Eminent Lutheran doctors of divinity flooded the country with treatises to prove that the Copernican theory could not be reconciled with Scripture.

In the theological seminaries and in many of the universities where clerical influence was strong they seemed to sweep all before them; and yet at the middle of the century we find some of the clearest-headed of them aware of the fact that their cause was lost.( 74) (74) For Cassini's position, see Henri Martin, Histoire de France, vol.
xiii, p.175.For Riccioli, see Daunou, Etudes Historiques, vol.ii, p.439.For Boussuet, see Bertrand, p.41.For Hutchinson, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, p.48.For Wesley, see his work, already cited.
As to Boscovich, his declaration, mentioned in the text, was in 1746, but in 1785 he seemed to feel his position in view of history, and apologized abjectly; Bertrand, pp.

60, 61.

See also Whewell's notice of Le Sueur and Jacquier's introduction to their edition of Newton's Principia.

For the struggle in Germany, see Zoeckler, Geschichte der Beziehungenzwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, vol.ii, pp.