As to the firmament,
he is in doubt whether it envelops the earth "like an eggshell,"
or is merely spread over it "like a curtain"; for he holds that
the passage in the one hundred and fourth Psalm may be used to
support either view.
Having laid these scriptural foundations, Isidore shows
considerable power of thought; indeed, at times, when he
discusses the rainbow, rain, hail, snow, and frost, his theories
are rational, and give evidence that, if he could have broken
away from his adhesion to the letter of Scripture, he might have
given a strong impulse to the evolution of a true science.[326]
About a century later appeared, at the other extremity of
Europe, the second in the trio of theological men of science in
the early Middle Ages--Bede the Venerable. The nucleus of his
theory also is to be found in the accepted view of the "firmament"
and of the "waters above the heavens," derived from Genesis.
The firmament he holds to be spherical, and of a nature
subtile and fiery; the upper heavens, he says, which
contain the angels, God has tempered with ice, lest they inflame
the lower elements.
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