The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-09-19
"THosE USELESS MONKS"

There was once professor who
used to close his lectures with the
pathetic words: priests and monks
are good for nothing: they always
hated science, art and progress; their
schools are poor and all the books
published by Catholics are of no value,
and when a young man cannot become
anything else, he studies for the priest
hood"
One day, after school, a student by
the name of Sepp called on the pro-
fessor Sepp was bright and intel
ligent young fellow and could not be
easily bluffed. He went to the pro-
fessor's room and said gently: PRO
lessor, l have some difficulties that
worry me ever since l attended your
lectures. Will you kindly help me
to remove them?"
why not, dear friend, with the
greatest of pleasure. Certainly will"
only some questions, Professor.
Who preserved for us the classics?
How is it possible that those valuable
writings of the Greeks and Romans
did not get lost during the barbarism
of the Dark Ages?"
Monks copied them, and thus they
have been saved"
What, Professor? Monks, you say,
copied them?"
Yes, my friend, and especially the
Benedictines."
so, monks copied the old codes and
saved them for us. Indeed, that must
have been a very troublesome work.
Was it not? And probably many
monk caught consumption from the
library dust? Well, l am surprised.
Strange times and curious monks to
spend their lives copying letter after
letter from Livy, Caesar, Cicero, Vir-
gil, Ovid, Homer, DemOsthenes, etc.
And how those codes look Carefully
written just like painted and the in
itials are in fact fine piece of art.
oh, these monks! Wait, Professor, it
is true that without the priests we
would not have a Columbus and
Vasco de Cana? A monk, Fra Mauro,
history tells us, made that costly map
which gave Columbus the first i'm
pulse to the discovery of the New
World?"
1T is true, but somebody else could
have drawn such map, too"
"Of course. Why should the monks
and priests alone have those great
ideas? Listen, Professor, l also read
that Pope introduced the graceful
Arabic figures in arithmetic and abol-
ished those clumsy Roman charac-
ters."
We'll, my boy, Pope Sylvester II.
introduced them, but somebody else
could have done the same thing If the
POpes were not always so ambitious"
Again, history teaches that monk
invented the telescope and the micro
scope, but this hardly can be true?
The monks want to claim all inven-
tiOns."
We'll, my boy, it is believed by
many authorities that the theory of
both the telescope and the microscope
was known to the Franciscan Roger
Bacon, but remember, he was an ex-
ception and what we style a modern
franciscan, and not one of those
bigots and cowl-bearers."
He died in 1892"
He, then, was up-to-date very early,
wasn't he? Besides this, professor,
not long ago l read of the man who
first taught that the sun is stationary
and that the earth revolves about the
sun, and even you, Professor, do not
know whom mean"
''Copernicus, l suppose"
''No, sir Copernicus was not the
first one. Before him the Bishop of
Ratisbon, Regimontanus, was teaching
that theory of planetary revolution"
THAT may be possible"
Excuse me, Professor, why do we
call the age in which literature, arts
and science flourished the golden age
of Leo X?"
why? Because Leo X was an
ardent admirer of classic literature
and magnanimous patron of the arts
and sciences"
You don't say! Leo, Pope, and
at the same time took great interest
in fine arts. Well, l declared"
1T seems to me, fellow, you are
focling me-"