History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom

by Andrew Dickson White

The book, of course, mentions Lot's wife, and says that the pillar of salt "stands there to-day," and "has a right salty taste."

Injustice has perhaps been done to the compilers of this famous work in holding them liars of the first magnitude. They simply abhorred scepticism, and thought it meritorious to believe all pious legends. The ideal Mandeville was a man of overmastering faith, and resembled Tertullian in believing some things "because they are impossible"; he was doubtless entirely conscientious; the solemn ending of the book shows that he listened, observed, and wrote under the deepest conviction, and those who re-edited his book were probably just as honest in adding the later stories of pious travellers.

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, thus appealing to the popular heart, were most widely read in the monasteries and repeated among the people. Innumerable copies were made in manuscript, and finally in print, and so the old myths received a new life.(432)

(432) For Fulk of Chartres and crusading travellers generally, see
Bongars' Gesta Dei and the French Recueil; also Histories of the
Crusades by Wilken, Sybel, Kugler, and others; see also Robinson,
Biblical Researches, vol. ii, p. 109, and Tobler, Bibliographia
Geographica Palestinae, 1867, p. 12. For Benjamin of Tudela's statement,
see Wright's Collection of Travels in Palestine, p. 84, and Asher's
edition of Benjamin of Tudela's travels, vol. i, pp. 71, 72; also
Charton, vol. i, p. 180. For Borchard or Burchard, see full text in the
Reyssbuch dess Heyligen Landes; also Grynaeus, Nov. Orbis, Basil, 1532,
fol. 298, 329. For Ernoul, see his L'Estat de la Cite de Hierusalem, in
Michelant and Reynaud, Itineraires Francaises au 12me et 13me Siecles.
For Petrus Diaconus, see his book De Locis Sanctis, edited by Gamurrini,
Rome, 1887, pp. 126, 127. For Mandeville I have compared several
editions, especially those in the Reyssbuch, in Canisius, and in Wright,
with Halliwell's reprint and with the rare Strasburg edition of 1484
in the Cornell University Library: the whole statement regarding the
experiment with iron and feathers is given differently in different
copies. The statement that he saw the feathers sink and the iron swim
is made in the Reyssbuch edition, Frankfort, 1584. The story, like the
saints' legends, evidently grew as time went on, but is none the less
interesting as showing the general credulity. Since writing the above, I
have been glad to find my view of Mandeville's honesty confirmed by the
Rev. Dr. Robinson, and by Mr. Gage in his edition of Ritter's Palestine.

In the fifteenth century wonders increased. In 1418 we have the Lord of Caumont, who makes a pilgrimage and gives us a statement which is the result of the theological reasoning of centuries, and especially interesting as a typical example of the theological method in contrast with the scientific. He could not understand how the blessed waters of the Jordan could be allowed to mingle with the accursed waters of the Dead Sea. In spite, then, of the eye of sense, he beheld the water with the eye of faith, and calmly announced that the Jordan water passes through the sea, but that the two masses of water are not mingled. As to the salt statue of Lot's wife, he declares it to be still existing; and, copying a table of indulgences granted by the Church to pious pilgrims, he puts down the visit to the salt statue as giving an indulgence of seven years.

Toward the end of the century we have another traveller yet more influential: Bernard of Breydenbach, Dean of Mainz. His book of travels was published in 1486, at the famous press of Schoeffer, and in various translations it was spread through Europe, exercising an influence wide and deep. His first important notice of the Dead Sea is as follows: "In this, Tirus the serpent is found, and from him the Tiriac medicine is made. He is blind, and so full of venom that there is no remedy for his bite except cutting off the bitten part. He can only be taken by striking him and making him angry; then his venom flies into his head and tail." Breydenbach calls the Dead Sea "the chimney of hell," and repeats the old story as to the miraculous solvent for its bitumen. He, too, makes the statement that the holy water of the Jordan does not mingle with the accursed water of the infernal sea, but increases the miracle which Caumont had announced by saying that, although the waters appear to come together, the Jordan is really absorbed in the earth before it reaches the sea.

As to Lot's wife, various travellers at that time had various fortunes. Some, like Caumont and Breydenbach, took her continued existence for granted; some, like Count John of Solms, saw her and were greatly edified; some, like Hans Werli, tried to find her and could not, but, like St. Silvia, a thousand years before, were none the less edified by the idea that, for some inscrutable purpose, the sea had been allowed to hide her from them; some found her larger than they expected, even forty feet high, as was the salt pillar which happened to be standing at the visit of Commander Lynch in 1848; but this only added a new proof to the miracle, for the text was remembered, "There were giants in those days."

Out of the mass of works of pilgrims during the fifteenth century I select just one more as typical of the theological view then dominant, and this is the noted book of Felix Fabri, a preaching friar of Ulm. I select him, because even so eminent an authority in our own time as Dr. Edward Robinson declares him to have been the most thorough, thoughtful, and enlightened traveller of that century.

Fabri is greatly impressed by the wonders of the Dead Sea, and typical of his honesty influenced by faith is his account of the Dead Sea fruit; he describes it with almost perfect accuracy, but adds the statement that when mature it is "filled with ashes and cinders."

As to the salt statue, he says: "We saw the place between the sea and Mount Segor, but could not see the statue itself because we were too far distant to see anything of human size; but we saw it with firm faith, because we believed Scripture, which speaks of it; and we were filled with wonder."