Books: History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science
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John William Draper >> History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science
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Under the inspiration of the Dominicans, Averroes oceanic to the
Italian painters the emblem of unbelief. Many of the Italian
towns had pictures or frescoes of the Day of Judgment and of
Hell. In these Averroes not unfrequently appears. Thus, in one at
Pisa, he figures with Arius, Mohammed, and Antichrist. In another
he is represented as overthrown by St. Thomas. He had become an
essential element in the triumphs of the great Dominican doctor.
He continued thus to be familiar to the Italian painters until
the sixteenth century. His doctrines were maintained in the
University of Padua until the seventeenth.
Such is, in brief, the history of Averroism as it invaded Europe
from Spain. Under the auspices of Frederick II., it, in a less
imposing manner, issued from Sicily. That sovereign bad adopted
it fully. In his "Sicilian Questions" he had demanded light on
the eternity of the world, and on the nature of the soul, and
supposed he had found it in the replies of Ibn Sabin, an upholder
of these doctrines. But in his conflict with the papacy be was
overthrown, and with him these heresies were destroyed.
In Upper Italy, Averroism long maintained its ground. It was so
fashionable in high Venetian society that every gentleman felt
constrained to profess it. At length the Church took decisive
action against it. The Lateran Council, A.D. 1512, condemned the
abettors of these detestable doctrines to be held as heretics and
infidels. As we have seen, the late Vatican Council has
anathematized them. Notwithstanding that stigma, it is to be
borne in mind that these opinions are held to be true by a
majority of the human race.
CHAPTER VI.
CONFLICT RESPECTING THE NATURE OF THE WORLD.
Scriptural view of the world: the earth a flat surface; location
of heaven and hell.
Scientific view: the earth a globe; its size determined; its
position in and relations to the solar system.--The three great
voyages.--Columbus, De Gama, Magellan.--Circumnavigation of the
earth.--Determination of its curvature by the measurement of a
degree and by the pendulum.
The discoveries of Copernicus.--Invention of the
telescope.--Galileo brought before the Inquisition.--His
punishment.--Victory over the Church.
Attempts to ascertain the dimensions of the solar
system.--Determination of the sun's parallax by the transits of
Venus.--Insignificance, of the earth and man.
Ideas respecting the dimensions of the universe.--Parallax of the
stars.-- The plurality of worlds asserted by Bruno.--He is seized
and murdered by the Inquisition.
I HAVE now to present the discussions that arose respecting the
third great philosophical problem--the nature of the world.
An uncritical observation of the aspect of Nature persuades us
that the earth is an extended level surface which sustains the
dome of the sky, a firmament dividing the waters above from the
waters beneath; that the heavenly bodies--the sun, the moon, the
stars--pursue their way, moving from east to west, their
insignificant size and motion round the motionless earth
proclaiming their inferiority. Of the various organic forms
surrounding man none rival him in dignity, and hence he seems
justified in concluding that every thing has been created for his
use--the sun for the purpose of giving him light by day, the moon
and stars by night.
Comparative theology shows us that this is the conception of
Nature universally adopted in the early phase of intellectual
life. It is the belief of all nations in all parts of the world
in the beginning of their civilization: geocentric, for it makes
the earth the centre of the universe; anthropocentric, for it
makes man the central object of the earth. And not only is this
the conclusion spontaneously come to from inconsiderate glimpses
of the world, it is also the philosophical basis of various
religious revelations, vouchsafed to man from time to time. These
revelations, moreover, declare to him that above the crystalline
dome of the sky is a region of eternal light and
happiness--heaven--the abode of God and the angelic hosts,
perhaps also his own abode after death; and beneath the earth a
region of eternal darkness and misery, the habitation of those
that are evil. In the visible world is thus seen a picture of the
invisible.
On the basis of this view of the structure of the world great
religious systems have been founded, and hence powerful material
interests have been engaged in its support. These have resisted,
sometimes by resorting to bloodshed, attempts that have been made
to correct its incontestable errors--a resistance grounded on the
suspicion that the localization of heaven and hell and the
supreme value of man in the universe might be affected.
That such attempts would be made was inevitable. As soon as men
began to reason on the subject at all, they could not fail to
discredit the assertion that the earth is an indefinite plane. No
one can doubt that the sun we see to-day is the self-same sun
that we saw yesterday. His reappearance each morning irresistibly
suggests that he has passed on the underside of the earth. But
this is incompatible with the reign of night in those regions. It
presents more or less distinctly the idea of the globular form of
the earth.
