Such was the main result of this long war; but there were other results not so fortunate. The efforts of Eusebius, Basil, and Lactantius to deaden scientific thought; the efforts of Augustine to combat it; the efforts of Cosmas to crush it by dogmatism; the efforts of Boniface and Zachary to crush it by force, conscientious as they all were, had resulted simply in impressing upon many leading minds the conviction that science and religion are enemies.
On the other hand, what was gained by the warriors of science for religion? Certainly a far more worthy conception of the world, and a far more ennobling conception of that power which pervades and directs it. Which is more consistent with a great religion, the cosmography of Cosmas or that of Isaac Newton? Which presents a nobler field for religious thought, the diatribes of Lactantius or the calm statements of Humboldt?(36)
(36) For D'Ailly's acceptance of St. Augustine's argument, see the Ymago
Mundi, cap. vii. For Tostatus, see Zockler, vol. i, pp. 467, 468. He
based his opposition on Romans x, 18. For Columbus, see Winsor,
Fiske, and Adams; also Humboldt, Histoire de la Geographie du Nouveau
Continent. For the bull of Alexander VI, see Daunou, Etudes Historiques,
vol. ii, p. 417; also Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, Book II,
chap. iv. The text of the bull is given with an English translation
in Arber's reprint of The First Three English Books on America, etc.,
Birmingham, 1885, pp. 201-204; also especially Peschel, Die Theilung der
Erde unter Papst Alexander VI and Julius II, Leipsic, 1871, pp. 14
et seq. For remarks on the power under which the line was drawn by
Alexander VI, see Mamiani, Del Papato nei Tre Ultimi Secoli, p. 170.
For maps showing lines of division, see Kohl, Die beiden altesten
General-Karten von Amerika, Weimar, 1860, where maps of 1527 and 1529
are reproduced; also Mercator, Atlas, tenth edition, Amsterdam, 1628,
pp. 70, 71. For latest discussion on The Demarcation Line of Alexander
VI, see E. G. Bourne in Yale Review, May, 1892. For the Margarita
Philosophica, see the editions of 1503, 1509, 1517, lib. vii, cap. 48.
For the effect of Magellan's voyages, and the reluctance to yield to
proof, see Henri Martin, Histoire de France, vol. xiv, p. 395; St.
Martin's Histoire de la Geographie, p. 369; Peschel, Geschichte des
Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, concluding chapters; and for an admirable
summary, Draper, Hist. Int. Devel. of Europe, pp. 451-453; also an
interesting passage in Sir Thomas Brown's Vulgar and Common Errors, Book
I, chap. vi; also a striking passage in Acosta, chap. ii. For general
statement as to supplementary proof by measurement of degrees and by
pendulum, see Somerville, Phys. Geog., chap. i, par. 6, note; also
Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. ii, p. 736, and vol. v, pp. 16, 32; also
Montucla, iv, 138. As to the effect of travel, see Acosta's history
above cited. The good missionary says, in Grimston's quaint translation,
"Whatsoever Lactantius saith, wee that live now at Peru, and inhabite
that parte of the worlde which is opposite to Asia and theire Antipodes,
finde not ourselves to bee hanging in the aire, our heades downward and
our feete on high."
IV. THE SIZE OF THE EARTH.
But at an early period another subject in geography had stirred the minds of thinking men—THE EARTH'S SIZE. Various ancient investigators had by different methods reached measurements more or less near the truth; these methods were continued into the Middle Ages, supplemented by new thought, and among the more striking results were those obtained by Roger Bacon and Gerbert, afterward Pope Sylvester II. They handed down to after-time the torch of knowledge, but, as their reward among their contemporaries, they fell under the charge of sorcery.
Far more consonant with the theological spirit of the Middle Ages was a solution of the problem from Scripture, and this solution deserves to be given as an example of a very curious theological error, chancing to result in the establishment of a great truth. The second book of Esdras, which among Protestants is placed in the Apocrypha, was held by many of the foremost men of the ancient Church as fully inspired: though Jerome looked with suspicion on this book, it was regarded as prophetic by Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Ambrose, and the Church acquiesced in that view. In the Eastern Church it held an especially high place, and in the Western Church, before the Reformation, was generally considered by the most eminent authorities to be part of the sacred canon. In the sixth chapter of this book there is a summary of the works of creation, and in it occur the following verses:
"Upon the third day thou didst command that the waters should be gathered in the seventh part of the earth; six parts hast thou dried up and kept them to the intent that of these some, being planted of God and tilled, might serve thee."
"Upon the fifth day thou saidst unto the seventh part where the waters were gathered, that it should bring forth living creatures, fowls and fishes, and so it came to pass."
These statements were reiterated in other verses, and were naturally considered as of controlling authority.