Joseph de Maistre, uttering his hatred of them, declaring that mankind has paid too dearly for them, asserting that they must be subjected to theology, likening them to fire--good when confined and dangerous when scattered about--has been one of the main leaders among those who can not relinquish the idea that our body of sacred literature should be kept a controlling text-book of science.

The only effect of such teachings has been to weaken the legitimate hold of religion upon men.
In Catholic countries exertion has of late years been mainly confined to excluding science or diluting it in university teachings.

Early in the present century a great effort was made by Ferdinand VII of Spain.
He simply dismissed the scientific professors from the University of Salamanca, and until a recent period there has been general exclusion from Spanish universities of professors holding to the Newtonian physics.

So, too, the contemporary Emperor of Austria attempted indirectly something of the same sort; and at a still later period Popes Gregory XVI and Pius IX discouraged, if they did not forbid, the meetings of scientific associations in Italy.

In France, war between theology and science, which had long been smouldering, came in the years 1867 and 1868 to an outbreak.