St. Jerome held that God at the Creation, having spread out the
firmament between heaven and earth, and having separated the
upper waters from the lower, caused the upper waters to be
frozen into ice, in order to keep all in place. A proof of this
view Jerome found in the words of Ezekiel regarding "the
crystal stretched above the cherubim."[324c]
The germinal principle in accordance with which all these
theories were evolved was most clearly proclaimed to the world
by St. Augustine in his famous utterance: "Nothing is to be
accepted save on the authority of Scripture, since greater is
that authority than all the powers of the human mind."[325] No
treatise was safe thereafter which did not breathe the spirit
and conform to the letter of this maxim. Unfortunately, what was
generally understood by the "authority of Scripture" was the
tyranny of sacred books imperfectly transcribed, viewed through
distorting superstitions, and frequently interpreted by party spirit.
Following this precept of St.
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