The earth cannot extend indefinitely downward; for the sun cannot
go through it, nor through any crevice or passage in it, Since he
rises and sets in different positions at different seasons of the
year. The stars also move under it in countless courses. There
must, therefore, be a clear way beneath.
To reconcile revelation with these innovating facts, schemes,
such as that of Cosmas Indicopleustes in his Christian
Topography, were doubtless often adopted. To this in particular
we have had occasion on a former page to refer. It asserted that
in the northern parts of the flat earth there is an immense
mountain, behind which the sun passes, and thus produces night.
At a very remote historical period the mechanism of eclipses had
been discovered. Those of the moon demonstrated that the shadow
of the earth is always circular. The form of the earth must
therefore be globular. A body which in all positions casts a
circular shadow must itself be spherical. Other considerations,
with which every one is now familiar, could not fail to establish
that such is her figure.
But the determination of the shape of the earth by no means
deposed her from her position of superiority. Apparently vastly
larger than all other things, it was fitting that she should be
considered not merely as the centre of the world, but, in truth,
as--the world. All other objects in their aggregate seemed
utterly unimportant in comparison with her.
Though the consequences flowing from an admission of the globular
figure of the earth affected very profoundly existing theological
ideas, they were of much less moment than those depending on a
determination of her size. It needed but an elementary knowledge
of geometry to perceive that correct ideas on this point could be
readily obtained by measuring a degree on her surface. Probably
there were early attempts to accomplish this object, the results
of which have been lost. But Eratosthenes executed one between
Syene and Alexandria, in Egypt, Syene being supposed to be
exactly under the tropic of Cancer. The two places are, however,
not on the same meridian, and the distance between them was
estimated, not measured. Two centuries later, Posidonius made
another attempt between Alexandria and Rhodes; the bright star
Canopus just grazed the horizon at the latter place, at
Alexandria it rose 7 1/2 degrees. In this instance, also, since
the direction lay across the sea, the distance was estimated, not
measured. Finally, as we have already related, the Khalif
Al-Mamun made two sets of measures, one on the shore of the Red
Sea, the other near Cufa, in Mesopotamia. The general result of
these various observations gave for the earth's diameter between
seven and eight thousand miles.
This approximate determination of the size of the earth tended to
depose her from her dominating position, and gave rise to very
serious theological results. In this the ancient investigations
of Aristarchus of Samos, one of the Alexandrian school, 280 B.C.,
powerfully aided. In his treatise on the magnitudes and distances
of the sun and moon, he explains the ingenious though imperfect
method to which he had resorted for the solution of that problem.
Many ages previously a speculation had been brought from India to
Europe by Pythagoras. It presented the sun as the centre of the
system. Around him the planets revolved in circular orbits, their
order of position being Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, each of them being supposed to rotate on its axis as it
revolved round the sun. According to Cicero, Nicetas suggested
that, if it were admitted that the earth revolves on her axis,
the difficulty presented by the inconceivable velocity of the
heavens would be avoided.
There is reason to believe that the works of Aristarchus, in the
Alexandrian Library, were burnt at the time of the fire of
Caesar. The only treatise of his that has come down to us is that
above mentioned, on the size and distance of the sun and moon.
Aristarchus adopted the Pythagorean system as representing the
actual facts. This was the result of a recognition of the sun's
amazing distance, and therefore of his enormous size. The
heliocentric system, thus regarding the sun as the central orb,
degraded the earth to a very subordinate rank, making her only
one of a company of six revolving bodies.
But this is not the only contribution conferred on astronomy by
Aristarchus, for, considering that the movement of the earth does
not sensibly affect the apparent position of the stars, he
inferred that they are incomparably more distant from us than the
sun. He, therefore, of all the ancients, as Laplace remarks, had
the most correct ideas of the grandeur of the universe. He saw
that the earth is of absolutely insignificant size, when compared
with the stellar distances. He saw, too, that there is nothing
above us but space and stars.
