Chap. I.—Of the opinions of some Authors, which supposed that the Heavens did not extend to the new-found world.

The Ancients were so farre from conceypt that this new found world was peopled by any Nation, that many of them could not imagine there was any land on that part; and (which is more worthie of admiration) some have flatly denyed that the Heavens (which we now beholde) could extend thither. For although the greatest part (yea, the most famous among the Philosophers) have well knowne that the Heaven was round (as in effect it is), and by that meanes did compasse and comprehend within it self the whole earth; yet many, (yea, of the holy doctors of greatest authoritie) have disagreed in opinion vpon this point; supposing the frame of this vniversall world to bee fashioned like vnto a house; whereas the roofe that covers it invirons onely the upper part and not the rest; inferring by their reasons, that the earth should else hang in the middest of the ayre, the which seemed vnto them voyd of sense. For as we see in every building, the ground-worke and foundation on the one side, and the cover opposite vnto it, even so in this great building of the world, the Heaven should remaine above on the one part, and the earth vnder it.