s that the antipodes
"nulla ratione credendum est." For the unanimity of the fathers against
the antipodes, see Zockler, vol. 1, p. 127. For a very naive summary,
see Joseph Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, Grimston's
translation, republished by the Hakluyt Soc., chaps. vii and viii; also
citations in Buckle's Posthumous Works, vol. ii, p. 645. For Procopius
of Gaza, see Kretschmer, p. 55. See also, on the general subject,
Peschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde, pp. 96-97. For Isidore, see citations
already given. To understand the embarrassment caused by these
utterances of the fathers to scientific men of a later period, see
letter of Agricola to Joachim Vadianus in 1514. Agricola asks Vadianus
to give his views regarding the antipodes, saying that he himself does
not know what to do, between the fathers on the one side and the
learned men of modern times on the other. On the other hand, for the
embarrassment caused to the Church by this mistaken zeal of the
fathers, see Kepler's references and Fromund's replies; also De Morgan,
Paradoxes, p. 58. Kepler appears to have taken great delight in throwing
the views of Lactantius into the teeth of his adversaries.

Under such pressure this scientific truth seems to have disappeared for
nearly two hundred years; but by the eighth century the sphericity
of the earth had come to be generally accepted among the leaders of
thought, and now the doctrine of the antipodes was again asserted by a
bishop, Virgil of Salzburg.

There then stood in Germany, in those first years of the eighth century,
one of the greatest and noblest of men--St. Boniface. His learning was
of the best then known. In labours he was a worthy successor of the
apostles; his genius for Christian work made him unwillingly primate of
Germany; his devotion to duty led him willingly to martyrdom. There sat,
too, at that time, on the papal throne a great Christian statesman--Pope
Zachary. Boniface immediately declared against the revival of such
a heresy as the doctrine of the antipodes; he stigmatized it as an
assertion that there are men beyond the reach of the appointed means of
salvation; he attacked Virgil, and called on Pope Zachary for aid.

The Pope, as the infallible teacher of Christendom, made a strong
response. He cited passages from the book of Job and the Wisdom of
Solomon against the doctrine of the antipodes; he declared it "perverse,
iniquitous, and against Virgil's own soul," and indi