But the views of Aristarchus, as respects the emplacement of the
planetary bodies, were not accepted by antiquity; the system
proposed by Ptolemy, and incorporated in his "Syntaxis," was
universally preferred. The physical philosophy of those times was
very imperfect--one of Ptolemy's objections to the Pythagorean
system being that, if the earth were in motion, it would leave
the air and other light bodies behind it. He therefore placed the
earth in the central position, and in succession revolved round
her the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn;
beyond the orbit of Saturn came the firmament of the fixed stars.
As to the solid crystalline spheres, one moving from east to
west, the other from north to south, these were a fancy of
Eudoxus, to which Ptolemy does not allude.
The Ptolemaic system is, therefore, essentially a geocentric
system. It left the earth in her position of superiority, and
hence gave no cause of umbrage to religious opinions, Christian
or Mohammedan. The immense reputation of its author, the signal
ability of his great work on the mechanism of the heavens,
sustained it for almost fourteen hundred years--that is, from the
second to the sixteenth century.
In Christendom, the greater part of this long period was consumed
in disputes respecting the nature of God, and in struggles for
ecclesiastical power. The authority of the Fathers, and the
prevailing belief that the Scriptures contain the sum, of all
knowledge, discouraged any investigation of Nature. If by chance
a passing interest was taken in some astronomical question, it
was at once settled by a reference to such authorities as the
writings of Augustine or Lactantius, not by an appeal to the
phenomena of the heavens. So great was the preference given to
sacred over profane learning that Christianity had been in
existence fifteen hundred years, and had not produced a single
astronomer.
The Mohammedan nations did much better. Their cultivation of
science dates from the capture of Alexandria, A.D. 638. This was
only six years after the death of the Prophet. In less than two
centuries they had not only become acquainted with, but correctly
appreciated, the Greek scientific writers. As we have already
mentioned, by his treaty with Michael III., the khalif Al-Mamun
had obtained a copy of the "Syntaxis" of Ptolemy. He had it
forthwith translated into Arabic. It became at once the great
authority of Saracen astronomy. From this basis the Saracens had
advanced to the solution of some of the most important scientific
problems. They had ascertained the dimensions of the earth; they
had registered or catalogued all the stars visible in their
heavens, giving to those of the larger magnitudes the names they
still bear on our maps and globes; they determined the true
length of the year, discovered astronomical refraction, invented
the pendulum-clock, improved the photometry of the stars,
ascertained the curvilinear path of a ray of light through the
air, explained the phenomena of the horizontal sun and moon, and
why we see those bodies before they have risen and after they
have set; measured the height of the atmosphere, determining it
to be fifty-eight miles; given the true theory of the twilight,
and of the twinkling of the stars. They had built the first
observatory in Europe. So accurate were they in their
observations, that the ablest modern mathematicians have made use
of their results. Thus Laplace, in his "Systeme du Monde,"
adduces the observations of Al-Batagni as affording incontestable
proof of the diminution of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit.
He uses those of Ibn-Junis in his discussion of the obliquity of
the ecliptic, and also in the case of the problems of the greater
inequalities of Jupiter and Saturn.
These represent but a part, and indeed but a small part, of the
services rendered by the Arabian astronomers, in the solution of
the problem of the nature of the world. Meanwhile, such was the
benighted condition of Christendom, such its deplorable
ignorance, that it cared nothing about the matter. Its attention
was engrossed by image-worship, transubstantiation, the merits of
the saints, miracles, shrine-cures.
This indifference continued until the close of the fifteenth
century. Even then there was no scientific inducement. The
inciting motives were altogether of a different kind. They
originated in commercial rivalries, and the question of the shape
of the earth was finally settled by three sailors, Columbus, De
Gama, and, above all, by Ferdinand Magellan.
The trade of Eastern Asia has always been a source of immense
wealth to the Western nations who in succession have obtained it.
In the middle ages it had centred in Upper Italy. It was
conducted along two lines--a northern, by way of the Black and
Caspian Seas, and camel-caravans beyond--the headquarters of this
were at Genoa; and a southern, through the Syrian and Egyptian
ports, and by the Arabian Sea, the headquarters of this being at
Venice. The merchants engaged in the latter traffic had also made
great gains in the transport service of the Crusade-wars.
