Evolution and creation

by Herbert Junius Hardwicke

During the period of quiet which followed a certain priest of Thuringia, Bernhardt by name, created a great sensation in central Europe by declaring that the end of the world was fast approaching; that the prophecy contained in the twentieth chapter of Revelation would be fulfilled on December 31st, in the year 1000—or possibly immediately before that time—when the devil would be unbound; and that unutterable calamity or annihilation would come upon the world. The clergy quickly followed suit, and as the fearful day approached every church and cloister in Europe resounded with the frantic appeals of the monks and priests for their flocks to prepare for the awful doom. Europe was turned upside down; business was suspended; kings, princes, senators, nobles, and peasants all alike left their occupations to seek refuge in some holy sanctuary against the coming event. As the dread moment approached there was not a church or convent in Europe that was not crowded to suffocation, the people imagining that, if they were found at the last moment in some consecrated place, their chances of being saved would be better. Hundreds and thousands of these poor wretches never had opportunity of obtaining the coveted shelter, having been bereft of their reason under the awful excitement of the hour. Amid prayer, faintings, hysterical screaming, and chanting of choirs—priests, monarchs, and beggars all huddled together anyhow—the clock struck twelve, and dead silence prevailed. Gradually the people roused themselves from their stupor to find themselves the victims of a cruel hoax. Strange to say, not any attempt was made to punish those who had produced such a melancholy state of things. Kings and nobles had endowed monasteries and churches with lands and wealth, which they believed would soon be of so little use to them, and became suddenly penitent, assuming the monk’s shirt of hair, and otherwise showing evidence of their piety and humility. William of the Long Sword, Duke of Normandy, Hugh Duke of Burgundy, Hugh Count of Arles, the Emperor Henry II., all renounced their wealth and position to become monks. Nobles had left lands and castles to the Church, the deeds being drawn up by monks and witnessed by prelates and sovereigns, as though no day of reckoning was at hand, the form being invariably as follows: “Seeing that the end of the world is now approaching, and that every day accumulates fresh miseries, I, Baron —— (or King ——), for the good of my soul, give to the monastery of ——,” etc. The Church, which before was poor, now became gorged with wealth, and the ignorance and credulity of the people secured the treasures to the now powerful prelates.

During this period of excitement and terror the number of pilgrimages to the Holy Land had enormously increased, so much so that the Saracen masters of Jerusalem, with the view of putting a stop to the now troublesome and inconvenient influx of Christians to the Holy City, commenced to persecute the pilgrims, thus creating a very great ill-feeling against themselves throughout Europe. Peter the Hermit, a monk of Amiens, took up the cause of his ill-treated brethren, and forthwith commenced to preach a holy war against the Saracens of Syria, Pope Urban II. and his priests promising absolution from all sin to those who took up arms against the Infidel. A vast multitude of rabble from all parts of Europe soon started on their march to the Holy Land, being divided into three large armies, one led by Walter the Penniless, another by Peter the Hermit, and the third by Gottschalk, a monk. The armies gave themselves up to unheard-of iniquities, spreading poverty and misery on all sides in their march, braining all who refused to give up their provisions and property to them, and, at last, arriving in Constantinople footsore and diseased, having left two-thirds of their comrades to die of starvation on the road. Crossing over into Syria, they met the Saracen foe, who quickly put an end to their sufferings by annihilating the whole lot. Seven other Crusades followed, one composed altogether of children, who, the priests declared, were to be the inheritors of the Holy Land, it being now apparent that full-grown men were too sinful to conquer the Infidel. The army of children was accordingly shipped off to destroy the Saracen foe, but never reached Palestine, the boys having been sold as slaves, and the girls drafted into Turkish harems. When, at last, Acre surrendered to the Crusaders under Richard Cœur de Lion, the leniency displayed by the Khalif Omar in his capture of Jerusalem in 637 was repaid by 2,700 Saracen hostages being brutally beheaded outside the city walls for the sport of the Christian soldiers. All this time Europe was in a constant state of agitation and alarm, which was further intensified by the revival in 1180 of the doctrines of John Erigena by the Saracen philosopher Averroes, who boldly preached them in Spain, making converts in all directions, among whom was the great Jewish writer, Maimonides, who had been held by the Jews in the highest esteem, and considered second only in wisdom to Moses.

