CONFLICTS WITH ROME
479
any time error or doubt should arise, the science possesses in itself the means of correcting or removing it, and no other remedy is efficacious but that which it applies to itself. 1 There can be no free philosophy if we must always remember dogma. 2 Philosophy includes in its sphere all the dogmas of revelation, as vyTell as those of natural religion. It examines by its own independent light the substance of every Christian doctrine, and determines in each case whether it be divine truth. 8 The conclusions and judgments at which it thus arrives must be maintained even when they contradict articles of faith. 4 As we accept the evidence of astronomy in opposition to the once settled opinion of divines, so we should not shrink from the evidence of chemistry if it should be adverse to transubstantiation. 6 The Church, on the other hand, examines these conclusions by her standard of faith, and decides whether they can be taught in theology.6 But she has no means of ascertaining the philosophical truth of an opinion, and cannot convict the philosopher of error. The two domains are as distinct as reason and faith; and we must not identify what we know with what we believe, but must separate the philosopher from his philosophy. The system may be utterly at variance with the whole teaching of Christianity, and yet the philosopher, while he holds it to be philosophically true and certain, may continue to believe all Catholic doctrine, and to perform all the spiritual duties of a layrnen or a priest. For dis- cord cannot exist between the certain results of scientific investigation and the real doctrines of the Church. Both are true, and there is no conflict of truths. But while the teaching of science is distinct and definite, that of the Church is subject to alteration. Theology is at no time absolutely complete, but always liable to be modified, and cannot, therefore, be made a fixed test of truth. 7 Con- sequently there is no reason against the union of the Churches. For the liberty of private judgment, which is
1 Freiheit der J,.-Vissensckaft, p, 3 2 . III Einleitung. pp. 305. 317. 397. (; Ibid, ii. 655, 6 Ibid. ii. 676,
2 Atkenäum. i. 16 7. 4 Athenäum, i. 208. 7 Ibid, ii. 661.