The Venetians had managed to maintain amicable relations with the
Mohammedan powers of Syria and Egypt; they were permitted to have
consulates at Alexandria and Damascus, and, notwithstanding the
military commotions of which those countries had been the scene,
the trade was still maintained in a comparatively flourishing
condition. But the northern or Genoese line had been completely
broken up by the irruptions of the Tartars and the Turks, and the
military and political disturbances of the countries through
which it passed. The Eastern trade of Genoa was not merely in a
precarious condition--it was on the brink of destruction.
The circular visible horizon and its dip at sea, the gradual
appearance and disappearance of ships in the offing, cannot fail
to incline intelligent sailors to a belief in the globular figure
of the earth. The writings of the Mohammedan astronomers and
philosophers had given currency to that doctrine throughout
Western Europe, but, as might be expected, it was received with
disfavor by theologians. When Genoa was thus on the very brink of
ruin, it occurred to some of her mariners that, if this view were
correct, her affairs might be re- established. A ship sailing
through the straits of Gibraltar westward, across the Atlantic,
would not fail to reach the East Indies. There were apparently
other great advantages. Heavy cargoes might be transported
without tedious and expensive land-carriage, and without breaking
bulk.
Among the Genoese sailors who entertained these views was
Christopher Columbus.
He tells us that his attention was drawn to this subject by the
writings of Averroes, but among his friends he numbered
Toscanelli, a Florentine, who had turned his attention to
astronomy, and had become a strong advocate of the globular form.
In Genoa itself Columbus met with but little encouragement. He
then spent many years in trying to interest different princes in
his proposed attempt. Its irreligious tendency was pointed out by
the Spanish ecclesiastics, and condemned by the Council of
Salamanca; its orthodoxy was confuted from the Pentateuch, the
Psalms, the Prophecies, the Gospels, the Epistles, and the
writings of the Fathers--St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St.
Jerome, St. Gregory, St. Basil, St Ambrose.
At length, however, encouraged by the Spanish Queen Isabella, and
substantially aided by a wealthy seafaring family, the Pinzons of
Palos, some of whom joined him personally, he sailed on August 3,
1492, with three small ships, from Palos, carrying with him a
letter from King Ferdinand to the Grand-Khan of Tartary, and also
a chart, or map, constructed on the basis of that of Toscanelli.
A little before midnight, October 11, 1492, he saw from the
forecastle of his ship a moving light at a distance. Two hours
subsequently a signal- gun from another of the ships announced
that they had descried land. At sunrise Columbus landed in the
New World.
On his return to Europe it was universally supposed that he had
reached the eastern parts of Asia, and that therefore his voyage
bad been theoretically successful. Columbus himself died in that
belief. But numerous voyages which were soon undertaken made
known the general contour of the American coast-line, and the
discovery of the Great South Sea by Balboa revealed at length the
true facts of the case, and the mistake into which both
Toscanelli and Columbus had fallen, that in a voyage to the West
the distance from Europe to Asia could not exceed the distance
passed over in a voyage from Italy to the Gulf of Guinea--a
voyage that Columbus had repeatedly made.
In his first voyage, at nightfall on September 13, 1492, being
then two and a half degrees east of Corvo, one of the Azores,
Columbus observed that the compass needles of the ships no longer
pointed a little to the east of north, but were varying to the
west. The deviation became more and more marked as the expedition
advanced. He was not the first to detect the fact of variation,
but he was incontestably the first to discover the line of no
variation. On the return-voyage the reverse was observed; the
variation westward diminished until the meridian in question was
reached, when the needles again pointed due north. Thence, as the
coast of Europe was approached, the variation was to the east.
Columbus, therefore, came to the conclusion that the line of no
variation was a fixed geographical line, or boundary, between the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres. In the bull of May, 1493, Pope
Alexander VI. accordingly adopted this line as the perpetual
boundary between the possessions of Spain and Portugal, in his
settlement of the disputes of those nations. Subsequently,
however, it was discovered that the line was moving eastward. It
coincided with the meridian of London in 1662.
By the papal bull the Portuguese possessions were limited to the
east of the line of no variation. Information derived from
certain Egyptian Jews had reached that government, that it was
possible to sail round the continent of Africa, there being at
its extreme south a cape which could be easily doubled. An
expedition of three ships under Vasco de Gama set sail, July 9,
1497; it doubled the cape on November 20th, and reached Calicut,
on the coast of India, May 19, 1498. Under the bull, this voyage
to the East gave to the Portuguese the right to the India trade.
