390 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



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 Poj^c Zachary. Boniface 

 immediately declai'es 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 jiublicly assert tlie 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.' 



Still the idea lived and moved, and a hundred years later we find 

 the theologian Tostatus protesting against the doctrine of the an- 

 tipodes 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 jDart 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 bat- 

 tles : how the Bishop of Ceuta worsted him in Portugal ; how at the 

 Junta of Salamanca the theologians overwhelmed him with quota- 

 tions from the Psalms, from St. Paul, and from St. Augustine.'' 



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.^ 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 Vir- 

 gil'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 Ginguenc, 

 vol. ii., p. 293. Also Naude, " Histoire des grands hommes accuses de Magie." For Cecco 

 d'Ascoli, see Montucla, "Histoire des Mathematiques," i., 528; also, Daunou, "Etudes 

 Historiques," vol. vi., p. 320. Concerning Orcagna's representation of Cecco in flames 

 of hell, see Renan, " Averroes et I'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, el 

 seq. Also Humboldt, " Histoire de la Geographic du Nouveau Continent" 



2 For eifect 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 Geog.,'- 



