this priest has read the ENTIRE docuмent, which I doubt she has, and shown that the context is such that St. ...

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The offending article, which flat-earthdom syndromers love to hate:
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https://tradidi.com/st-thomas-held-and-taught-that-the-earth-is-round
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St. Thomas Held and Taught that the Earth is Round

[^ The title ^ found in the source book, published in 1918]

Submitted by Admin on 12 April 2018

Source : American Ecclesiastical Review, Vol 58, May 1918, p. 315

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To the Editor, The Ecclesiastical Review.

In his beautiful pageant, The Discovery of America, Dr. Coakley introduces Columbus as saying to the prior of La Rabida

"... My studies prove that our dwelling place is round ".

To which the gentle friar answers ("in great surprise"),

"You say 'tis round !"

And then Columbus :

"As round as is the ball beneath yon towering cross ".

Afterward, in the court scene when Isabella is told that Columbus holds the earth to be round, she is greatly amazed, and even the Cardinal shakes his head dubiously.

Now while the surprise of the Queen at hearing a cosmical theory which may not have passed from the University hall into the palace, was natural enough, a prince of the Church and the prior of a monastery ought not to have been unaware of the opinion held by many of the learned of their day that this earth of ours is really a sphere. For were not St. Thomas's Summa Theologica as well as Aristotle's Physics text-books at the time in the hands of university professors and students?

In both these familiar instruments of knowledge the sphericity of the earth is explicitly maintained. The Angelic Doctor mentions the subject in two passages of the Summa (P. I, Q. I, A. I, ad 2^um, and P. I-II, Q. LIV, A. 2 ad 2^um) ; also in his commentary on the Sentences(II, D, 24, Q. 2, 2, 5^um) ; in his commentary on the Post. Anal. (L. 41), on the Phys. (II, L. 3) ; and more at length in the De Coelo et Mundo (L. II, L. 26, 27, 28 ). One citation from the Summa will suffice for the present purpose.

St. Thomas is answering an objection against his conclusion that the principle upon which habits are classified is their formal object. It is urged that one and the same object may fall under different habits of science; "sicut terram esse rotundam demonstrat naturalis et astrologus". He replies : "Dicendum quod terram esse rotundam per aliud medium demonstrat naturalis, et per aliud astrologus. Astrologus enim hoc demonstrat per media mathematica, sicut per figuras eclipsium, vel per aliud hujusmodi. Naturalis vero hoc demonstrat per medium naturale, sicut per motum gravium ad medium, vel per aliud hujusmodi." And the rest (I, Q. LIV, A. 2 ad 2^um).

In other words, St. Thomas declares that Aristotle's assertion that the earth is round is capable of proof by two middle terms. The astronomer derives his argument from  mathematics, that is, from the round shape of the earth cast upon the disk of the moon during an eclipse. The natural philosopher derives his argument from the physical phenomenon of gravitation, namely that "heavy" bodies tend toward the centre of the earth; therefore the earth must be round.

That the roundness here meant is certainly not that of a flat disk, but that of a ball or sphere is abundantly manifest from the teaching both of Aristotle and of Aquinas which is developed at some length in the Lectiones (26, 27, 28 ) on the second book of the De Coelo et Mundo.

Moreover, both these venerable teachers thought it probable that the ocean stretching beyond Gibraltar merged into the Mare Indicuм, which washed the eastern shores of India; and since this opinion was laid down in the second book of the Philosopher's De Coelo et Mundo, commented upon by Aquinas (Lect. 28 ), it is not so surprising that the great Genoese thought the earth was round and that by sailing westward from the pillars of Hercules he would reach the shores of India; or that until his death Columbus believed that he had actually landed upon the Asian continent. The surprise is that the ecclesiastics of his day are thought not to have known the teachings of their school books.

J. F. S.

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"Now that I have drawn everyone's attention to this fact, I do think there is anything left to say."
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............. [Typo: should have, ...I do not think there is anything left to say.]

It's funny that your source posted says that Queen Isabella and the Cardinal believed the earth was flat, since you and Jaynek have claimed for months that "no learned Catholic ever believed the earth was flat."
You two both fell for Jeffrey Burton Russell's lie that Columbus and the people of the time did not really think earth was flat.

Your lie is no undoneby your own quote which states the queen, the friar, and the cardinal were "greatly amazed" in the court when Columbus told them earth was "round, like a ball."

The source is a hundred year old letter to the editor in a journal for priests.  The author was expressing surprise that a history book would claim that educated Catholics believed the earth was flat.  He wrote: "The surprise is that the ecclesiastics of his day are thought not to have known the teachings of their school books."

This priest is making the point that, since it is clear in the writings of St. Thomas that he believed and taught that the earth is a sphere, it is highly unlikely that a Cardinal or any educated Catholic would have believed the earth is flat as the quoted history book claims.  The quote which states "the queen, the friar, and the cardinal were "greatly amazed" in the court" is introduced by the author so that he may disagree with it.  The article's author shows that the claim of the history book is not compatible with what is known from the works of St. Thomas.

It is quite true that one hundred years ago, few people were aware of this anomaly.  History books in Britain and America regularly taught that Catholics at the time of Columbus Catholics thought the world was flat.  Only those people with sufficient education to be directly familiar with medieval writers realized that this popular belief made no sense.

Nowadays, more people are aware of the truth and fewer history books make the false claim about Catholic beliefs.  Jeffery Burton Russell traced this false claim about Catholics believing the earth was flat back to anti-religion and anti-Catholic authors.  He makes a compelling case that this was the cause of the popular misconception.  Many historians now accept his theory that it came from anti-Catholicism.  Even those who question his theory about the cause cannot deny that virtually all the docuмentation from 700 AD onward shows that educated Catholics believed in a spherical earth.  The only question is whether the falsehood about medieval Catholics believing in a flat earth was deliberately introduced by anti-Catholics or not.

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Whoever wrote this article (no evidence was offered to support the claim that it was a resistance priest) it misrepresents the position of St. Thomas.

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St. Thomas refers to Aristotle's view as the truth.

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The source is a hundred year old letter to the editor in a journal for priests.  The author was expressing surprise that a history book would claim that educated Catholics believed the earth was flat.  He wrote: "The surprise is that the ecclesiastics of his day are thought not to have known the teachings of their school books."

This priest is making the point that, since it is clear in the writings of St. Thomas that he believed and taught that the earth is a sphere, it is highly unlikely that a Cardinal or any educated Catholic would have believed the earth is flat as the quoted history book claims.  The quote which states "the queen, the friar, and the cardinal were "greatly amazed" in the court" is introduced by the author so that he may disagree with it.  The article's author shows that the claim of the history book is not compatible with what is known from the works of St. Thomas.

It is quite true that one hundred years ago, few people were aware of this anomaly.  History books in Britain and America regularly taught that Catholics at the time of Columbus Catholics thought the world was flat.  Only those people with sufficient education to be directly familiar with medieval writers realized that this popular belief made no sense.

Nowadays, more people are aware of the truth and fewer history books make the false claim about Catholic beliefs.  Jeffery Burton Russell traced this false claim about Catholics believing the earth was flat back to anti-religion and anti-Catholic authors.  He makes a compelling case that this was the cause of the popular misconception.  Many historians now accept his theory that it came from anti-Catholicism.  Even those who question his theory about the cause cannot deny that virtually all the docuмentation from 700 AD onward shows that educated Catholics believed in a spherical earth.  The only question is whether the falsehood about medieval Catholics believing in a flat earth was deliberately introduced by anti-Catholics or not.