e
independent processes of scientific thought, sought to subdue all the
facts of life to her creeds and understandings and so became a real
hindrance to any pursuit of truth or any investigation of fact which lay
outside the region of theological control. How largely all this retarded
growth and knowledge and the extension of human well-being it is
difficult to say, but the fact itself is well established.

_Saints and Shrines_

For one thing early Christianity continued the belief in demoniac
possession. By one of those accidents which greatly influence history
the belief in demon possession was strongly held in Palestine in the
time of Christ and the Gospel narratives reflect all this in ways upon
which it is not necessary to enlarge. The Gospels themselves lent their
mighty sanction to this persuasion and there was nothing in the temper
of the Church for more than a thousand years afterward to greatly modify
it. Indeed the temper of the Church rather strengthened it. Origen
believed that demons produce famine, unfruitfulness, corruptions of the
air and pestilences. They hover concealed in clouds in the lower
atmosphere and are attracted by the blood and incense which the heathen
offered them as gods.

According to St. Augustine all diseases of Christians are to be ascribed
to these demons and the church fathers generally agreed with these two,
the greatest of them all. It was, therefore, sinful to do anything but
trust to the intercession of the saints. The objection of the Church to
dissection which is, of course, the indispensable basis for any real
knowledge of anatomy was very slowly worn down. The story of Andreas
Vesalius whom Andrew White calls the founder of the modern science of
anatomy is at once fascinating and illuminating. He pursued his studies
under incredible difficulties and perhaps could never have carried them
through without the protection of Charles V whose physician he was. He
was finally driven out, a wanderer in quest of truth, was shipwrecked
on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and in the prime of his life and
strength "he was lost to the world." But he had, none the less, won his
fight and the opposition of the Church to the scientific study of
anatomy was gradually withdrawn. But every marked advance in medical
science had really to fight the battle over again. The Sorbonne
condemned inoculation, vaccination had slowly to fight its way and even
the discovery of anesthetic, perhaps the gre