In the sixth century, indeed, in the reign of Justinian, we find a writer (Cosmas Indicopleustes[11\4]) who does not rest in this obscurity of {197} representation; but in this case, the distinctness of the pictures only serves to show his want of any clear conception as to what suppositions would explain the phenomena. He describes the earth as an oblong floor, surrounded by upright walls, and covered by a vault, below which the heavenly bodies perform their revolutions, going round a certain high mountain, which occupies the northern parts of the earth, and makes night by intercepting the light of the sun. In Augustin[12\4] (who flourished A. D. 400) the opinion is treated on other grounds; and without denying the globular form of the earth, it is asserted that there are no inhabitants on the opposite side, because no such race is recorded by Scripture among the descendants of Adam.[13\4] Considerations of the same kind operated in the well-known instance of Virgil, Bishop of Salzburg, in the eighth century. When he was reported to Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz, as holding the existence of Antipodes, the prelate was shocked at the assumption, as it seemed to him, of a world of human beings, out of the reach of the conditions of salvation; and application was made to Pope Zachary for a censure of the holder of this dangerous doctrine. It does not, however, appear that this led to any severity; and the story of the deposition of Virgil from his bishopric, which is circulated by Kepler and by more modern writers, is undoubtedly altogether false. The same scruples continued to prevail among Christian writers to a later period; and Tostatus[14\4] notes the opinion of the rotundity of the earth as an "unsafe" doctrine, only a few years before Columbus visited the other hemisphere. [Note 11\4: Montfaucon, _Collectio Nova Patrum_, t. ii. p. 113. Cosmas Indicopleustes. Christianorum Opiniones de Mundo, sive Topographia Christiana.] [Note 12\4: _Civ. D._ xvi. 9.] [Note 13\4: It appears, however, that scriptural arguments were found on the other side. St. Jerome says (_Comm. in Ezech._ i. 6), speaking of the two cherubims with four faces, seen by the prophet, and the interpretation of the vision: "Alii vero qui philosophorum stultam sequuntur sapientiam, duo hemispheria in duobus templi cherubim, nos et antipodes, quasi supinos et cadentes homines suspicantur."] [Note 14\4: Montfauc. _Patr._ t. ii.]