Praestanti Astrologo et ejus Diciplinae instauratori, In a letter enclosing this inscription, dated Nov. 21st, 1580, the bishop says that as Copernicus while living was an ornament, not only to his church but to his country, so now that he is dead he has no need for a monument, but that the living might honor themselves in honoring him. Another monument, of uncertain date, is dedicated to Copernicus in the church of St. John, at Thorn, his native town. Here he is represented before a crucifix in his canonical robes, with a celestial globe by his side, to which is appended a scroll, bearing the following inscription: "Non parem Pauli gratiam requiro, Veniam Patri neque posco, sed quam In crucis ligno dederas Latroni, sedulus oro." Nicolai Copernico Thoruniensi absolutae subtilitatis mathematico, ne tanti viri, apud exteros celeber, in sua patria periret memoria hoc monumentum positum. Morût Varmiae in suo Canonicatu, anno 1543, die 4, aetatis LXXIII. It must be admitted that in all this we have illustrations, not of "priestly bigotry," but of priestly enlightenment and liberality. When there is bigotry, far be it from us to conceal or justify it; none are more willing to expose and denounce it. We have brought forward the above facts in order to vindicate truth, and do justice to those who did not deserve to be maligned. Paul III. was far too enlightened a pontiff to persecute a man of genius, even if he conscientiously believed him to be the cause of much mischief; he had not the least disposition to persecute even Luther-nor did he ever affect to despise him, but sent his legates to confer with him as with a king or emperor. It was the same pope who established the order of the Jesuits, and required that the chief weapon they should use in favor of the Church was * "Not equal favor with Paul do I require; neither do I ask pardon from the Father; but that which thou gavest to the robber on the cross, I earnestly pray for." knowledge; and that they should combat ignorance by devoting most of their time to the education of youth. But all popes have not been so enlightened, thoughtful, and liberal as Paul III.; nor have all cardinals and bishops been as friendly to science and scientific men, as were the patrons and friends of Copernicus; and yet we are bound to admit that the large majority of ecclesiastics of all grades have been favorable to science. For one who has opposed its progress, or persecuted its votaries, at least fifty have pnrsued the opposite course. This is the reason why we always honor the Church, no matter how much we may differ with Catholics in regard to some of its dogmas. We think nothing is more unjust than to hold it responsible for what one individual out of fifty may do, even though that individual be a Pope. Accordingly we do not condemn it, because it so happened that a decree was issued from the Vatican the 5th of March, 1616, condemning the great work of Copernicus, as "containing ideas given as true, of the situation and movements of the earth-ideas entirely contrary to the Holy Scriptures." We hold that the act itself was wrong, but there were extenuating circumstances connected with it. To those unacquainted with the facts, the natural inference would be that Paul V., under whose pontificate the decree was issued, was bigoted and intolerant. Such was not the case, however; he was, on the contrary, one of the most enlightened and liberal men of his time, and he was possessed withal of undaunted courage. It was at this period that the Council of Ten at Venice oppressed all whose misfortune it was to be under its jurisdiction. The pope ordered his representatives to protest in the name of humanity as well as of the Church against the habitual murders and spoliations of that infamous junto. The two ecclesiastics deputed to make this protest, were immediately seized, condemned, and imprisoned, without being allowed any opportunity to defend themselves. Nor did the Council of Ten content itself with this; it issued a decree which deprived the clergy of the most ordinary privileges-prohibiting them, under pains and penalties, from even building a church without permission. The pope issued an "admonition," warning the govern ment that if it did not cease its oppressions he would excommunicate the Doge and the whole Senate, as well as the Council of Ten. When Paul V. saw that this had not the desired effect, and had only resulted in the expulsion of the Jesuits, the Capuchins, and others, who had obeyed the interdict, he referred the difficulty "to the sense of humanity and justice" of Henry IV. of France, requesting at the same time that Henry would only exercise his moral influence. The king complied with the wishes of the pope; and the difficulty was settled for the time-the Council of Ten giving assurances through the ambassadors of the Republic that it would see that its officers would, in future, exercise more discrimination in making arrests, &c. The pope was gratified to know that if his interdict failed his influence saved the lives and properties of many; and it will be admitted that conduct like this is not characteristic of a bigot. In addition to all this, Sarpi had attacked the church, and tried to introduce the doctrines of Calvin into Venice, drawing some of his strongest arguments from the views of Copernicus on the motion