Early in the nineteenth century, Herbst, Catholic professor at
Tubingen, had endeavoured in a similar _Introduction_ to bring modern
research to bear on the older view; but the Church authorities
took care to have all passages really giving any new light
skilfully and speedily edited out of the book.
Later still, Movers, professor at Breslau, showed remarkable gifts
for Old Testament research, and much was expected of him; but his
ecclesiastical superiors quietly prevented his publishing any
extended work.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century much the same
pressure has continued in Catholic Germany. Strong scholars have
very generally been drawn into the position of "apologists" or
"reconcilers," and, when found intractable, they have been driven
out of the Church.
The same general policy had been evident in France and Italy, but
toward the last decade of the century it was seen by the more
clear-sighted supporters of the older Church in those countries
that the multifarious "refutations" and explosive attacks upon
Renan and his teachings had accomplished nothing; that even
special services of atonement for his sin, like the famous "_Triduo_"
at Florence, only drew a few women, and provoked ridicule among the
public at large; that throwing him out of his professorship and
calumniating him had but increased his influence; and that his
brilliant intuitions, added to the careful researches of German and
English scholars, had brought the thinking world beyond the reach
of the old methods of hiding troublesome truths and crushing
persistent truth-tellers.
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