Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/301



THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 295

The unshrinking defence of the Holy Scripture, how- ever, does not require that we should equally uphold all the opinions which each of the Fathers or the more recent interpreters have put forth in explaining it; for it may be that, in commenting on passages where physical matters occur, they have sometimes expressed the ideas of their own times, and thus made statements which in these days have been abandoned as incorrect. Hence, in their inter- pretations, we must carefully note what they lay down as belonging to faith, or as intimately cormected with faithâ€” w^hat they are unanimous in. For "in those things which do not come under the obligation of faith, the saints were at liberty to hold divergent opinions, just as we ourselves are," ^ according to the saying of St. Thomas. And in another place he says most admirably: "When philosophers are agreed upon a point, and it is not contrary to our faith, it is safer, in my opinion, neither to lay down such a point as a dogma of faith, even though it is perhaps so presented by the philosophers, nor to reject it as against faith, lest we thus give to the wise of this world an occasion of despising our faith." ^ The Catholic interpreter, although he should show that those facts of natural science which investigators affirm to be now quite certain are not contrary' to the Script- ure rightly explained, must, nevertheless, always bear in mind that much which has been held and proved as cer- tain has afterwards been called in question and rejected. And if wTiters on physics travel outside the boundaries of their own branch, and carrj' their erroneous teaching into the domain of philosophy, let them be handed over to phil- osophers for refutation.

The principles here laid dowm will apply to cognate sciences, and especially to liistorj'. It is a lamentable fact that there are many who wot h^ great lab o r carry out and publish in vestigations on the rnonuments ot antiquitv. th e manners and institutions of nations, and other illustrative

' In Sent. iL Dist. q. i. a. 3. * Opusc. x.