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The monkish encyclopedists of the later Middle Ages added little
to these theories. As we glance over the pages of Vincent of
Beauvais, the monk Bartholomew, and William of Conches, we note
only a growing deference to the authority of Aristotle as
supplementing that of Isidore and Bede and explaining sacred
Scripture. Aristotle is treated like a Church father, but
extreme care is taken not to go beyond the great maxim of St.
Augustine; then, little by little, Bede and Isidore fall into
the background, Aristotle fills the whole horizon, and his
utterances are second in sacredness only to the text of Holy Writ.
A curious illustration of the difficulties these medieval
scholars had to meet in reconciling the scientific theories of
Aristotle with the letter of the Bible is seen in the case of
the rainbow. It is to the honour of Aristotle that his
conclusions regarding the rainbow, though slightly erroneous,
were based upon careful observation and evolved by reasoning
alone; but his Christian commentators, while anxious to follow
him, had to bear in mind the scriptural statement that God had
created the rainbow as a sign to Noah that there should never
again be a Flood on the earth.
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