Under the tolerant and liberal rule of the Saracens Averroism made great progress in Spain, where Mohammedans, Christians, and Jews were permitted to live peaceably together, and where philosophical theories were openly and fearlessly taught; but a day of reckoning was at hand. On the death of the Caliph Hakem, Almansor usurped the throne, and, in order to secure his position, entered into a secret treaty with the orthodox section of the Mohammedans, thus establishing a Church and State party of enormous power, which culminated in the expulsion of Averroes from Spain and the suppression of the study of philosophy. Thus were crushed again philosophy and progress in 1198. The Christians of Italy, Germany, and France followed suit, ordering all Averroists to be seized and punished, and shortly afterwards extending the order also to Jews and Mohammedans. From the accession of Almansor dates the downfall of the Mohammedan power in Spain and the commencement of the fearful persecutions of Infidels by the Christian Church, which has left such a dark blot upon the pages of European history.

The Saracen power in Europe was annihilated by Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Inquisition established by Pope Innocent IV. in 1243. For two hundred years it seemed as though philosophy and progress were indeed dead, so relentlessly did the Church persecute all heretics and denounce all scientific studies. But an occurrence took place in 1440 which completely turned the tide of events. In that year the art of printing was introduced into Europe by the Venetians, who had learnt it from the Chinese; and in 1469 it was carried to France, and from thence to all the great cities of the continent. At first the Church paid little heed to the innovation; but it soon became apparent that a dangerous medium had been introduced for intercommunication of the people and their governments, which must lessen the need and importance of a religious medium. Books were only allowed to be published under the supervision of the ecclesiastical authority, and heavy penalties inflicted upon all who attempted to circulate any heretical works. The writings of Averroes, Maimonides, and other heretics, were ordered to be burnt, the doctrines taught by them being declared blasphemous and subversive of all good government. The leading and most learned Jews and Mohammedans in Spain and Southern France were avowed Averroists, and did not shrink from preaching their doctrines in the public thoroughfares; and the infection was extending so rapidly that the Church feared that a great calamity would overtake the orthodox faith unless some steps were taken to put a stop to the heresy. The Inquisition, which had been found so effective in silencing heretics in France, was now utilised for dealing with the Jews and Moors. A cry was made in Castile by the orthodox Christians for the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain, which was immediately taken up by all haters of progress; and so great was the influence brought to bear by the Dominican monk and arch-fiend, Torquemada, upon the Queen Isabella that the Pope was petitioned for a bull, which was issued in 1478, for the detection and suppression of heresy in Spain. The Christian monster, Torquemada, proved himself a worthy agent of the Inquisition, burning at the stake in eighteen years about 10,220 persons of both sexes. Dispensations from the operation of the Inquisition were sold by the Pope to such as could afford to purchase them; and in 1492 all unbaptised Jews, old or young, were ordered by Torquemada to leave Spain within four months, and to leave behind them all those effects they could not sell in the meantime. These poor wretches swarmed in the roads in their thousands, rending the air with their piteous cries, the Christian Spaniards being forbidden to render assistance under penalty of torture. The consequence was that hundreds and thousands of men, women, and children died by the wayside from hunger, thirst, and fatigue. In 1502 a further order was issued at Seville for the Spaniards to drive out of their country every Infidel they could hear of, no matter what the nationality might be. The Moors were particularly indicated in the document, one clause stating that it was justifiable to kill Mohammedans on account of their shameless infidelity. The consequence was that, in a marvellously short space of time, there was not a Mohammedan to be found on the European side of the Straits of Gibraltar. In spite of the precautions made use of by the Christians for the prevention of the study of philosophy and the acquirement of knowledge, the news of the discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, very soon found its way all over Europe, producing the most intense sensation, for the discovery came as a terrific blow to the Church and its inspired Bible. To make matters worse, in 1522 Magellan sailed completely round the world, thus demonstrating conclusively that the earth was a globe.

