ii, chapter on the map of the world in Hereford
Cathedral; also the rude maps in Cardinal d'Ailly's Ymago Mundi;
also copies of maps of Marino Sanuto and others in Peschel,
Erdkunde, p. 210; also Munster, Fac Simile dell' Atlante di
Andrea Bianco, Venezia, 1869. And for discussions of the whole
subject, see Satarem, vol. ii, p. 295, vol. iii, pp. 71, 183,
184, and elsewhere. For a brief summary with citations, see
Eiken, Geschichte, etc., pp. 622, 623.
Nor did medieval thinkers rest with this conception. In
accordance with the dominant view that physical truth must be
sought by theological reasoning, the doctrine was evolved that
not only the site of the cross on Calvary marked the geographical
centre of the world, but that on this very spot had stood the
tree which bore the forbidden fruit in Eden. Thus was geography
made to reconcile all parts of the great theologic plan. This
doctrine was hailed with joy by multitudes; and we find in the
works of medieval pilgrims to Palestine, again and again,
evidence that this had become precious truth to them, both in
theology and geography. Even as late as 1664 the eminent French
priest Eugene Roger, in his published travels in Palestine, dwelt
upon the thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel, coupled with a text
from Isaiah, to prove that the exact centre of the earth is a
spot marked on the pavement of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
and that on this spot once stood the tree which bore the
forbidden fruit and the cross of Christ.
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