him, unwillingly, Primate of Germany; his devotion afterward led him, willingly, to martyrdom. There sat, too, at that time, on the papal throne, a great Christian statesman—Pope Zachary. Boniface immediately declares against the revival of such a terrible heresy as the existence of the antipodes. He declares that it amounts to the declaration that there are men on the earth beyond the reach of the means of salvation; he attacks Virgilius; he calls on Zachary for aid; effective measures are taken, and we hear no more of Virgilius or his doctrine.
Six hundred years pass away, and in the fourteenth century two men publicly assert the doctrine. The first of these, Peter of Abano, escapes punishment by natural death; the second, known as Cecco d'Ascoli, a man of seventy years, is burned alive. Nor was that all the punishment: that great painter, Orcagna, whose terrible works you may see on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, immortalized Cecco by representing him in the flames of hell.[1]
Still the idea lived and moved, and a hundred years later we find the theologian Tostatus protesting against the doctrine of the antipodes as "unsafe." He has invented a new missile—the following syllogism: "The apostles were commanded to go into all the world, and to preach the gospel to every creature. They did not go to any such part of the world as the antipodes, they did not preach to any creatures there: ergo, no antipodes exist." This is just before the time of Columbus.
Columbus is the next warrior. The world has heard of his battles: how the Bishop of Ceuta worsted him in Portugal; how at the Junta of Salamanca the theologians overwhelmed him with quotations from the Psalms, from St. Paul, and from St. Augustine.[2]
But in 1519 Science gains a crushing victory. Magalhaens makes his famous voyages. He has proved the earth to be round; for his great expedition has circumnavigated it. He proves the doctrine of the antipodes, for he sees the men of the antipodes.[3] But even this
- ↑ Virgil of Salzburg. See Neander's "History of the Christian Church," Torrey's translation, vol. iii., p. 63. Since Bayle, there has been much loose writing about Virgil's case. See Whewell, p. 197; but for best choice of authorities and most careful winnowing out of conclusions, see De Morgan, pp. 24-26. For very full notes as to pagan and Christian advocates of doctrine of rotundity of the earth and of antipodes, and for extract from Zachary's letter, see Migne, "Patrologia," vol. vi., p. 426, and vol. xli., p. 487. For Peter of Abano, or Apono, as he is often called, see Tiraboschi; also Ginguené, vol. ii., p. 293. Also Naudé, "Histoire des grands hommes accusés de Magie." For Cecco d'Ascoli, see Montucla, "Histoire des Mathématiques," i., 528; also, Daunou, "Études Historiques," vol. vi., p. 320. Concerning Oreagna's representation of Cecco in flames of hell, see Renan, "Averroès et l'Averroisme," Paris, 1867, p. 328.
- ↑ For Columbus before the Junta of Salamanca, see Irving's "Columbus," Murray's, edition, vol. ii., pp. 405-410. Figuier, "Savants du Moyen Age," etc., vol. ii., p. 394, et seq. Also Humboldt, "Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent."
- ↑ For effect of Magalhaens'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 Géog.,"
