It is nonsense to think that the idea of a flat earth was
refuted by Columbus, when he tried to find a route to India through a western
passage. Still, the idea of a round
earth was far from universally accepted and one of those who could not believe
it was the Christian writer Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325). His major work is the
Institutiones Divinae, an apology for
Christianity. In book three he is trying to show that the idea of a round world
is nonsense. There were indeed weaknesses in the arguments defending a round
world. The idea was – at least that described and refuted by Lactantius – that the
world was a steady ball in the centre of a round universe and that sun, moon
and stars are revolving around the earth. It is as if the earth is at the
centre inside a football and that this ball turning around us and we are
looking at the inside on which stars, sun and moon are painted. The
mathematical problems of explaining all the motions with the assumption that
the earth itself is steady at the centre are unsurmountable. We may laugh now
at the way Lactantius is defending a flat earth, but suppose we were contemporaries,
I wonder how many of us would not have been convinced by his arguments.
Lactantius. Institutiones Divinae, 3.24 : De
antipodibus, de coelo ac sideribus.
1) Quid illi, qui esse contrarios
vestigiis nostris Antipodas putant, num aliquid loquuntur? aut est quisquam tam
ineptus, qui credat esse homines, quorum vestigia sint superiora, quam capita?
aut ibi, quae apud nos iacent, inversa pendere? fruges et arbores deorsum
versus crescere? pluvias, et nives, et grandinem sursum versus cadere in
terram? Et miratur aliquis, hortos pensiles inter septem mira narrari, cum
philosophi et agros, et maria, et urbes, et montes pensiles faciant? Huius
quoque erroris aperienda nobis origo est. Nam semper eodem modo falluntur. Cum
enim falsum aliquid in principio sumpserint, veri similitudine inducti, necesse
est eos in ea, quae consequuntur, incurrere. Sic incidunt in multa ridicula;
quia necesse est falsa esse, quae rebus falsis congruunt. Cum autem primis habuerint
fidem, qualia sint ea, quae sequuntur, non circumspiciunt, sed defendunt omni
modo; cum debeant prima illa, utrumne vera sint, an falsa, ex consequentibus
iudicare.
vestigium:
footprint
ineptus: silly
quae apud nos
iacent, inversa pendere?: which are lying by us, are hanging upside
down? (e.g. a cloth on a table)
deorsum versus:
downwards
nix nivis
(f.): snow
grando grandinis
(f.): hail
sursum versus:
upwards
hortos pensiles:
hanging gardens (of Babylon)
cum philosopi…faciant:
when philosophers invent
aperienda nobis
origo: the origin is to be uncovered by us
falluntur: go
wrong
sumpserint:
have assumed
veri similitudine
inducti: having it put forward as truth
circumspiciunt:
look carefully
2 Quae
igitur illos ad Antipodas ratio perduxit? Videbant siderum cursus in occasum
meantium; solem atque lunam in eamdem partem semper occidere, atque oriri
semper ab eadem. Cum autem non perspicerent, quae machinatio cursus eorum
temperaret, nec quomodo ab occasu ad orientem remearent, coelum autem ipsum in
omnes partes putarent esse devexum, quod sic videri, propter immensam
latitudinem necesse est: existimaverunt, rotundum esse mundum sicut pilam, et
ex motu siderum opinati sunt coelum volvi, sic astra solemque, cum occiderint,
volubilitate ipsa mundi ad ortum referri. Itaque et aereos orbes fabricati sunt, quasi ad figuram mundi, eosque
caelarunt portentosis quibusdam simulacris, quae astra esse dicerent. Hanc
igitur coeli rotunditatem illud sequebatur, ut terra in medio sinu eius esset
inclusa. Quod si ita esset, etiam ipsam terram globo similem; neque enim fieri
posset, ut non esset rotundum, quod rotundo conclusum teneretur. Si autem
rotunda etiam terra esset, necesse esse, ut in omnes coeli partes eamdem faciem
gerat, id est montes erigat, campos tendat, maria consternat. Quod si esset,
etiam sequebatur illud extremum, ut nulla sit pars terrae, quae non ab
hominibus caeterisque animalibus incolatur. Sic pendulos istos Antipodas coeli
rotunditas adinvenit.
siderum cursus in
occasum meantium: the course of the wandering start to the west
machinatio –onis
(f.): mechanism
remeo: go
again, return
devexus:
shelving
pila: ball
opinati sunt coelum
volvi: they think that the sky is
turning
volubilitate ipsa
mundi: by just the vast motion of the universe (not `the world’!)
aereos orbes:
indeed such mechanical devises depicting the universe in order to explain its
motion have been discovered.
caelo: to
engrave
portentosis
quibusdam simulacris: some horrible images (Why horrible? Because they didn’t
really look like stars? Or is it just derogatory?)
