Two passages in the _Causae et curae_ of Hildegard can apparently be explained only on the supposition of a flat earth.[669] Hildegard seems also to have been haunted by the old belief that bulked so large in the imagination of Cosmas Indicopleustes,[670] the belief that the earth rises into an immense mountain in the north.[671] She asserted that this mountain prevented the light of the east from penetrating the darkness of the north and the darkness of the north from obscuring the light of the east. On the other hand, in her visions the abbess more than once saw the earth as a globe.[672] In the writings of the mystic Hugh of St. Victor we have a typical medieval allegorical interpretation of the words of Scripture regarding the earth’s form, with instructions as to how a map of the world ought to be made.[673] Hugh compares the _orbis terrae_ to an “oblong circle,” or oval, drawn around the ark, touching each corner. An oval shape was necessitated by the rectangular ground plan of the ark. Within this oval the _mappa mundi_, or map of the world, is to be drawn, with the front of the ark facing the east, and its rear, the west. In the segment formed to the east, between the ark and the circle, is Paradise; in that to the west the resurrection will take place; the chosen will go to the right, and the damned to the left into Hell, which forms the segment toward the north. Beyond this “oblong circle” another circle is to be drawn to show the zones, and the space between the two is the atmosphere. One hesitates to draw conclusions from this as to what shape Hugh imagined the earth to be; probably he himself had no very definite theory. The picture which his description seems to invoke in our minds is that of a flat oval earth covered by an ovoid heaven, and certainly it is in every respect inconsistent with belief in a spherical earth. IMMOBILITY OF THE EARTH However men may have thought about the shape of the earth, there was no questioning the fact that it stands immobile and firm. Doctrines like that of the Pythagorean Philolaus had no place in medieval thought.[674] The ignorant, nevertheless, were often puzzled by the problem of what supports the earth. The author of the _De imagine mundi_ was content uncritically to explain that no fulcrum or support is necessary for this purpose but that the “divine power” is all-sufficient.[675] He quoted the one hundred and third Psalm: “Who hast founded the earth upon its own bases: it shall not be moved for ever and ever.”