Until the cape was doubled, the course of De Gama's ships was in
a general manner southward. Very soon, it was noticed that the
elevation of the pole-star above the horizon was diminishing,
and, soon after the equator was reached, that star had ceased to
be visible. Meantime other stars, some of them forming
magnificent constellations, had come into view--the stars of the
Southern Hemisphere. All this was in conformity to theoretical
expectations founded on the admission of the globular form of the
earth.
The political consequences that at once ensued placed the Papal
Government in a position of great embarrassment. Its traditions
and policy forbade it to admit any other than the flat figure of
the earth, as revealed in the Scriptures. Concealment of the
facts was impossible, sophistry was unavailing. Commercial
prosperity now left Venice as well as Genoa. The front of Europe
was changed. Maritime power had departed from the Mediterranean
countries, and passed to those upon the Atlantic coast.
But the Spanish Government did not submit to the advantage thus
gained by its commercial rival without an effort. It listened to
the representations of one Ferdinand Magellan, that India and the
Spice Islands could be reached by sailing to the west, if only a
strait or passage through what had now been recognized as "the
American Continent" could be discovered; and, if this should be
accomplished, Spain, under the papal bull, would have as good a
right to the India trade as Portugal. Under the command of
Magellan, an expedition of five ships, carrying two hundred and
thirty- seven men, was dispatched from Seville, August 10, 1519.
Magellan at once struck boldly for the South American coast,
hoping to find some cleft or passage through the continent by
which he might reach the great South Sea. For seventy days he was
becalmed on the line; his sailors were appalled by the
apprehension that they had drifted into a region where the winds
never blew, and that it was impossible for them to escape. Calms,
tempests, mutiny, desertion, could not shake his resolution.
After more than a year he discovered the strait which now bears
his name, and, as Pigafetti, an Italian, who was with him,
relates, he shed fears of joy when he found that it had pleased
God at length to bring him where he might grapple with the
unknown dangers of the South Sea, "the Great and Pacific Ocean."
Driven by famine to eat scraps of skin and leather with which his
rigging was here and there bound, to drink water that had gone
putrid, his crew dying of hunger and scurvy, this man, firm in
his belief of the globular figure of the earth, steered steadily
to the northwest, and for nearly four months never saw inhabited
land. He estimated that he had sailed over the Pacific not less
than twelve thousand miles. He crossed the equator, saw once more
the pole-star, and at length made land--the Ladrones. Here he met
with adventurers from Sumatra. Among these islands he was killed,
either by the savages or by his own men. His lieutenant,
Sebastian d'Elcano, now took command of the ship, directing her
course for the Cape of Good Hope, and encountering frightful
hardships. He doubled the cape at last, and then for the fourth
time crossed the equator. On September 7, 1522, after a voyage of
more than three years, he brought his ship, the San Vittoria, to
anchor in the port of St. Lucar, near Seville. She had
accomplished the greatest achievement in the history of the human
race. She had circumnavigated the earth.
The San Vittoria, sailing westward, had come back to her
starting-point. Henceforth the theological doctrine of the
flatness of the earth was irretrievably overthrown.
Five years after the completion of the voyage of Magellan, was
made the first attempt in Christendom to ascertain the size of
the earth. This was by Fernel, a French physician, who, having
observed the height of the pole at Paris, went thence northward
until be came to a place where the height of the pole was exactly
one degree more than at that city. He measured the distance
between the two stations by the number of revolutions of one of
the wheels of his carriage, to which a proper indicator bad been
attached, and came to the conclusion that the earth's
circumference is about twenty-four thousand four hundred and
eighty Italian miles.
Measures executed more and more carefully were made in many
countries: by Snell in Holland; by Norwood between London and
York in England; by Picard, under the auspices of the French
Academy of Sciences, in France. Picard's plan was to connect two
points by a series of triangles, and, thus ascertaining the
length of the arc of a meridian intercepted between them, to
compare it with the difference of latitudes found from celestial
observations. The stations were Malvoisine in the vicinity of
Paris, and Sourdon near Amiens. The difference of latitudes was
determined by observing the zenith-distances, of delta
Cassiopeia. There are two points of interest connected with
Picard's operation: it was the first in which instruments
furnished with telescopes were employed; and its result, as we
shall shortly see, was to Newton the first confirmation of the
theory of universal gravitation.
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