Antipodes
Speculations concerning the rotundity of the earth and the
possible existence of human beings "with their feet turned towards
ours" were of interest to the Fathers of the Early Church only in
so far as they seemed to encroach upon the fundamental Christian
dogma of the unity of the human race, and the consequent
universality of original sin and redemption. This is clearly seen
from the following passage of St. Augustine (De Civitate Dei, xvi,
9): "As to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men
on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it
sets on us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, there is
no reason for believing it. Those who affirm it do not claim to
possess any actual information; they merely conjecture that, since
the earth is suspended within the concavity of the heavens, and
there is as much room on the one side of it as on the other,
therefore the part which is beneath cannot be void of human
inhabitants. They fail to notice that, even should it be believed
or demonstrated that the world is round or spherical in form, it
does not follow that the part of the earth opposite to us is not
completely covered with water, or that any conjectured dry land
there should be inhabited by men. For Scripture, which confirms
the truth of its historical statements by the accomplishment of
its prophecies, teaches not falsehood; and it is too absurd to say
that some men might have set sail from this side and, traversing
the immense expanse of ocean, have propagated there a race of
human beings descended from that one first man." This opinion of
St. Augustine was commonly held until the progress of science,
whilst confirming his main contention that the human race is one,
dissipated the scruples arising from a defective knowledge of
geography. A singular exception occurs to us in the middle of the
eighth century. From a letter of Pope St. Zachary (1 May, 748),
addressed to St. Boniface, we learn that the great Apostle of
Germany had invoked the papal censure upon a certain missionary
among the Bavarians named Vergilius, generally supposed to be
identical with the renowned Ferghil, an Irishman, and later
Archbishop of Salzburg. Among other alleged misdeeds and errors
was numbered that of holding "that beneath the earth there was
another world and other men, another sun and moon". In reply, the
Pope directs St. Boniface to convoke a council and, "if it be made
clear" that Vergilius adheres to this "perverse teaching, contrary
to the Lord and to his own soul", to "expel him from the Church,
deprived of his priestly dignity". This is the only information
that we possess regarding an incident which is made to figure
largely in the imaginary warfare between theology and science.
That Vergilius was ever really tried, condemned, or forced to
retract, is an assumption without any foundation in history. On
the contrary, if he was in fact the future Archbishop of Salzburg,
it is more natural to conclude that he succeeded in convincing his
censors that by "other men" he did not understand a race of human
beings not descended from Adam and his redeemed by the Lord; for
it is patent that this was the feature of his teaching which
appeared to the Pope to be "perverse" and "contrary to the Lord".
Instead of narrow censure, the church and her theologians deserve
our highest esteem for having, throughout the ages, firmly upheld
the important doctrine of the universal brotherhood of the human
race. At the same time we recognize that the case of the Irish
monk who suffered the penalty of being several centuries in
advance of his age remains on the page of history, like the
parallel case of Galileo, as a solemn admonition against a hasty
resort to ecclesiastical censures (See also Zachary, Vergilius)
JAMES F. LOUGHLIN
Transcribed by Jim Holden
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc., P.O. Box 281096, Denver, Colorado, USA, 80228.
(
[email protected]) Taken from the New Advent Web Page
(www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.
-------------------------------------------------------
Provided courtesy of:
Eternal Word Television Network
PO Box 3610
Manassas, VA 22110
Voice: 703-791-2576
Fax: 703-791-4250
Data: 703-791-4336
Web:
http://www.ewtn.com
FTP: ewtn.com
Telnet: ewtn.com
Email address: sysop@ ewtn.com
EWTN provides a Catholic online
information and service system.
-------------------------------------------------------