Matters appeared to be going wrong with the Church, in spite of the recent bloody triumphs of the Inquisition; and the clergy and laity were not slow to notice the turn events were taking. Martin Luther, a young Augustinian monk, in particular, took advantage of the unsettled state of the mind of Europe to make a furious onslaught against the Pope and the Church. Having been told by Cajetan that he must “believe that one single drop of Christ’s blood is sufficient to redeem the whole human race, and the remaining quantity that was shed in the garden and on the cross was left as a legacy to the Pope, to be a treasure from which indulgences were to be drawn,” this young priest declared he never would accept such a doctrine, and commenced forthwith to preach openly against the sale of indulgences, declaring that the Church must stand or fall on the Bible, which taught no such doctrine. The orthodox clergy, on the contrary, declared that the Bible derived its authority from the Church, and not the Church from the Bible, and demanded that Luther should be arrested for heresy. In 1520 the Pope excommunicated the bold monk, who, in return, defiantly burnt the Papal bull, for which he was ordered to appear before the Imperial Diet at Worms, when he deliberately refused to retract. The views of the reformer quickly spread through Switzerland and Germany, Pope Leo thundering forth his anathemas upon all who joined the dangerous movement, until, at length, after many bloody wars and horrible massacres, such as the slaughter of the Huguenots, etc., the Reformation was firmly established, and the Bible became, to the Reformed Church, the only guide to morals and duty. At first, the Pope sullenly submitted to what appeared to be the inevitable; but soon it became apparent that, in order to keep any authority at all over the people, some plan would have to be adopted to curtail the growing influence of the Reformed Church. Accordingly, Pope Paul III., in 1540, established the Society of Jesus, the members of which order were sent abroad all over Europe for the purpose of secretly undermining the influence of the Reformers. Three years afterwards, as if to counteract the evil designs of the Jesuits, there appeared on the scene the celebrated work of Copernicus, which was destined for ever to demolish the geocentric theory of Ptolemy, and to establish the heliocentric philosophy, which taught that the sun was the centre of our system, and that all the planets, including our earth, revolved in regular order round it, and which, of course, called forth a volley of abuse from the Vatican, the theory being declared heretical and its author anathematised. The effect of all this was to cause quite a revolution in thought among the learned of Europe, which gave rise to another schism in the Church, departure being this time from the ranks of the Reformers.

Arianism was once more revived by a number of people, who maintained that the doctrine of the Trinity was un-Scriptural, and that Jesus was but a man like themselves, though endowed with great authority from god. The orthodox and reformed Churches both alike were alarmed at this turn of events, and co-operated to suppress the new heresy, denouncing all philosophical studies, and branding the Unitarians as Infidels. The upshot was that Servetus was burnt to death at the stake by the order of the Trinitarian Calvin, and a check was thereby given to the propagation of the Arian doctrines. It is satisfactory to note that a Unitarian College now stands upon the very spot where Servetus was murdered.

Again progress was arrested, and this time it seemed as though a mortal blow had been dealt at all acquirement of knowledge, for shortly afterwards, in 1559, Pope Paul IV. established the Congregation of the Index Expurgatorius for the purpose of examining all books and manuscripts intended for publication, and of deciding whether the people should read them. The usual counterpoise, however, quickly made its appearance, proving once more that progress cannot be arrested for long.

