Page:Carroll Lane Fenton - A History of Evolution (1922).djvu/20

 Rh It is particularly interesting to note, in these days when prominent men go about denouncing the doctrine of organic evolution as foul, repulsive, and contrary to the will of God, that the early churchmen were not troubled by such narrowness. Augustine not only gave up the orthodox statement of special creation; he modified the conception of time. To him the "days" of Genesis did not mean days of astronomy; they meant long and indeterminable periods of time. And it is particularly interesting to find him rebuking those who, ignorant of the principles underlying nature, seek to explain things according to the letter of the scriptures. "It is very disgraceful and mischievous," says he, "that a Christian speaking of such matters as being according to the Christian Scriptures should be heard by an unbeliever talking such nonsense that the unbeliever, perceiving him to be as wide from the mark as east from west, can hardly restrain himself from laughing."

Augustine was followed by some of the later church authorities, most notably Thomas Aquinas, who lived in the latter part of the thirteenth century. He did not add to the evolution idea, but rather expounded the ideas of Augustine. His importance was due to his high rank as a church authority, not to any ideas which he produced.

During the period between Augustine and Aquinas, however, science almost died out in Europe, and leadership in philosophy went into the hands of the Arabs. Between 813 and 833 the works of Aristotle were translated into Arabic, and they form the basis of the nat-