Note 242 — Chapter II · THE CONTRIBUTION OF WESTERN CHRISTENDOM BEFORE 1100 A. D.

Migne, Pat. lat., vol. vi, col. 426; vol. xli, col. 487; Mon. Germ. hist., Script. rerum merovingicarum, vol. vi, 1913, pp. 517–520. Much has been written on Virgil of Salzburg and his relations to the ecclesiastical authorities of his time. Protestants like Draper, Whewell, White, and Siegmund Günther have looked upon Virgil as more or less a martyr to the cause of freedom of thought. Catholics, on the other hand, have tried to demonstrate that Virgil cleared himself of the charge of heresy and that as a bishop he was able to carry on valuable work for the church. See Krabbo, Bischof Virgil, 1903, and Van der Linden, Virgile de Salzbourg, 1914. The latter maintains that “contrairement à l’opinion reçue, Virgile de Salzbourg a été très probablement un simple commentateur et non un novateur.... Sa théorie, au lieu de marquer le début d’une 387ère de progrès dans les études cosmographiques, constitue l’un des derniers reflets de la culture classique avant la nuit du Xe siècle” (critique of Van der Linden, op. cit., in Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Civilization, vol. ii, Brussels, Sept. 1919, pp. 437–438).