The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-03-12
che Uorld's Debt TO
mondsfic Institutions

Rev. Walter j. Shanlcy, rector OF st. Joseph's
cathedral Hartford Conn, recently lectured before
the Cathedral Iyceum. His topic was The
Achievements of Science in the Middle Ages" We
reproduce synopsis from the Catholic Transcript
The middle ages We're, according to Ruskin, Gan
age which eminently productive of, eminently
under the governance and guidance of, men of the
widest and most brilliant faculties constructive and
speculatiye-men whose acts had become the ro-
nance, whose thoughts the wisdom and whose arts
the treasure of 1000 years" TO that age we are
indebted for the correct system of scientific study
developed by Catholic scientists who were the pio
neerS and most active as well as the most success
full workers III every branch of science. CARLYLE
tells us that in the monastic institutions of those
ages Nearly all the inventions and civil institu-
tions by which yet live as civilized men were
originated and perfected Even Tyndal avowed
that the nineteenth century struck It's roots into
the centuries gone by, and drew nutriment from
them
To the great universities between the twelfth
and sixteenth centuries when the church welded
Its greatest authority owe the inductive and ex-
perimental method of study which has contributed
SO materially to the advancement of natural and
physical science. We owe it to Gerbert, afterward
Pope Sylvester who lived in the tenth century, and
to Albertus Magnus and not to Lord Bacon. Dur
ing the GOO years that the schools of Athens -four
ished, less was done in physical science than Cali
leo accomplished in his career. In astronomy
mathematics, chemistry, music and architecture
the church in the middle ages.
Ie Cofperncus, priest and canon, the world
Is indebted for the discovery of the planetary re-
youions around the.sun. Calico invented the tel
escope His disciples, Cassini, Meraldi, Castelli
Benchin continued his work in astronomy and
other branches of science. The discoveries made by
the Jesuit DE ilco have made him one of the most
renowned astronomers in the worlds history, For
the first fifteen centuries nearly all the astrono-
mers of note were eeclesiasties. Arithmetic as
science was originated by Gerhert, afterwards Pope
Sylvester. A Franciscan friar of Venice published
the first work in algebra in 1894 The art of print
ing or the press was invented by Lawrence Cester,
chaplain of the cathedral of Harlem, in 1896, but
printing by hand was done in the tenth century.
The science of music owes its origin to an Italian
monk Guido of Arezzo, who determined the scale
in 1924. His solmzatien the use of ut, re, mi, fa
SOL fa was originated by the use of the syllables of
the first words OF the vespep hymn for the feast of
ST. John the Baptist.
Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar In
these alleged days of ignorance, Galyino, monk
of Pisa, invented spectacles, most efficient aid to
pursuits of study, III the year 1885. Schwartz, a
monk of Cologne, invented gunpowder in 1920.
Proeepius Diwisoh Bohemian monk, discovered
the identity of electricity from metallic points He
was the inventor of the first lightning rod, and
was working on his great discoveries when Renja-
min Franklin was learning the elements of cleo
tricity from Dr. Spence. So in regard to the steam
yout Catholic patented a steam engine 109 years
before Watt took out his first patent. Blasco de
Garay. Spanish sea captain exhibited boat pro-
PEELED by steam in the harbor of Barcelona in 1549,
nearly 800 years before Robert Fulton. A Catho-
lie professor of the university of Louvain first
used gas to light his lecture rooms. The first cleo
trio lamp invented by Leon Faucault in 1646.
The carbon for electric lights the invention of
NJ Care. The first storage battery is the work of
CASTOR Piaut, member of the Catholic Scientific
society of Brussels.
Mozart, Palestrina and Cherubini are recog |
nized masters of music. They were sons of the
church So We're Raphael, Fra Angelica Leonar
do Da Vinci, Domenchico, Murillo, the great paint
ers, and Canora, the eminent sculptor, likewise
Michael Angelo, the master architect, painter and
sculptor. The most magnificent structures of Eu-
rope, all the triumphs of architectural SKILL of
medieval conception and execution, and the product
of the spirit that made religion the master impulse
of society, The wonderful picture windows which
ldorn these monuments of the faith of the middle
lges and which are now lost art, were introduced
)y the church i'll the twelfth century, to teach the
'aithful the great lessons inculcated III holy writ.
Gladstone, the celebrated statesman and scholar
oortrays in one sentence all that history might say
III this subject when he declares that "Since the
irst 800 years of persecution the Roman Catholic
church has marched for loo years at the head
If human civilization, and has driven harnessed to
chariot, the horses of triumphal car. the chief
and material forces of the world; its
arts. the art of the world: its genius, the genius of
he world is greatness. glory and majesty have
been almost all that in these respects the world has
lad to boast Of"