Asher Sisneros

One of the biggest misconceptions in modern historical textbooks is that people—Christians—during the Middle Ages believed the earth was flat. There are a few reasons as to why this myth is preposterous, and why it is nothing more than a myth. All modern historians acknowledge that historically speaking, everyone has always believed in a spherical earth. However, this truth was hijacked during the 1800s, and modern textbooks have not corrected the lie. 

In 240 BC, the Greek mathematician and geographer Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth. If he believed the earth was flat, he would not have calculated its circumference. What is remarkable is that Eratosthenes’ calculation was correct. Aristotle and many other Greeks held to the same opinion that the earth was a sphere. Eratosthenes was not the only one. The Greeks believed in a spherical earth and even knew its circumference hundreds of years before Christ was born.

As a means of scandalizing the Christian Church during the Middle Ages, it is also commonly believed that monarchs in Europe refused to fund Christopher Columbus’ expedition because he would fall off the edge of the earth. However, the monarchs did not believe this. They were not dumb rubes. Rather, they compared Christopher Columbus’ calculations to Eratosthenes’ calculations and determined that Columbus made a miscalculation and seriously underestimated the size of the earth. As such, they refused to fund his expedition because they believed his men would die at sea and their capital would be wasted. 

The natural question is if people historically—from the ancient world in Greece to the High Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery in Europe—believed in a spherical globe, where did the lie originate from? The myth was first propagated in the 19th century by Washington Irving (c. 1783-1859) and Antoine-Jean Letronne (c. 1787-1848). Irving was an American politician and a fictional writer. Letronne did write history, but he is often considered an unreliable source, as he also wrote fictional history and rarely distinguished between what was history and what was fiction. These men were able to spread the lie because it was culturally popular for people to speak derogatorily about the Christian Middle Ages, hence the term “Dark Ages.” These mythmakers cited two men when spreading this absurd belief: Lacantius (c. 245-325) and Cosmas Indicopleustes. The problem is that Lacantius was an insignificant figure during his time. The entire Catholic Church held him in disrepute as a heretic for subscribing to beliefs similar to Manichaeism. In essence, he antagonized everything Greek and “pagan,” including the belief in a spherical globe. However, nobody during his day or since has taken him seriously, so it is superficial to say all of humanity believed in a theory that was only advanced by one man; a culturally insignificant man. The second person cited by these mythmakers is Cosmas Indicopleustes because he created a model that depicted the world as flat. However, this is also a dubious source as Cosmas himself did not believe the earth was flat. He only created the model for spiritual metaphors. It was never supposed to be taken as a literal representation of the physical world. To make matters worse, Cosmas’ writings were not translated into Latin until 1706. How could have Europe believed in his model in 1492, when Colmbus found America, if Cosmas’ writings were not translated until 1706? Such a theory is preposterous. Aside from those two men, there is no historical argument of anyone ever making the case for a flat earth, and one of those men never even made the case for a flat earth. 

As one can see, the supposition that people during the Middle Ages believed in a flat earth is a completely baseless claim. There is no evidence supporting such a theory. Even though all modern historians acknowledge this truth, the textbooks have been slow to change. It will happen eventually, but that is the nature of writing for school board committees. All that to say, Europeans during the Age of Discovery did not believe the earth was flat; Middle Age scholastics did not believe the earth was flat; and ancient Greeks did not believe the earth was flat. Historically speaking, nobody has ever believed in a flat earth. Ironically, there are more flat-earthers today than at any other point in history.