Even so bold a thinker as
Cardinal d'Ailly, whose speculations as to the geography of the
earth did so much afterward in stimulating Columbus, faltered
before this statement, acknowledging that God alone could
explain it; but suggested that possibly never before the Deluge
had a cloud been suffered to take such a position toward the sun
as to cause a rainbow.
The learned cardinal was also constrained to believe that
certain stars and constellations have something to do in causing
the rain, since these would best explain Noah's foreknowledge
of the Deluge. In connection with this scriptural doctrine of
winds came a scriptural doctrine of earthquakes: they were
believed to be caused by winds issuing from the earth, and this
view was based upon the passage in the one hundred and
thirty-fifth Psalm, "He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries."[331]
Such were the main typical attempts during nearly fourteen
centuries to build up under theological guidance and within
scriptural limitations a sacred science of meteorology.
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