In 1563 the first newspaper was produced in Venice, which again set the ball of intellect rolling along, never more to be stopped by priest or prince. The new Copernican philosophy was now accepted by many learned men, among whom even were some of the priesthood. Giordano Bruno, an Italian Dominican monk, among others, embraced these truths, and was not afraid to openly teach them, for which daring act he was soon obliged to seek refuge in Switzerland, where he prosecuted his studies for some time in peace. The fiends of the Inquisition, however, soon discovered his whereabouts and drove him into France, then into England, and then back to Germany; in the end arresting him at Venice. He was taken thence to Rome, publicly accused of teaching the plurality of worlds, and burnt at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600. Eighteen years after the murder of this noble Italian, Kepler, of Würtemberg, published his “Epitome of the Copernican System,” in which he demonstrated for the first time that all the heavenly bodies are bound in their courses by various laws. This work, like those of Copernicus and Bruno, was prohibited by the Congregation of the Index Purgatorius, and Kepler himself declared a dangerous infidel. Still, in spite of the fury of the priesthood, Catholic and Reformer alike, the study of the sciences made rapid strides, and in 1632 the venerable Galileo published his “System of the World,” in which he maintained the accuracy of the Copernican theory. For this daring disregard of the Church’s warnings he was summoned to Rome and brought before the Inquisition, accused of having taught that the earth moves round the sun. The poor old man was compelled to kneel on the floor of the court, place his hand on the Bible, and recant, after which he was incarcerated in the prison of the Inquisition, where, ten years afterwards, he died. Still science progressed, and was considerably aided by the rapid increase in the number of newspapers throughout Europe. In 1631 the French Gazette was established, and, soon after, newspapers appeared in all important cities, much to the discomfiture of the Church, whose power was now more seriously imperilled than ever. Confidence was gradually becoming established, and Descartes dared, in 1680, to make an attempt to analyse the mind, declaring that the necessity of universal doubt was the only starting-point of all true philosophy. He was followed, six years later, by Newton, who published his “Principia,” in which he demonstrated the grand truth which has immortalised his name—viz., that all bodies attract each other with forces jointly proportionate to their masses, varying universally as the squares of their distances. Thus was established the great law of universal gravitation, which marks an epoch in the intellectual development of man. Owing to the constantly-recurring feuds between the Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics, this great discovery passed for a while almost unnoticed; but it soon became apparent that the final blow had been given to the old theory of divine intervention in the movements of the universe, and that learned men of all countries were rapidly embracing the Newtonian theory of irreversible laws.

It was, however, now too late for the Church to interfere, for all classes were quickly becoming impressed with the grand theory of gravitation, which was destined for ever to remain the most wonderful discovery of man; and, although the clergy still continued to anathematise all scholars and scientists, the study of nature was pursued with rapidly-increasing enthusiasm, as though to make up for lost time. In 1690 Locke, the physician and philosopher, published his “Essay on the Human Understanding,” in which he declared all human knowledge to be the result of experience, thus entirely upsetting the old theory of intuition. Twenty years later Leibnitz published his work entitled “Theodicée,” in which he endeavoured to solve the difficult problem of existence of evil in the world under the moral government of Deity. These two rival philosophers soon became the leaders of philosophic thought in their respective countries; but barely thirty years had passed away before an iconoclast appeared, in the person of David Hume, who cut away the ground ruthlessly from beneath their feet. His “Treatise on Human Nature,” published in 1739, upset all the philosophical systems of the past, replacing them by the great theory of causation, which was soon accepted by every philosopher and scientist. Kant followed in 1781 with his “Critique of Pure Reason,” in which he submitted matter to analysis, and declared it to be possessed of inherent force.

The other sciences were also joining in the march of progress. Chemistry was fast becoming a settled science; Priestley’s discovery of oxygen, in 1774, had created a great sensation; Cavendish shortly afterwards, in 1783, discovered the constitution of water; and Lavoisier, in 1789, summarised the combined researches of these two chemists and himself in his “Elements of Chemistry,” which at once was recognised as the standard work on the subject. Astronomy had, since Newton’s discovery of gravitation, assumed a more settled condition, but was destined to further modification by the enunciation of the nebular hypothesis by Laplace, who commenced to publish his bulky work, “ Mecanique Celeste,” in 1799.