rnicus above that of the Holy Spirit?" Turretin, Calvin's famous
successor, even after Kepler and Newton had virtually completed the
theory of Copernicus and Galileo, put forth his compendium of theology,
in which he proved, from a multitude of scriptural texts, that the
heavens, sun, and moon move about the earth, which stands still in the
centre. In England we see similar theological efforts, even after they
had become evidently futile. Hutchinson's Moses's Principia, Dr. Samuel
Pike's Sacred Philosophy, the writings of Horne, Bishop Horsley, and
President Forbes contain most earnest attacks upon the ideas of Newton,
such attacks being based upon Scripture. Dr. John Owen, so famous in
the annals of Puritanism, declared the Copernican system a "delusive
and arbitrary hypothesis, contrary to Scripture"; and even John Wesley
declared the new ideas to "tend toward infidelity."(51)

(51) On the teachings on Protestantism as regards the Copernican theory,
see citations in Canon Farrar's History of Interpretation, preface,
xviii; also Rev. Dr. Shields, of Princeton, The Final Philosophy, pp.
60, 61.

And Protestant peoples were not a whit behind Catholic in following out
such teachings. The people of Elbing made themselves merry over a farce
in which Copernicus was the main object of ridicule. The people of
Nuremberg, a Protestant stronghold, caused a medal to be struck with
inscriptions ridiculing the philosopher and his theory.

Why the people at large took this view is easily understood when we note
the attitude of the guardians of learning, both Catholic and Protestant,
in that age. It throws great light upon sundry claims by modern
theologians to take charge of public instruction and of the evolution
of science. So important was it thought to have "sound learning" guarded
and "safe science" taught, that in many of the universities, as late as
the end of the seventeenth century, professors were forced to take an
oath not to hold the "Pythagorean"--that is, the Copernican--idea as to
the movement of the heavenly bodies. As the contest went on, professors
were forbidden to make known to students the facts revealed by
the telescope. Special orders to this effect were issued by the
ecclesiastical authorities to the universities and colleges of Pisa,
Innspruck, Louvain, Douay, Salamanca, and others. During generations we
find the authorities of these Universities boasting that these godless
doctrines were kept away