But _did_ he ever do it? Either, then, show a reason
why a thing is so, or a purpose wherefore it is so, or else
cease to declare it so."[328]
The most permanent contribution of Bede to scientific thought in
this field was his revival of the view that the firmament is
made of ice; and he supported this from the words in the
twenty-sixth chapter of Job, "He bindeth up the waters in his
thick cloud, and the cloud is not rent under them."
About the beginning of the ninth century appeared the third in
that triumvirate of churchmen who were the oracles of sacred
science throughout the early Middle Ages--Rabanus Maurus, Abbot
of Fulda and Archbishop of Mayence. Starting, like all his
predecessors, from the first chapter of Genesis, borrowing here
and there from the ancient philosophers, and excluding
everything that could conflict with the letter of Scripture, he
follows, in his work upon the universe, his two predecessors,
Isidore and Bede, developing especially St. Jerome's theory,
drawn from Ezekiel, that the firmament is strong enough to hold
up the "waters above the heavens," because it is made of ice.
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