Hanc igitur coeli
rotunditatem illud sequebatur: this followed from that roundness of the sky
in medio sinu:
at the centre of the curved surface
ut non esset
rotundum, quod rotundo conclusum teneretur: i.e. because the sky is round,
the earth must be round too
ut in omnes coeli
partes eamdem faciem gerat: that it has the same appearance towards all part of the sky (But like the
idea that the earth must be round because the sky is round, this idea too carries
some aesthetic reasoning.)
erigo erexi
erectum: to lift up
tendo tetendi tentum
(tensum): to stretch out
consterno constravi
constratum: to spread
pendulus:
hanging down
3 Quod si quaeras ab iis, qui haec
portenta defendunt, quomodo non cadunt omnia in inferiorem illam coeli partem;
respondent, hanc rerum esse naturam, ut pondera in medium ferantur, et
ad medium connexa sint omnia, sicut radios videmus in rota; quae autem levia
sunt, ut nebula, fumus, ignis, a medio deferantur, ut coelum petant. Quid dicam
de iis nescio, qui, cum semel aberraverint, constanter in stultitia
perseverant, et vanis vana defendunt; nisi quod eos interdum puto, aut ioci
causa philosophari, aut prudentes et scios mendacia defendenda suscipere, quasi
ut ingenia sua in malis rebus exerceant, vel ostendant. At ego multis argumentis probare possem, nullo
modo fieri posse, ut coelum terra sit inferius, nisi et liber iam concludendus
esset, et adhuc aliqua restarent, quae magis sunt praesenti operi necessaria.
Et quoniam singulorum errores percurrere non est unius libri opus, satis sit
pauca enumerasse, ex quibus possit qualia sint caetera intelligi.
haec portenta:
these horrible things
ut pondera in
medium ferantur: that heavy things go to the centre (This idea comes from
Aristotle and it explains gravity.)
radios in rota:
spokes in a wheel
defero detuli
delatum: go away from
peto: to seek,
strive
semel: once
interdum: now
and then
ioci causa: for
fun
aut prudentes et
scios mendacia defendenda suscipere: or clever and on purpose take up to
defend lies
ingenia sua:
their intelligence
ostendo ostendi
ostentum: to show
nisi et liber (=
chapter) iam concludendus esset: a
very weak reason for not bringing forward arguments for a flat earth!
quoniam:
whereas
Translated by William Fletcher. From Ante-Nicene Fathers,
Vol. 7 (1886)
How is it with those who imagine that there are antipodes
opposite to our footsteps? Do they say anything to the purpose? Or is there any
one so senseless as to believe that there are men whose footsteps are higher
than their heads? Or that the things which with us are in a recumbent position,
with them hang in an inverted direction? That the crops and trees grow
downwards? That the rains, and snow, and hail fall upwards to the earth? And
does any one wonder that hanging gardens are mentioned among the seven wonders
of the world, when philosophers make hanging fields, and seas, and cities, and
mountains? The origin of this error must also be set forth by us. For they are
always deceived in the same manner. For when they have assumed anything false
in the commencement of their investigations, led by the resemblance of the
truth, they necessarily fall into those things which are its consequences. Thus
they fall into many ridiculous things; because those things which are in
agreement with false things, must themselves be false. But since they placed
confidence in the first, they do not consider the character of those things
which follow, but defend them in every way; whereas they ought to judge from
those which follow, whether the first are true or false.
What course of argument, therefore, led them to the idea
of the antipodes? They saw the courses of the stars travelling towards the
west; they saw that the sun and the moon always set towards the same quarter,
and rise from the same. But since they did not perceive what contrivance
regulated their courses, nor how they returned from the west to the east, but
supposed that the heaven itself sloped downwards in every direction, which
appearance it must present on account of its immense breadth, they thought that
the world is round like a ball, and they fancied that the heaven revolves in
accordance with the motion of the heavenly bodies; and thus that the stars and
sun, when they have set, by the very rapidity of the motion of the world are
borne back to the east. Therefore they both constructed brazen orbs, as though
after the figure of the world, and engraved upon them certain monstrous images,
which they said were constellations. It followed, therefore, from this
rotundity of the heaven, that the earth was enclosed in the midst of its curved
surface. But if this were so, the earth also itself must be like a globe; for
that could not possibly be anything but round, which was held enclosed by that
which was round. But if the earth also were round, it must necessarily happen
that it should present the same appearance to all parts of the heaven; that is,
that it should raise aloft mountains, extend plains, and have level seas. And
if this were so, that last consequence also followed, that there would be no
part of the earth uninhabited by men and the other animals. Thus the rotundity
of the earth leads, in addition, to the invention of those suspended antipodes.
But if you inquire from those who defend these marvellous
fictions, why all things do not fall into that lower part of the heaven, they
reply that such is the nature of things, that heavy bodies are borne to the
middle, and that they are all joined together towards the middle, as we see
spokes in a wheel; but that the bodies which are light, as mist, smoke, and fire,
are borne away from the middle, so as to seek the heaven. I am at a loss what
to say respecting those who, when they have once erred, consistently persevere
in their folly, and defend one vain thing by another; but that I sometimes
imagine that they either discuss philosophy for the sake of a jest, or
purposely and knowingly undertake to defend falsehoods, as if to exercise or
display their talents on false subjects. But I should be able to prove by many
arguments that it is impossible for the heaven to be lower than the earth, were
it not that this book must now be concluded, and that some things still remain,
which are more necessary for the present work. And since it is not the work of
a single book to run over the errors of each individually, let it be sufficient
to have enumerated a few, from which the nature of the others may be
understood.
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