The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-02-04

formitv to the laws, which have the divine com.
mandS as their model. Every government must -,
ercise its authority by law, i. G., be governed BIZ @
The law is supreme and not subject to tine rrhi
trary Will OF any individual. Hence I'm RMS
where the law is subject to the ear and his ar
ers, the government Is not free. With Us ii f. ,-,
different. The ruling powers command or f,ar,,,,
only what the mmutable laws of Justice RICH, AMI
truth command and permit. thereby guqraut...r,
tull liberty to all its citizens.
i ms leads up to the question which the writer
wishes to explain, namely. the authority of .L
church as exercised against Calico But few. Ill.,
torlcal facts have been more misrcprtscutod -r..,
the attitude of the church toward Calico aim. .ro
Copernlcan theory. We are told he was condemned
and imprisoned for daring to approach tine rcr.,.
centric system. This theory waI taught I'M Rom. E.
Nicholas Cusanus, cardinal of the church. ,l.
was born at the beginning of the fifteenth c,u.ar.
and died IN 1851, century before Calico SAW tho.
hight of day Coperncus graduate of Bo.l,r
and professor of astronomy ut Rome, taught t4.
same i'll 1900, and gave public lectures ON the .I,h
Ject CopernIcus was a Catholic canon. An..H...
prominent Catholic, Leonardo da Nnci I'M fsru
connected the theory of fallen bodies with ra,
earths motion, thing then generally received
Was Cusauus, who died before Calico was born
condemned for teaching that the earth moves. ta.
sun Is at rest = No, on the contrary, the ~upran.
pontif, Nicholas v created him a cardinal Was
No, but he was honorcd by the pope, who rcqua--.I
him to lend his valuable assistance in reforming
the calendar. This humble Polish priest bcr.fr of
means, after resgnng his professorship. ], pro-
rlded with a suitable retreat ard ample mean, 70
prosecute his studies, and establishing the hello
centric system, which not at all new The an
cient Greeks were aware of the earths rotuudiy.
It's isolated existence in space also that ii moved
Its movement Aristotle and Ptolmey strove To r,-
flute. Cicero informs Us that Nicetas maintained
the motion of the earth; and Seneca wrote that
ut Is we'll to inquire whether the rest of the universe
moves around stationary earth, or whether tine
earth moves III stationary universe. \lrgIIu>,
Irish bishop, in the eighth century, taught that
the opposite end of the universe was inhabited.
With this knowledge so universal and ancient i'm
the time of Calico how suppose the church would
or could condemn him or his system, knowing that
She never did or could propose any system of mere
physical science as matter of faith
Why. then. was Calico condemned or censured!
CD Because in establishing the Copemican syS-
tenn he spoke irreverenty of the sacred scriptures,
and (2), because when asked TO continue his re-
search, without referring to the teaching of the
Bible, he nsolenty refused to obey the authority of
the church, and persisted In scandalizing the SIM
ple-minded, innocent people by irrevercntIy ques-
tionng the veracity of the scriptures. Why should
Professionals who profess to honor and. reverence
the sacred scriptures take exception to the attitude
of the pope in condemning Galileo's lrreverence
toward the Biblel Has not their attitude. in con-
demning lngersoll and others for similar reason,
been more severe!
But Calico was imprisoned say the enemies of
the pope and as enmitv takes precedence always
of reverence to the scriptures historical facts,
we are told that this Imprisonment establishes the
fact of religious persecution The "lmprison-
ment' consisted in sending Calico to the palace
of his personal and particular friend, the Tuscan
ambassador. Whilst prisoner Calico wrote to a
friend, the letter is still extant: Il have for a
prison the delightful palace Of Trinita de Monte.
Still later he also wrote: "Afterward they sent me
to my best friend the archbishop of Vienna, and l
have always enjoyed the utmost tranquility ii
the modern critic of historical facts is willing 10
rest the case the testimony OF the prisoner thS
persecution and imprisonment vanishes like mist
before the sun. The only conclusions to be arrived
at from a critical examination of the history OF
the case are: Cd The hclocentric system was
taught publicly in Rome long before the advent OF
Calico; {2) it Is outside of the province OF the
authority of the Roman pontif to pass judgment
OH questions of astronomy, his lnfallb1lGtF being
confined TO faith and morals. (3) The supposed
of Calico meant that he go INTO
1riet retreat not for making any new discovery,
for he made none, but for his IrreVerence toward
he sacred scriptures, and scandalAng the taltl-
rnI (A What IS termed religious persecution IN
he case of Calico, in last analysis, means that the
Catholic church, which was always the custodian
IF the Bible, for which she had the most profound
.everence did not wish to see it held up to rd1cue
w Calico. who maintained that 1t was opposed TO
MS system and that It's teaching could not be rec
,ncied with new development OF astronomy heS1
conclusions are fair resume of the "Galleo con
roversy" and they show that religious persecu-
ion" is simply myth. T. u