How the Catholic Church gave us Western Civ, feel free to add

Best quotes from How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.



"Father Nicolaus Steno, a Lutheran convert who became a Catholic priest , is often identified as the : Father of Geology. The Father of Egyptology was Father Athanasius Kircher (Catholic priest). The first person to measure the rate of acceleration of a freely falling body was yet another priest, Father Giambattista Riccioli. Father Roger Boscovich is often credited as the Father of modern atomic theory. Jesuits (Catholic) so dominated the study of earthquakes that seismology became known as "the Jesuit science." (How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



"Even though some thirty- five craters on the moon are named for Jesuit (Catholic) scientists and mathematicians, the Churches contributions to astronomy are all but unknown..." (How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



"J. L. Heilbron of the University of California at Berkely points out, "The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial aid and social support to the study of astronomy for over six centuries from.... the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and probably all other institutions."" (How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



"... the monks gave "the whole of Europe.. a network of model factories, centers for breeding livestock, centers of scholarship, spiritual fervor, the art of living... readiness for social action- in a word .... advanced civilization that emerged from the chaotic waves of surrounding barbarity. Without any doubt, Saint Benedict (the most important architect of western monasticism) was the Father of Europe. The Benedictines, his children, were the Fathers of European civilization." (How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



On the Catholic origins of the first modern form of international law! : "... the idea is first found in sixteenth century Spanish universities, and it was Francisco de Vitoria a Catholic priest and professor, who earned the title of Father of international law.Faced with Spanish mistreatment of the natives of the New World, Vitoria and other Catholic theologians began to speculate about human rights and the proper relations that ought to exist between nation. These Catholic thinkers originated the idea of international law as we understand it today." (How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



On the Catholic origins of the first modern form of civil law! : "Western law itself is very largely a gift of the Church. Canon Law (disciplinary laws of the Church) was the first modern legal system in Europe." (How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



Catholics invented the first modern writing system known as the Carolingian minuscule! It was the introduction of lower case letters, spaces between words, punctuation, etc! : "Fredegise, Alcuin's successor as abbot at Saint Martin's, played a definitive part in the development and introduction of Carolingian minuscule. Now Western Europe had a script that could be read and written with relative ease. The introduction of lower case letters, spaces between words, and other measures intended to increase readability quickened both reading and writing. ... Carolingian minuscule - developed by the monks of the Catholic Church - was crucial to building the literacy of Western Civilization." (How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



"If many are infected by your aims, a new Athens will be created in France, nay, an Athens finer than the old, for ours, ennobled by the teachings of Christ, will surpass all the wisdom of the Academy. The old had only the disciplines of Plato for teacher and yet inspired by the seven liberal arts is still shone with splendor: but ours will be endowed besides with the seven fold plenitude of the Holy Ghost and will outshine all the dignity of secular wisdom." (Alcuin of York headmaster of the Cathedral school at York, deacon, and abbot of the monastery of Saint Martin's at Tours letter to Charlemagne the Great about the heights of Christianity that he saw coming)



"Mere statistics can hardly do justice to the Benedictine achievement, but by the beginning of the fourteenth century, the order had supplied the Church with 24 popes, 200 cardinals, 7,000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops, and 1,500 canonized saints. At its height, the Benedictine order could boast 37,000 monasteries. And its not merely their influence within the Church to which the statistics point; so exalted had the monastic ideal become throughout society that by the fourteenth century the order had already enrolled some twenty emperors, ten empresses, forty seven kings, and fifty queens. Thus a great many of Europe's most powerful would come to pursue the humble life and spiritual regimen of the Benedictine order." (How the Catholic Church built Western civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



A Catholic monk named Dom Perignon of Saint Peter's Abbey invented champagne! "... the discovery of champagne can be traced to Dom Perignon of Saint Peter's Abbey, Hautvilliers- on- the Marne. He was appointed cellarer of the abbey in 1688, and developed champagne through experimentation with blending wines. The fundamental principles he established continue to govern the manufacture of champagne even today." (How the Catholic Church built Western civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



"In the early eleventh century... a monk (Catholic) named Eilmer flew more than 600 feet with a glider; people remembered this feat for the next three centuries. Centuries later Father Francesco Lana- Terzi, not a monk but a Jesuit priest pursued the subject of flight more systematically earning the honor of being called the Father of aviation. His 1670 book Prodromo alla Arte Maestra was the first to describe the geometry and physics of a flying vessel." (How the Catholic Church built Western civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



A Catholic pope invented the very first modern clock! : "The monks also counted skillful clock makers among them. The first clock of which we have any record was built by the future Pope Sylvester II for the German town of Magdelburg, around the year 996. Much more sophisticated clocks were built by later monks. Peter Lightfoot, a fourteenth century monk of Glatsonbury, built one of the oldest clocks still in existence, which now sits in excellent condition, in London's Science Museum." (How the Catholic Church built Western civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



Catholics invented the first astronomical clock which could accurately predict even lunar eclipses! : "Richard of Wallingford, a fourteenth century abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Saint Albans (and one of the initiators of Western trigonometry), is well known for the large astronomical clock he designed for that monastery. It has been said that a clock that equaled it in technological sophistication did not appear for at least two centuries. The magnificent clock, a marvel for its time, no longer survives, perhaps having perished amid Henry VIII's sixteenth century monastic confiscations. However Richard's notes on the clock's design have permitted scholars to build a model and even a full- scale reconstruction. In addition to timekeeping, the clock could accurately predict lunar eclipses." (How the Catholic Church built Western civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)



"Aside from the Church's intellectual role in fostering the universities, the papacy played a central role in establishing and encouraging them. Naturally, the granting of a character to a university was one indication of this papal role. Eighty one universities had been established by the time of the Reformation. Of these thirty three possessed a papal character, fifteen a royal or imperial one, twenty possessed both, and thirteen had none. In addition it was the accepted view that a university could not award degrees without the approbation of pope, king, or emperor." (How the Catholic Church built Western civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr.)