“We will never recognise the decrees of the Congregation of the Index. We propose to maintain the traditions of the French State and of the Gallic Church. Where would the State be if the decisions of the body which has placed its interdict upon the great spirits of mankind, such as Descartes, Malebranche, Kant, Renan, and has even condemned the Dictionary of Bouillet, should be accepted as the law of the land?... The ground that has been assigned for the condemnation of the Handbook of Compayré was the statement contained in it ‘that it was more important for the French child to know the names of the Kings of France than those of the Kings of Judea.’... The Index-decree went over the head of the Ambassador in Rome and of the Nuncius in Paris, in order to start a conflagration in our State. “In a manual by André Berthet, published in 1882, (which did _not_ find its way into the Index), stand the following questions: ‘What is God? I know not. What becomes of us after death? I know not. Are you not ashamed of your ignorance? One need not be ashamed not to know what has not yet been known to any one.’” [Sidenote: The Church and Science] Father Searle (writing in 1895) maintains that the Church does not prohibit Catholics who are competent to undertake scientific investigation, from so doing. She places absolutely no obstacle in the way of their penetrating into all the facts of nature as it stands or of their considering the probable indications as to its past history or of their weighing actual historical testimony.... The Church forbids, as against reason, common-sense, and the welfare of man, liberty of thought on matters, whether in the material or spiritual order, which have been clearly demonstrated and definitely ascertained; she refuses to abandon it on those matters which are still open to reasonable question, as is the case with certain scientific hypotheses not as yet proven.[183] Such a statement, if accepted to-day as authoritative, would make it evident that the policy of the Church in the 20th century has changed very materially from the policy that was in force, with some strenuousness, in the 16th and 17th centuries.