Science and the Authority of the Church

The essential elements of Science — Principles, Conclusions and the certainty of the Evidence between them — are independent of all church authority.

This is confirmed by the fact that science and philosophy existed before the foundation of the Church, and the Author of Christianity came not to destroy the natural endowment of Man but to enrich it with better gifts.

In the first half of the 19^th century De Bonald and La Mennais argued that human reason was obliged to obtain its first principles and primary motives of certitude from the teachings of Revelation.

Pope Gregory XVI publicly reproved and condemned this error.

Philosophy Page