The San Francisco call., 1896-08-07

sides. In the abbeys and monasteries priests
and monks devoted their lives to teaching
From these sprang the great universities that
are now the pride OF all ages. They spread
across Europe, through France and to the
British Isles, and Ireland shone with the glory
OF her learning. Italy is and has ever been
the center and cradle of civilization.
The great means of advancing knowledge is
the art of printing. We feel that something
is lost II we do not receive our newspaper. In
this enlightened age the poor have literature
as well as the rich. In the olden time men
prepared the skin of animals whereon to
write. They went down 10 the river and gath
cred the reeds, which they split, and that was
paper. The art of printing came down to us
from Catholic lands.
II the monks-the "lazy monks"-were so
opposed to learning, then was the time to
smash the printing-press and check the prog
ress of letters. The first book on this continent
was printed in the City OF Mexico and was an
| explanation OF the Catholic doctrine, and the
first newspaper in the world was published In
Venice.
Let me briefly call up more evidences of the
attitude OF the Catholic Church toward learn
ing. In the sixth century Ptolemy. the Greek
astronomer in Alexandria, was succeeded by
Cosmos, Catholic. In the thirteenth century
we find Catholic monks such as Marco Polo
ana others penetrating into the darkness OF
Eastern barbarism, carrying the light to the
DenIghted nations there.
Then we see Columbus commanding ship
bearing cross of the Most Catholic King of
Spain sailing western over an unknown ocean.
This continent was named after another Cath
ollc explorer. When people pronounce the
words Columbia and America they utter
tribute to Catholicism. Other men of the
same faith, followed by the grave spanish
soldiers, bore the holy cross of their belief to
all parts of the Western Hemisphere.
OF course we have all heard of Calico and
his retraction. He has been held up for ages
as evidence OF the church's hostility to
science. Galileo's error was not in spreading
his theory of the earth's motion around the
sun, but in attempting TO prove 1t in scriptural
argument.
This the church considered as an intrusion
into her own realms and he was called upon
to cease. He refused to do so and was con-
| fined for while al Rome in a palace. The
weird tales OF his Imprisonment in dreary
dungeon and his dread experience there fall
to the ground. Afterward Calico was given
pension by the Catholic church and enjoyed
this gilt all his remaining life
What OF Keppler and Tycho Brahe the Protes
tant astronomers OF Germany and Denmark
respectively? Because of their theories Oh the
same line of those of Galileo they were forced
! to flee from their Lutheran countrymen and
take refuge In Catholic countries, where they
were well treated and honored. When you
names of Keppler and Tycho Brahe.
When the Gregorian calendar was estab-
lished in Rome, correcting an error in time
and adopted by Catholic countries, Protestant
England and Germany bitterly opposed it. and
long fterward computed time twelve days be-
hind the age.
Two great men died recently-Huxley, the
hagnostic, and Pasteur, the Catholic. The for
mer, with mind so clear that he could make
others see as clearly rs he, yet knew nothing
of future state, and thought all men were
matter, to return to the elements.
He died, and we cannot point to anything
he did or discovered to make life easier for his
fellows. How 1t was with Pasteur all men can
answer. man believing in God, in search
ing the works of God will reach the highest
point In the learning of the world.