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