NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 375 



supporting the firmament ; then, throwing together the reference to 

 the firmament in Genesis and the outburst of poetry in the Psalms 

 regarding the " waters that be above the heavens," he insisted that 

 over the terrestrial universe are solid arches bearing a vault, closing it 

 in and supporting a vast cistern " containing the waters " ; finally, tak- 

 ing from Genesis the expression regarding the " windows of heaven," 

 he insisted that these windows are opened and closed by the angels 

 whenever the Almighty wishes to send rain upon the earth or to with- 

 hold it.* 



This was accepted by the universal Church as a vast contribution 

 to thought ; for over a thousand years it was the orthodox doctrine, 

 and various leaders in theology devoted themselves to developing and 

 supplementing it. , 



About the beginning of the seventh century, Isidore, Bishop of 

 Seville, was the ablest prelate in Christendom, and was showing those 

 great qualities which led to his enrollment among the saints of the 

 Church. His theological view of science marks an epoch. As to the 

 " waters above the firmament," Isidore contends that they must be 

 lower than the uppermost heaven, though higher than the lower heaven, 

 because in the one hundred and forty-eighth Psalm they are mentioned 

 after the heavenly bodies and the " heaven of heavens," but before the 

 terrestrial elements. As to their purpose, he hesitates between those 

 who held that they were stored up there by the prescience of God for 

 the destruction of the world at the flood, as the words of Scripture 

 that "the windows of heaven were opened" seemed to indicate, and 

 those who held that they were kept there to moderate the heat of the 

 heavenly bodies. As to the firmament, he is in doubt whether it en- 

 velops the earth " like an egg-shell," or is merely spread over it " like 

 a curtain" ; for he holds that the passage in the one hundred and 

 fourth Psalm may be used to support either view. 



Having laid these scriptural foundations, Isidore shows consider- 

 able power of thought ; indeed, at times, when he discusses the rain- 

 bow, rain, hail, snow, and frost, his theories are rational, and give evi- 

 dence that, if he could have broken away from his adhesion to the 

 letter of Scripture, he might have given a vast impulse to the evolu- 

 tion of a true science.f 



About a century later appeared, at the other extremity of Europe, 

 the second in the trio of theological men of science in the early middle 

 ages, Bede the Venerable. The nucleus of his theory also is to be 

 found in the accepted view of the " firmament " and of the " waters 

 above the heavens," derived from Genesis ; the firmament he holds to 

 be spherical, and of a nature subtile and fiery ; the upper heavens, he 

 says, which contain the angels, God has tempered with ice, lest they 



* Sec Cosraas, " Topographia Christiana " (in Montfaucon, " Collectio nova patrum," ii). 

 f See Isidore, " Etymologise," xiii, 7-9, " De ordine creaturarum," 3, 4, and " De na- 

 tura rerum," 29, 30 (Mignc, "Patr. Lat.," lxxxii, 476, 47V, Ixxxiii, 920-922, 1001-1003). 



