Why the "Flat Earth" was Rejected in the Middle Ages, yet Accepted by Many Today
How many medieval saints & scientists knew the Earth was a sphere?
Editor's Note: This fascinating article was originally published in Russian on the kulturologia.ru website. We have provided an English translation below. At the end of the article we have added a section, providing quotations both ancient and modern, from numerous Orthodox Saints who acknowledged that the earth is a sphere.
Today, despite the development of science and education, there are still people who believe that our planet Earth is a flat disk. All you have to do is go online and type the phrase “flat earth”. There is even a society of the same name that defends this idea. We'll tell you how things really stood with this in Antiquity and the European Middle Ages.
The myth of the flat earth
There is a common opinion among ordinary people, and even among some scientists, that in accordance with the Bible in the Middle Ages, people were sure that the Earth was flat. There is even a legend that the great navigator Christopher Columbus for a long time could not gain support for his plan to travel to India precisely because he argued that the Earth was spherical and not flat. In fact, everything went quite differently.
A 16th-century presentation of Ptolemy's geocentric model in Peter Alian's Cosmography of 1524.
Of course, we cannot say what peasants, artisans, merchants and even feudal lords thought about the shape of the Earth, if they even thought about such an abstract problem, because we have no such sources. However, there is data in historical science regarding people involved in the literary tradition.
Almost all thinkers and writers during the thousand-year period of the Middle Ages believed that the Earth, like the Cosmos, was spherical. The outstanding theologian St. Basil the Great generally considered all debates about the shape of the Earth unnecessary and meaningless from the point of view of faith. St. Augustine wrote that since the question of the shape of the Earth is not important for the salvation of the soul, priority in judgment should be given to the Greek philosophers, and he completely agreed with their point of view.
What theologians and philosophers said about the shape of the Earth
What opinion did the ancient philosophers adhere to? With the exception of three early philosophers — Leucippus & Democritus (who said the earth is flat) and Anaximander (who said the earth is a cylinder) — all the greatest Greek thinkers accepted and sometimes provided direct evidence for the sphericity of the earth. Let's list some of them: Pythagoras, Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes. Note that Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes are known to us as outstanding mathematicians and physicists.
A page from the treatise On the Spheres of John of Sacrobo.
Exactly the same situation arises if we consider the writings of the Eastern and Western Fathers of the Church. With the exception of Athanasius the Great, who proposed an intermediate option (a spherical earth floating above the ocean, surrounded by a hemisphere of the sky), and several minor authors of the so-called Antiochian school, the major theologians did not doubt the spherical theory, including: St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. John Damascene and others. (St. John Chrysostom seems to lean towards flat-earth beliefs in his commentary on the book of Hebrews, but in his commentary on the book of Isaiah he repudiates the flat-earth view.) The extremely popular church writer St. Bede the Venerable in Western Europe specifically draws attention to the fact that the Earth is a ball — a globe — and not a simple circle.
The cornerstone for the medieval astronomical worldview was the work of the ancient author Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria - the creator of the geocentric system of the world based on Aristotle's spherical system of the Cosmos. In his theory, at the center of the universe there was a spherical planet Earth, around which the Sun and other celestial bodies revolved.
Christ: Geometer of the Cosmos.
In accordance with this teaching, the medieval mathematician and astronomer John Sacrobosco wrote the work “On the Spheres.” This book was the main textbook on astronomy in all Western universities from the 13th to the mid-16th centuries. The widespread understanding that the Earth is a sphere is also illustrated by the design of the medieval measuring instrument, the astrolabe. This device and its use are described in detail by Geoffrey Chaucer in his work “A Treatise on the Astrolabe”. The addressee of this text was Chaucer's son. The author of the treatise is better known to us as a medieval poet and writer, creator of the famous “Canterbury Tales”.
