Catholic Churchmen in Science [First Series]: Sketches of the Lives of Catholic Ecclesiastics Who Were Among the Great Founders in ScienceWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Religion
Catholic Churchmen in Science [First Series]: Sketches of the Lives of Catholic Ecclesiastics Who Were Among the Great Founders in Science
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Catholics; Religion and science; Scientists -- Biography
Caius, the distinguished English physician and scholar, himself one of
the best known members of the Royal College of Physicians and the
founder of Caius College, Cambridge, sketches {107} Linacre's
character (he had as a young man known him personally) in very
sympathetic vein. As Dr. Caius was one of the greatest Englishmen of
his time in the middle of the sixteenth century, his opinion must
carry great weight. It is to him that we owe the famous epitaph that
for long in old St. Paul's, London, was to be read on Linacre's
tombstone:--
"_Fraudes dolosque mire perosus, fidus amicis, omnibus ordinibus
juxta carus_. A stern hater of deceit and underhand ways, faithful
to his friends, equally dear to all classes,"
Surely this is a worthy tribute to the great physician, clergyman,
scholar, and philanthropist of the eve of the Reformation in England.
{108}
V.
FATHER KIRCHER, S.J.:
SCIENTIST, ORIENTALIST, AND COLLECTOR.
{109}
Oportet autem neque recentiores viros in his fraudare quae vel
repererunt vel recte secuti sunt; et tamen ea quae apud antiquiores
aliquos posita sunt auctoribus suis reddere.--CELSUS _de Medicina_.
{110}
[Illustration: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER]
{111}
V.
FATHER KIRCHER, S.J.: SCIENTIST, ORIENTALIST, AND COLLECTOR.
Except in the minds of the unconquerably intolerant, the Galileo
controversy has in recent years settled down to occupy something of
its proper place in the history of the supposed conflict between
religion and science. In touching the subject in the life of
Copernicus we suggested that it has come to be generally recognized,
as M. Bertrand, the perpetual Secretary of the Paris Academy of
Sciences, himself a distinguished mathematician and historian,
declares, that "the great lesson for those who would wish to oppose
reason with violence was clearly to be read in Galileo's story, and
the scandal of his condemnation was learned without any profound
sorrow to Galileo himself; and his long life, considered as a whole,
was the most serene and enviable in the history of science." Somehow,
notwithstanding the directness of this declaration, there is still
left in the minds of many an impression rather difficult to eradicate
that there was definite, persistent opposition to everything
associated with scientific progress among the churchmen of the time of
Galileo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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