Note 2060 — Chapter XXI · CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE: BASIL, EPIPHANIUS, AND THE PHYSIOLOGUS

Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, I, 274, says, “Augustine and Chrysostom felt and spoke in the same way, though in more measured language, and nearly all early Christian writers who touched upon the matter did so to echo the voice of authorities so unquestioned.” But I cannot agree with this statement. He goes on to imply that a majority of the fathers, like Cosmas Indicopleustes, attacked the belief in the sphericity of the earth; but here, too, I wonder if he is not following Letronne, Des Opinions Cosmographiques des Pères, without having examined the citations. Certainly no such attitude is found in Basil’s Hexaemeron, Hom. 3 and 9 as the citation implies. I have not seen Marinelli, La geographia e i Padri della Chiesa, estratto dal Bollettino della Società geografica italiana, anno 1882, pp. 11-15.