The World's Debt to the Catholic Church

Histories of education a generation ago were rather inclined to suggest a certain attitude of opposition on the part of the early Christian Church toward education. The reason for this was said to be that the ecclesiastical authorities were afraid that if people knew much they would lose their faith or at least have their belief in the doctrines of Christianity dimmed by their knowledge. Some educators did not hesitate to declare quite positively that it was Church opposition to the development of scientific knowledge which prevented advance in that department until the Church ceased to be such a factor in the educational world as she had been during the early centuries.

Anyone who will turn to the chapter on Science will find that the only reason for thinking there was no interest in science during the Middle Ages is the ignorance of the realities of the history of the time among those who think so. There was abundant interest in science on the part of men who were canonized as saints by the Church, and they wrote large tomes on various scientific subjects, though the fact that the history of science has been worked out only in quite recent years has led to a very general ignorance of these facts.