"
Thanks to men like Valentine, this idea of the interference of
Satan and his minions with the mining industry was gradually
weakened, and the working of the deserted mines was resumed; yet
even at a comparatively recent period we find it still
lingering, and among leading divines in the very heart of
Protestant Germany. In 1715 a cellar-digger having been stifled
at Jena, the medical faculty of the university decided that the
cause was not the direct action of the devil, but a deadly gas.
Thereupon Prof. Loescher, of the University of Wittenberg,
entered a solemn protest, declaring that the decision of the
medical faculty was "only a proof of the lamentable license
which has so taken possession of us, and which, if we are not
earnestly on our guard, will finally turn away from us the
blessing of God."[404] But denunciations of this kind could not
hold back the little army of science; in spite of adverse
influences, the evolution of physics and chemistry went on. More
and more there rose men bold enough to break away from
theological methods and strong enough to resist ecclesiastical
bribes and threats.
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