of the Church was in reality
a prodigious defeat. From all sides came proofs that Copernicus and
Galileo were right; and although Pope Urban and the inquisition held
Galileo in strict seclusion, forbidding him even to SPEAK regarding the
double motion of the earth; and although this condemnation of "all
books which affirm the motion of the earth" was kept on the Index; and
although the papal bull still bound the Index and the condemnations
in it on the consciences of the faithful; and although colleges and
universities under Church control were compelled to teach the old
doctrine--it was seen by clear-sighted men everywhere that this victory
of the Church was a disaster to the victors.

New champions pressed on. Campanella, full of vagaries as he was, wrote
his Apology for Galileo, though for that and other heresies, religious,
and political, he seven times underwent torture.

And Kepler comes: he leads science on to greater victories. Copernicus,
great as he was, could not disentangle scientific reasoning entirely
from the theological bias: the doctrines of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas
as to the necessary superiority of the circle had vitiated the minor
features of his system, and left breaches in it through which the enemy
was not slow to enter; but Kepler sees these errors, and by wonderful
genius and vigour he gives to the world the three laws which bear his
name, and this fortress of science is complete. He thinks and speaks
as one inspired. His battle is severe. He is solemnly warned by the
Protestant Consistory of Stuttgart "not to throw Christ's kingdom into
confusion with his silly fancies," and as solemnly ordered to "bring
his theory of the world into harmony with Scripture": he is sometimes
abused, sometimes ridiculed, sometimes imprisoned. Protestants in Styria
and Wurtemberg, Catholics in Austria and Bohemia, press upon him but
Newton, Halley, Bradley, and other great astronomers follow, and to
science remains the victory.(73)

(73) For Campanella, see Amabile, Fra Tommaso Campanella, Naples, 1882,
especially vol. iii; also Libri, vol. iv, pp. 149 et seq. Fromundus,
speaking of Kepler's explanation, says, "Vix teneo ebullientem risum."
This is almost equal to the New York Church Journal, speaking of John
Stuart Mill as "that small sciolist," and of the preface to Dr. Draper's
great work as "chippering." How a journal, generally so fair in its
treatment of such subjects, can condescend to such weap