of the earth. "If it is not correct," says Sarpi, "that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and that this command had the effect of lengthening the day, as we are told in the Bible, certain other commands are equally misunderstood, and the more we reflect on the whole question the more satisfied we must be that nothing occurs to the earth, the sun, or any other body whatever, or to man but what was ordained by God before the creation of the world." This, be it remembered, was the dictum of the Secretary of the Council of Ten-the person who framed its in the art of aggravating the torments of his fellow-citizens. iniquitous laws, suggesting improvements whenever he could The pope also saw that even in France there seemed to be danger that the new ideas would prove injurious to religion. Sanrez, a Jesuit, had written a work entitled " Defense de la for catholique," which was condemned by the Parliament of Paris to be burned by the public executioner for no other reason than that some passages in it seemed to allude derog himself, atively to monarchical authority. At this time several Jesuits were members of the Congregation of the Index, the tribunal whose duty it was to examine all books supposed to be injurious to religion, and to condemn such as were believed to have any such tendency. A Now, if it be borne in mind that Paul V. was sixty-four years of age at this time, and in so feeble a state of health as to be incapable of performing any of the functions of his high office, it will hardly seem so serious an affair, after all, that De Revolutionibus Corporum Cœlestium was placed on the Index nearly a century after the death of its illustrious author. Science has suffered but little if anything from it; and still less has the fame of Copernicus suffered. We have seen already that the latter was placed on a firm basis by princes of the Catholic church. If it has suffered any injury since their time the blame must be traced to a different source, as we have shown at the beginning of this paper. It should be remembered that, independently of the prejudices entertained against Catholics even by eminent writers for more than a century, some of the claims of Copernicus to immortality conflict with those of Newton. The great English philosopher receives the credit of being the discoverer of gravity; but Copernicus had indicated the existence of that power in the plainest terms more than a century before he was born. "For my part," says the founder of our present system, "I regard weight (gravity), as a certain natural appetency with which the Divine Architect of the universe has endowed the parts of matter, so that they may unite in the form of a globe. This property is probably possessed by the sun, the moon, and the planets; it is to it those bodies owe their rotundity, as well as their movements." * * Equidem existimo, gravitatem non aliud esse, quam appetentiam quandam naturalem partibus inditam a divina providentia Opificis Universorum, ut in unitatem integritatemque suam sese conferant in formam globi coëuntes. Quam affectionem credibile est etiam Soli, Lunæ, cæterisque errantium fulgoribus in esse, ut ejus efficacia in ea qua se repræsentant rotunditate permaneant, quæ nihilominus multis modis suos efficiunt circuitus. Nicol., Copera. De Revol. Orb. Cal. lib. i. cap. 9, p. 7. The very terms used by the author, as may be seen. from the original, which we transcribe below, is gravity. This shows that, although the laws of universal gravitation or attraction have been developed by Newton and Kepler, to Copernicus, undoubtedly, is due the honor of priority in suggesting the existence of those laws. There are several other discoveries the germs of which are to be found in the great work of Copernicus; but our article has already exceeded the bounds we had prescribed for it. Our object in writing it was twofold; we thought it would be interesting, as well as fair, to show that Copernicus was a much more profound and original thinker than he is generally regarded at the present day; we also wished to show how unjust and ungenerous it is to brand as the enemies of science a body of men who, independently of all they have done besides for the development of the human mind, and especially during the long centuries when they alone were the only protectors and cultivators of learning, have given us through one of the most unassuming of their brethren, the noble system of the universe which is now universally received. Whether we have succeeded or not, it will be for the intelligent and impartial reader to say. ART. II.-1. Human Life in Shakespeare. By HENRY GILES, Author of "Illustrations of Genius," &c. Boston, 1868. 2. Studies of Shakespeare. By CHARLES KNIGHT. London, 1868. 3. Life and Genius of Shakespeare. By RICHARD GRANT WHITE. Boston, 1866. THE vitality of Shakespeare, and the fresh interest that he still possesses for the world, are striking phenomena. In turning over lists of new publications, the number of new editions of Shakespeare and works upon Shakespeare continually and forcibly draw attention. In the course of a cursory review we have counted more than thirty such publications issued in Great Britain and the United States only within the compass of eighteen months, and this without taking into account the numerous magazine and newspaper |