The idea of a spherical planet
Even less authoritative and less well-known works support the idea of a spherical Earth. Thus, in a collection of medical texts copied in the fifteenth century, which is now in the library of Oxford University, it literally says the following: “The earth is but a small round ball in the middle of the circle of heaven, like the yolk in the middle of an egg.” There, when explaining the phenomenon of eclipses, they advise using an apple as a model of the Earth.
Miniature from a 15th century manuscript of a poem by the 13th century author Gossuin of Metz Image of the World - The Lord creates a spherical earth.
As for visual sources, images of God looking at the spherical Earth as the architect of the Cosmos, images of a king holding a ball as a symbol of earthly power, and numerous medieval maps have been preserved. These maps, like modern ones, represent a transfer of a three-dimensional Earth onto a two-dimensional plane. Their creators fully understood the difference between a flat and a round surface.
How did the flat earth version come about?
How did it happen that in modern times there arose an opinion, assuming that in the Middle Ages the Earth was considered flat? Historian Jeffrey Burton Russell, in his book Inventing the Flat Earth, relates the history of the dissemination of texts by two authors who have not yet been mentioned by us — supporters of the flat Earth hypothesis. The first of them is Lactantius, and the second is Cosmas Indicoplous (that is, “Cosmas, who sailed to India”).
Christ holding the earthly sphere.
Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) was an early Christian Latin author. He defended the flat Earth hypothesis, fighting the worldview of pagan philosophers. Lactantius's extensive literary legacy was little known in the Middle Ages, apparently because his theological writings were considered heretical. However, Renaissance humanists returned to his texts, which they valued for their excellent literary language and style.
Lactantius became even more famous when his opinion was criticized by the great astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus, the creator of the heliocentric system of the world. Copernicus never claimed that Lactantius's views were dominant. He insisted otherwise. The astronomer also refuted the geocentric system of Ptolemy. As we now know, Copernicus was right. Already in the 19th century, scientists, seeking to demonize the role of religion in the history of science, presented the point of view of Lactantius, marginal for the Middle Ages, as if it had been fundamental for that era.
Map of the World — Psalter 1265 A.D.
A similar story happened with the theological and cosmographic work of Cosmas Indicopleus (died about 540 or 550) “Christian Topography”. Cosmas was a traveler and a very educated person for those times. By literally interpreting some biblical metaphors, Kosmas built his version of the flat Earth hypothesis. In his treatise, the Earth is not even a flat disk, but a rectangle. Cosmas's opinion was apparently unpopular: only three copies of his treatise have reached us.
The work of Cosmas Indicopleus, which from a theological point of view was close to Nestorianism, was condemned in the 9th century by the Patriarch of Constantinople. It was not known at all in the Medieval West, and was translated into Latin only in 1706 after the scientific revolution.
The structure of the world in the treatise Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleus.
The first English translation dates from 1897. Having familiarized themselves with the translation of the work “Christian Topography”, scientists were convinced of the medieval “denseness”.
Thus, the works of two not-very-authoritative authors in the Middle Ages became the source of the myth of the flat Earth.
City Earth — An unusual display of the Earth as a weightless sphere dotted with numerous city spiers.
What about Columbus?
What's the story with Columbus? Everything is simple here. The resistance to his travel plan had nothing to do with the shape of the Earth. It was a matter of financing. Opponents of his project simply considered the search for a western route to India too long and expensive. They feared that the distance to India was greater than Columbus had imagined, and that other lands lay on the way. In the end, his critics were right. Christopher Columbus never reached India, but for Europeans he discovered what we now call America.
Addendum: Quotations from Orthodox Saints, Both Ancient & Modern
St. Gregory of Nyssa (+395 A.D.)
