instead
of the earth, the sun was the center of our sys-
tenn, we would naturally say that
he was the greatest Of philosophers.
Here it is that English-speaking people
do not give him the proper need of praise. This
because he was a native of Poland, and his coun-
try was being dismembered about the time in
which he lived. and then the ecclesiastical revolt
against the church of God was then coming into
existence, and non Catholics were making in
roads against the church, and holding that the
church was against science Had they told the
truth about Copernicus their assertions would
have been refuted.
They never told that this great philosopher,
when they spoke of him. was Polish Catholic
priest They could never give Catholic priest
credit for this great discovery. Nicholas Co
February 1473. His parents were poor. Some
of his biographers say they were really serfs.
The betterinformed tell us that his father was
respectable physician and his mother the sister
OF Catholic bishop This bishop for his par.
Education sdss Of R Ss nephew a s made ga
progress in the academy at Thorn, and was
afterward sent to college; then, at the age of
eighteen, he was sent to the University of Cracow
where, at very early age, he attained the degree
of doctor and was commissioned to practiced
medicine. His uncle, seeing that his mind was
a remarkable one, determed to give him better
education than his own country afforded, sent
him to the University Of Bologna, one
at the time. You will find that
this university in Italy, in the States of the
Church, protected by the successor of st. Peter
and to which learned men of every nation were
turning their faces for the most perfect of all
knowledge. That is one proof to indicate that
the church was not opposed to learning and
science He went there to perfect himself in
mathematics under the tutorship of the greatest
teacher of the day. Here he noticed eclipse that
took place in 1900, and from it gained the idea
the discovery Of America gave him new ideas.
He went to Rome, where his fame became wide
spread and many came to acquire OF him
knowledge of mathematics Here he was con-
suited in regard to the reformation of the calen-
dar, which at that time wasl agitating the
Christian world. But he cared moth
ing for fame. The desire to be
priest was in his heart and soul. He
gave up everything, and, in accordance with his
wish, returned to Poland, where for eight years
he was curate III little place in the country,
devoting himself to the service of God and min
istering to the poor He was then called to
Frauenhurg, and made canon of the church,
while in his own little town he
spent in caring for the spiritual and
temporal welfare of his flock. While mathe
mates was the passion of his life, he likewise
constructed aqueducts by which water was led to
For twenty-five long years he was engaged in
the contemplation of the skies. His tomb at
Frauenburg still remains. Among the great who
have visited it may be mentioned Wallenstein,
Napoleon's admiration for the mathematician
that in 1907 he caused the tomb in the cathedral
for it is in the cathedral-to be renewed.
Hu2boldt says that Copernicus was afraid to
saw int tne earth u, oved-that he dared not an
it shrolga fe snea q '1 of
Galileo's prosecutions by t. i29usiton, because
of his announcing that the rerio mov yea.
Calico was born nearly one hundred vears d 'ol
the birth of Nicholas Copernicus, an0--,t was
on June o. 1633-was taken before the Tribuna!.
of the InQuisition and stretched upon the
rack to say as he rose from its tortures, and
still it movesP . Copernicus had made his dis
coyery one hundred years before. Yet these
writer's say he dared not proclaim it lest he
might be prosecuted by the Inquisition. Hum
boldt says Of Copernicus and his discovery of
our present system, that the confidence with
which he expressed his views deserves the
euogium passed upon him by Kepler, who spoke
of him as brave man with free soul.
Now this brave man with free soul dedi-
Gated the great work on the planetary system
to Pope Paul III. Certainly the Pope knew
what was in the book before he sanctioned the
dedication. Does that argue that the church is
opposed to science? Copernicus writes to the
Pontiff in the dedication that not theologians
but mathematician should criticise his work,
and says that the opinions of theologians that
the world is at rest, and the center of the uni
verse is stupid assertion. He knew that the
theory that he advanced would receive great
deal of opposition, but where was that opposition
to come fromy Not from the church. She had
always been the friend of science Not from
other philosophers and from the rabble for the
philosophers and the rabble stood by established
things, by the theories of the ancents. A priest
in Peloponnesus had declared that the moon in
stead of being, as the people thought as big as
cart Wheel was as large as that country The
people were up in arms, and his life was in
jeopardy.
Why, then, did Copernicus hold back his
discovery? He wished to investigate. He found
that several of the ancients were IN doubt as to
whether the earth moved or the sun He dis
covered that Plato regretted that he did not
place the sun in the center of the system, and
not the earth. There was cardinal who lived ten
horr, who said fhat