Mivart (1827-1900) was a Catholic convert who wrote a noted
reply to the Darwinian thesis in 1871. In 1876, Pope Pius IX
conferred on him the degree of doctor In the strictest and
highest sense "creation" is the absolute origination of any
thing by God without pre-existing means or material, and is a
supernatural act. In the secondary and lower sense, "creation"
is the formation of any thing by God derivatively; that is, that
the preceding matter has been created with the potentiality to
evolve from it, under suitable conditions, all the various forms
it subsequently assumes. And this power having been conferred by
God in the first instance, and those laws and powers having been
instituted by Him through the action of which the suitable
conditions are supplied, He is said, in this lower sense, to
create such various subsequent forms. This is the natural action
of God in the physical world, as distinguished from His direct,
or, as it may be here called, supernatural action. In yet a
third sense, the word "crea