More
and more the "Prince of the Power of the Air" retreated before
the lightning-rod of Franklin. The older Church, while clinging
to the old theory, was finally obliged to confess the supremacy
of Franklin's theory practically; for his lightning-rod did
what exorcisms, and holy water, and processions, and the _Agnus
Dei_, and the ringing of church bells, and the rack, and the
burning of witches, had failed to do. This was clearly seen,
even by the poorest peasants in eastern France, when they
observed that the grand spire of Strasburg Cathedral, which
neither the sacredness of the place, nor the bells within it,
nor the holy water and relics beneath it, could protect from
frequent injuries by lightning, was once and for all protected
by Franklin's rod. Then came into the minds of multitudes the
answer to the question which had so long exercised the leading
theologians of Europe and America, namely, "Why should the
Almighty strike his own consecrated temples, or suffer Satan to
strike them?"
Yet even this practical solution of the question was not
received without opposition.
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