It was around 500 B.C. that Pythagoras first proposed a spherical Earth, mainly on aesthetic grounds rather than on any physical evidence. Like many Greeks, he believed the sphere was the most perfect shape.
Rather it is said that Pythagoras first proposed a spherical Earth, for Pythagoras did not leave a single piece of paper confirming any of the proposals and heresies attributed to him.
This information comes from the book Burned Alive by A.A. Martinez. His book is about the heresies and false philosophies of Bruno. In it Martinez shows us that in the first three centuries of the Catholic Church the Fathers and popes had an ongoing war with the Pythagorean heresies as they were called, heresies of an orbiting Earth, many worlds with intelligent life on them, that the moving Earth must have a soul, etc., etc. Bruno held many of these heresies but not once was there a mention of a spherical Earth being one of them. This proves the Church never held to a flat Earth in any way whatsoever.
As for Tomgibbons's: 'There have always been those who thought it was a globe, but science now disproves that.
No matter which way you want to wiggle, there is no way out of it.
Honest people can discern this truth themselves.
Well the science of geodesy does not confirm a flat Earth, it confirms a global Earth. The Coriolis Effect also confirms a globe.