Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/404

 GALITZIN

346

GALL

which were judged harmful. The pope and his assessors may have been wrong in such a judgment, but this does not alter the character of the pronouncement, or convert it into a decree ex cathedra.

As to the second trial in 1633, this was concerned not so much with the doctrine as with the person of Galileo, and his manifest breach of contract in not ab- staining from the active propaganda of Copernican doctrines. The sentence, passed upon him in conse- quence, clearly implied a condemnation of Copernican- ism, but it made no formal decree on the subject, and did not receive the pope's signature. Nor is this only an opinion of theologians; it is corroborated by writers whom none will accuse of any bias in favour of the papacy. Thus Professor Augustus De Morgan (Budget of Paradoxes) declares "It is clear that the aljsurdity was the act of the Italian Inquisition, for the lirivate and personal pleasure of the pope — who knew that the course he took could not convict him as pope — and not of the body which calls itself the Church." And von Gebler ("Gahleo Galilei") : " The Church never condemned it (the ('opernican system) at all, for the Qualifiers of the Holy Office never mean the Church". It may be added that Riccioli and other contempora- ries of Galileo were permitted, after 1616, to declare that no anti-t^opernican definition had issued from the supreme pontiff.

More vital at the present day is the question with which we commenced: "Does not the condemnation of Galileo prove the implacable opposition of the Church to scientific progress and enlightenment? " It may be replied with Cardinal Newman that this in- stance serves to prove the opposite, namely that the Church has not interfered with physical science, for Galileo's case "is the one stock argument" (Apologia, c. v). So too Professor De Morgan acknowledges ("Motion of the Earth" in " English Cyclopaedia ") : "The Papal power must upon the whole have been moderately used in matters of philosophy, if we may judge by the great stress laid on this one case of Gali- leo. It is the standing proof that an authority which has lasted a thousand years was all the time occupied in checking the progress of thought." — So Dr. Whewell speaking of this same case says (History of the Induc- tive Sciences) : " I would not be understood to assert the condemnation of new iloctrines to be a general or characteristic practice of the Romish Church. Cer- tainly the intelligent and cultivated minds of Italy, and many of the most eminent of her ecclesiastics among them, have been the foremost in promoting and welcoming the progress of science, and there were found among the Italian ecclesiastics of Galileo's time many of the earliest and most enlightened adherents of the Copernican system."

The literature concerning Galileo is abundant. In particular may be mentioned: De Morgan, Motion of the Earth in Engliih CyctopfEclia; Idem in Companion to the British Almanack, 1855: Idem, Budget of Paradoxes (London, 1S72); Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences (3d ed., London, 1S57); Brewster, Martyrs of Science {London, 1877): voti GEBhEH, Galileo Galilei und die nmvsche Curie (tr., London, 1879); Ghisar, Galilei- fitudien (Rati.sbon, 1882); Choupin, Valeur des Decisions Doc- trinales et Disciplinaires (Paris, 1907); de Jaugey, Le proces, de Galilee, etc. (Paris, 1888); L'Epinois, La question de Galilee (Paris, 1878); Vac\nd\rd, Le prods de Galilee in Revue duclerge francais. 1 and lH Oct., 1904; Ward in Dublin Review, April, July, 1871 ; The History of Galileo in The Month. Sept., Oct., 1867: Gerard, Galileo (Catholic Truth Society); MOller, Galileo- Galilei (Rome, 1908); Idem, Galileo Galilei und das kopemikan- ische Weltsystem in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach. suppl. 101. John Gerard.

Galitzin, Elizabeth, Princess, religious of the Sacred Heart; b. at St. Petersburg, 22 February, 1797; d. in Louisiana, 8 December, 1843. Her father was Prince Alexis Andrevitch, her mother Countess Prot;is<)f, the friend and ".secon<l conscience" of Ma- dame Swctchine. When her mother a!)andone<l the creed of the Russian "Orthodox" Cliurcli and cm- brarcd the Calholic Faith (a step to which the penalty of exile or deatli was still attached by Russian law),

Princess Elizabeth was roused to bitter hatred of the Catholic Church, and bound herself by oath never to change her religion. But after four years, the influ- ence of her mother's consistency of life and the con- version of other members of the family induced her to examine the question, and finally she too made her submission. Her vocation followed soon after her conversion, and she left it to Father Rozaven to find for her "an austere order devoted to education". His choice was the Society of the Sacred Heart. Eliz- abeth Galitzin received the habit at Metz, in 1826, her first vows were taken in Rome at the Trinita dei Monti, 1828, and her profession took place in Paris, 1832. In 1834, she was named secretary general to the foundress, Blessed Madeleine Sophie Barat, and, in 1839, was elected assistant general and named visitor of the convents of the Sacred Heart in the United States.

Mother Galitzin carried out her duties of assistant general and visitor in a characteristic spirit. Though burning with ardour to attain the best in all reli- gious perfection, her strict ideas of government, and the tendency to dissimulation, which autocratic na- tures sometimes reveal in the pursuit of their ends, prevented her from acquiring fully the spirit of the constitutions of her order. She made grave mistakes, but the Blessed foundress, always willing to make allowances for others, excused them and ever recog- nized that Mother Galitzin's heart was true to the society. Conscious of the harm she had done in press- ing the matter of some changes in the constitutions. Mother Galitzin begged to be sent back to the United States, to restore the original organization of the soci- ety. In the midst of an outbreak of yellow fever in Louisiana she nursed the sick with heroic devotedness, until she was herself struck down and died.

Galitzin, Vie d'une l{eli(i,-uM' du Sucre Cceur (Paris, 1869); Collet, Life of Blessed Madeleine Sophie Barat (Roehampton. 1900).

Janet Stuart.

Gall, Saint (Gallus; in the most ancient manu- script he is called Gallo, Gallonu.s, Gallunus, and sometimes also Callo, Chelleh, Gilianus, etc.). An Irishman by birth, he was one of the twelve disci- ples who accompanied St. Columbanus to Gaul, and established themselves with him at Luxeuil. Gall again followed his master, in 610, on his voyage on the Rhine to Bregenz; but he separated from him in 612, when Cohmibamis left for Italy; and he remained in Swabia, where, with several companions, he led the life of a hermit, in a desert to the west of Bregenz, near the source of the river Steinach. There, after his death, was erected an "ecclesia Sancti Galluni" gov- erned by a "presbyter et pastor". Before the middle of the eighth century this church became a real monas- tery, the first abbot of which was St. Otmar. The monastery was the property of the Diocese of Con- stance, and it was only in 818 that it obtained from the Emperor Louis the Pious the right to be numbered among the royal monasteries, and toenjoy theprivilege of immvmity. At last, in 854, it was freed from all obligation whatever towards the See of Constance, and henceforth was attaclied only by ties of canonical dependence. Called "Alibey of Si. Gall", not from the name of its founder and first abbot, but of the saint who had lived in this place and whose relics were honoured there, the monastery playetl an illustrious part in history for more than a thousand years.

Apart from this authentic history, there exists an- other version or tradition furnishe y the Lives of St. Gall, the most ancient of which does not antedate the end of the eighth century. A portion of the incidents related in these Lives is perhaps true; but another part is rertainl v legendary, and in formal contradiction to tlic most MHciciit charicrs of the abbey itself. .'Vc- eordiiii; to these bionraphies, Gall was onlained a priest in Ireland bclore his departure for the Continent,