“As, when the sun shines above the earth, the shadow is spread over its lower part, because its spherical shape makes it impossible for it to be clasped all round at one and the same time by the rays, and necessarily, on whatever side the sun’s rays may fall on some particular point of the globe, if we follow a straight diameter, we shall find shadow upon the opposite point, and so, continuously, at the opposite end of the direct line of the rays shadow moves round that globe, keeping pace with the sun, so that equally in their turn both the upper half and the under half of the earth are in light and darkness." (On the Soul and the Resurrection)
“For just as those skilled in astronomy tell us that the whole universe is full of light, and darkness is made to cast its shadow by the interposition of the body formed by the earth; and that this darkness is shut off from the rays of the sun, in the shape of a cone, according to the figure of the sphere-shaped body, and behind it; while the sun, exceeding the earth by a size many times as great as its own, enfolding it round about on all sides with its rays, unites at the limit of cone the concurrent streams of light; so that if (to suppose the case) any one had the power of passing beyond the measure to which the shadow extends, he would certainly find himself in light unbroken by darkness.” (On the Making of Man, XXI, 3)
St. Jerome (+420 A.D.)
“the sphere which I have called motionless and all that it contains will be dissolved into nothing, and the sphere in which the antizone itself is contained shall be called ‘good ground,’ and that other sphere which in its revolution surrounds the earth and goes by the name of heaven shall be reserved for the abode of the saints.” (Letters, 124, To Avitus)
Clement of Alexandria (+215 A.D.)
“And how the Earth and sea their place should keep; And when the seasons, in their circling course, winter and summer, spring and autumn, each should come, according to a well ordered plan; out of a confused heap who didst create this ordered sphere, and from the shapeless mass.” (Paedagogus) [also found in St. Clement of Rome]
Eusebius (+339 A.D.) [not a saint, but highly respected as an early Church historian]
“The sun and the moon have their settled course. The stars move in no uncertain orbits round this terrestrial globe. The revolution of the seasons recurs according to unerring laws. The solid fabric of the earth was established by the word: the winds receive their impulse at appointed times; and the course of the waters continues with ceaseless flow” (Life of Constantine, Bk 2, Ch LVII)
St. John Chrysostom (+407 A.D.)
While St. John never says the earth is flat, there is a passage in his commentary on Hebrews where he seems to deny that the heavens are spherical. Some flat-earth adherents have latched onto this passage, thinking that St. John was advocating a flat earth:
"Where are they who say that the heaven whirls around? where are they who declare that it is spherical? For both of these notions are overthrown here." (Homily 14 on Hebrews)
However, in his Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah, considering the passage of Scripture in Isaiah 40:22, St. John discusses the circular shape of the Earth, and considers statements about its disk-shaped form to be pagan inventions:
"Do you see that the earth is a circle? The circle shows the round shape of the earth. It is also useful to know this, so that we are not seduced by the fables of pagan philosophers, who usually think that the earth is like a hollow, a roundness, a disk, a dish, or something similar." (Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah)
Of course, if the Earth is a circle, but not a disk, then it must be a sphere.
St. John Chrysostom's commentary on Isaiah is available online in Russian. If you are aware of an online English version, please let me know so I can link to it here. His commentary on Hebrews is available in English.
St. Basil the Great (+379)
St. Basil disapproved of such disputes, considering the shape of the Earth to be an insignificant matter of faith:
“Those who wrote about the world speculated about the shape of the Earth, whether it was a sphere, or a cylinder, or like a circle, equally turned on all sides, or like a tray with a depression in the middle (for those who wrote about the world resorted to all these assumptions, and each of them refuted the assumption of the other), but I will not agree to recognize our story about the creation of the world as worth less respect, because the servant of God Moses did not reason about figures, did not say that the circumference of the Earth has one hundred and eighty thousand stages, did not measure how far the earth's shadow extends, and how this shadow, falling on the moon, produces an eclipse. If he kept silent about this as useless for salvation, then will I really consider the words of the Holy Spirit of less importance than human wisdom?” (Conversations on the Six Days, 9)
St. Augustine (+430 A.D.)
