Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-05-12
LErrERs IRON rAE PEopLE.
Editor Of the DrMocRAr:

Editor of the DEMOCRAT:
In recent issue of a weekly paper
having circulation in this city, there
appeared an article commenting ON the
late democratic primaries, in which
some of our prominent citizens would
not be allowed to participate. No one
objects to its political opinions, but why
in the name of common sense should
the writer switch off SO suddenly from
ward politics to aim a blow at Catho-
licity?
Week after week the paper has made
outrageous statements about Catholics,
and it is about time that some schoolboy
should enlighten it little. The Catho-
lie church, it has often asserted, has al
ways been opposed to science and art.
Now if this pet assertion is correct,
will the writer of the articles please
prove the falsity of the following ex-
tract from church history:
SIT is commonly assumed that Catho-
lies have done nothing for either science
or art. This is grave mistake, as will
coveries and inventions, all by Catho-
lies and many of them before the Pro-
testant reformation: Architecture,
music, sculpture, pointing, glass stain
ing and such like, have been always
taken as criterions of the civilization of
which they were the outcome. The ar
chitecture of Rome and Greece, and
Babylon, and Egypt, are taken to-day
as signs of the advanced state of civili-
zation in those countries, when they
built to the wonder of the world. So
we can point to the great cathedrals of
Europe, such as Cologne, Spiers, Milan,
Canterbury and Winchester, that to-day
are the wonder and admiration of all, as
monuments of the high cultivation of
the middle ages, when they were built.
Besides this may be mentioned the cul-
tivation and mandatory of silk, intro
duced into Europe by two monks in the
year of SOL; the inventions of water
mills, $50; window glass for churches
and dwellings, col; bells for churches
sos; organs, 673; paper made of cotton,
706; made of linen, 1870. The Gregoriar
chant by Pope Gregory. the great, 900
to which may be added the gamut OF
scale in music, that so aids in It's study
also clocks with balance and wheels
1899; glass staining with the art of i'm
printing figures upon it, 1899; gun
powder, 1914; watches, 1906, and the
mariners compass, 1910.
"To these inventions of the middle
ages must be added the inventions anG
discoveries made by Catholics before
and since the reformation. Amongs
these are printing, 400; the discovery
of America ard its partial colonization
in the eleventh century, and its aftel
discovery in 1899 by Columbus; also thu
doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, il
1897. In 1542 the solar system was dis
covered by Copernicus, and In 154;
steamboat navigation was demonstrated
in Spain by Blasco de Garay. Tit
rotundity of the earth was taught by
VirgiIius, 1854; afterward by Dante
, 1920, in his immortal Inferno; and il
, 1910 it's motion was demonstrated By
Gallileo, as also the satellites of Jupite
were discovered. In 1889 the calenda
, now used was corrected by Pop
Gregory. In 1897 the thermometer wa
invented by Gallileo; the telescope ant
in 1913. In 1880 the art of enamellinI
on ivory was invented, and in 179
galvanism was discovered. The weav
ing of satin and broadcloth were dis
, coveries of the middle ages, 1889
Nearly all the present governments O
Europe we're formed during the middE
ages, with their languages and laws
When we add to this the abolition o
slavery in Europe, the civilization O
ners, the elevation of woman, tn
. magma charta, trial by jury, the habea
!, corpus, the common law, and tn
sanctlty of home, all the direct result O
the teachings of the Catholic churcl
during the middle ages, we find that no
only the church has been noobstacle t.
; progress, either in science or art, bu
that to Catholics is due the discovery O
all the valuable inventions we have
Carefully examined it will be seen that
with the exception of the steam engin
and the railroad. little really new ha
been discovered other than by Catholics.
With these facts before him the MAJ
5 who reads the periodic spasms of know
nothingisrn every other week must ad
NIT that prejudice and bigotry some
times eminate from blighted ambitions
K d.