Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Robert Bellarmine Teaching Geocentrism in De Ascensione Mentis in Deum, per Scalas Rerum Creatarum (Cologne, 1626)

  

Then, David extolled the course of the sun, which is also very admirable, “He has rejoiced as a giant to run his way.”

 

A powerful giant, if he would extend his steps in accord with his stature, and run as fas as his strength would afford, he will go a long way in a short time. Truly, the prophet, having compared the run to a bridegroom so as to declare its beauty, he later compares it to a giant so that by the resemblance he might show in some way how fast its stride is. Now, albeit he had not compared it to a giant, but to the flight of birds and arrows, or to the winds and lightning, yet should it have been far from the thing indeed. If that is true which we see with our eyes, namely, that the sun makes its course around the earth in twenty-four hours, and if the measure of the suns orb exceeds almost without comparison the measure of the earth, and if the measure of the earth contains about twenty thousand miles, all which is most true, it necessarily follows that the sun, at every hour, moves many thousands of miles; and why say I every hour, nay every quarter of an hour, indeed, almost every minute? Whosoever observes the rising or setting of the sun, in an open horizon, as at sea or in a plain field, will perceive the whole body of the sun moves above the horizon in less space than an eighty of an hour. And yet, the diameter of the sun’s body is much greater than the diameter of the earth, which, notwithstanding, contains seven thousand miles. I myself was once eager to know in what space of time the sun set at sea, at the beginning thereof I began to read the Psalm Misere mei Deus, and scarce had I read it twice over before the sun had completely set. As a result, it must be the case that the sun passed through far more space than seven miles in the short time in which I said the Misere twice. Who would believe this, unless certain reason proved it? And now, if anyone were to say that this body, which is so swiftly moved, is much greater than the whole earth, and that its motion is performed without ceasing or weariness, so that God should so command, it might continue for all eternity; surely, if he were not insensible, he could not but marvel at the infinite power of God. Sirach rings true, when he says, “That this is an admirable vessel, the work of the most high, and great is our Lord that made it.” (Robert Bellarmine, The Ascent of The Mind To God: By the Ladder of Creation [trans. Ryan Grant; Port Falls, ID.: Mediatrix Press, 2022], Seventh Step, Chapter 2, pp. 92-93)