History of the conflict between religion and science / by John William Draper.

  • Draper, John William, 1811-1882.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the conflict between religion and science / by John William Draper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    66/410 (page 34)
    THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. ITS TRANSFORMATION ON ATTAINING IMPERIAL POWER. ITS RELATIONS TO SCI- ENCE. Religious condition of the Roman Republic.— The adoption of imperialism leads to monotheism.— Christianity spreads over the Roman Empire.— The circumstances under which it attained imperial power make its union with Paganism a political necessity.— Tcrtullian's description of its doctrines and practices.—Debasing effect of the policy of Com stantine on it.—Its alliance with the civil power.—Its incompatibility with science.—Destruction of the Alexandrian Library and prohibi- tion of philosophy.—Exposition of the Auguslinian philosophy and Patristic science generally.—The Scriptures made the standard oj science. In a political sense, Christianity is the bequest of the Roman Empire to the world. At the epoch of the transition of Rome from the republican to the imperial form of government, all the independent nationalities around the Mediterranean Sea had been brought under the control of that central power. The conquest that had befallen them in succes- sion had been by no means a disaster. The perpetual wars they had maintained with each other came to an end; the miseries their conflicts had engendered were exchanged for universal peace. Hot only as a token of the conquest she had made, but also as a gratification to her pride, the conquering