“But if the light first created enveloped the earth on all sides, whether it was motionless or traveling round, it could not be followed anywhere by night, because it did not vacate any place to make room for night. But was it made on one side, so that as it traveled it would permit the night to follow after from the other? Although water still covered all the earth, there was nothing to prevent the massive watery sphere from having day on one side by the presence of light, and on the other side, night by the absence of light. Thus, in the evening, darkness would pass to that side from which light would be turning to the other.” (On Genesis)
St. John of Damascus (+749 A.D.)
"The eclipse of the moon, on the other hand, is due to the shadow the earth casts on it when it is a fifteen days' moon and the sun and moon happen to be at the opposite poles of the highest circle, the sun being under the earth and the moon above the earth. For the earth casts a shadow and the sun's light is prevented from illuminating the moon, and therefore it is then eclipsed." (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith - Book 2 - Chapter 7)
Editor's note: According to flat-earth cosmology, the sun never goes under the earth. If it did, the entire inhabited world would be in darkness all at once, which is something that never happens. Make a video call to the other side of the world at midnight, and it will be noon for the people you are calling. They will see you in the darkness of night, and you will see them in the light of day. If the earth were flat, and if the sun went under the earth, then this sort of video call would be impossible.
St. Theophan the Recluse (+1894)
"The sun stands in the middle, and around him walk all our planets, all gravitate to him and all are constantly turned to him any side" (Four Words on Prayer — Word 3)
St. John of Kronstadt (+1908)
"With extreme reverence pronounce the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who ... created the earth, able to rotate with the ease of an air bubble around such a huge luminary as the sun." (My Life in Christ)
St. Luke of Crimea (+1961)
"We know that the greatest geniuses of science have combined faith in God with great scientific activity — Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, I. P. Pavlov — we dare not put limits to the endeavors of the deep human mind... the possibilities of science are enormous, limitless... [but] we believe in the existence of a spiritual world... (The Role of Personality in History: St. Luke — Russian source)
St. Seraphim Rose (+1982)
In 2023, he was canonized as a saint. Famous for opposing the heresy of evolution, he also taught about the reality of the round earth, heliocentric cosmology, and modern man's genuine experience with space flight:
"The Ptolemaic model was found to be lacking because it did not explain the facts as well as the Copernican model. Copernicus said that if we interpret the earth and the other planets as going around the sun, then all these motions make sense; that is, they are mathematically very simple to explain. Eventually that was accepted. Now, by calculating according to the Copernican model, we can send rocket ships quite close to Saturn and not miss; in fact, it is astonishingly accurate. So obviously it seems to be true that all the planets do indeed go around the sun, even though, according to our observation, the sun goes around the earth." (Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, p. 375)
If you have additional Orthodox Saints' quotes to add to this list, please send them to me. I would be happy to expand the list.
I highly recommend these two books:
This article makes me very sad because obviously many Christians still believe satan's lie about the shape of the earth, DISREGARDING the scriptures about the subject. People have been taught the lie from birth so they will not even think about questioning it. Please Fr. Joe, give me proof that the earth is a ball spinning around in an infinite universe, nobody else has been able to (don't send any nasa fake photos). Luckily even today many resources can still be found to educate people on this subject, for example the great book by Edward Hendrie, "The greatest lie on earth" (available on amazon), The Flat Earth FAQ by Eric Dubay and of course the classic "Zetetic astronomy" by Samuel Rowbotham.
If the 'saints' so called, are in conflict with the Scriptures, the latter wins hands down. The Bible is 100% motionless earth, shaped like the face of a clock. The verses that suggest as much are too numerous to cite here. I'd not have believed it, based on 60 years of indoctrination, until the Lord Jesus Christ told me to 'study it'. I spent just 72 hours in the Scriptures, and was already convinced that they were lies that say earth is a spinning g ball, dating back to Clement and Copernicus, yet the Lord did even more and has since provided 1000s of elements of empirical evidence, that the Earth is his 'motionless' footstool, with a sun and moon circling overhead. All anyone with holy spirit need do, is ask him.