e Margarita Philosophica. Edition
after edition was issued, and everywhere appeared in it the orthodox
statements; but they were evidently strained to the breaking point; for
while, in treating of the antipodes, Reysch refers respectfully to St.
Augustine as objecting to the scientific doctrine, he is careful not to
cite Scripture against it, and not less careful to suggest geographical
reasoning in favour of it.

But in 1519 science gains a crushing victory. Magellan makes his
famous voyage. He proves the earth to be round, for his expedition
circumnavigates it; he proves the doctrine of the antipodes, for his
shipmates see the peoples of the antipodes. Yet even this does not end
the war. Many conscientious men oppose the doctrine for two hundred
years longer. Then the French astronomers make their measurements of
degrees in equatorial and polar regions, and add to their proofs that
of the lengthened pendulum. When this was done, when the deductions of
science were seen to be established by the simple test of measurement,
beautifully and perfectly, and when a long line of trustworthy
explorers, including devoted missionaries, had sent home accounts of the
antipodes, then, and then only, this war of twelve centuries ended.

Such was the main result of this long war; but there were other results
not so fortunate. The efforts of Eusebius, Basil, and Lactantius to
deaden scientific thought; the efforts of Augustine to combat it; the
efforts of Cosmas to crush it by dogmatism; the efforts of Boniface
and Zachary to crush it by force, conscientious as they all were, had
resulted simply in impressing upon many leading minds the conviction
that science and religion are enemies.

On the other hand, what was gained by the warriors of science for
religion? Certainly a far more worthy conception of the world, and a far
more ennobling conception of that power which pervades and directs
it. Which is more consistent with a great religion, the cosmography
of Cosmas or that of Isaac Newton? Which presents a nobler field for
religious thought, the diatribes of Lactantius or the calm statements of
Humboldt?(36)

(36) For D'Ailly's acceptance of St. Augustine's argument, see the Ymago
Mundi, cap. vii. For Tostatus, see Zockler, vol. i, pp. 467, 468. He
based his opposition on Romans x, 18. For Columbus, see Winsor,
Fiske, and Adams; also Humboldt, Histoire de la Geographie du Nouveau
Continent. For the bull of Alexander VI, see