Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/129
who live ex diametro per centrum terræ must be "antipodes," and a true proposition is the following: Omne versus cœlum vergens ubicunque locorum sursum est. And we need not travel to the New World to seek the antipodes, for these antipodes are also here in the upper hemisphere of the globe. For if we compare and place against each other the extreme country of the west, which is Spain and at Finisterre, with the east where India lies, these extreme nations and inhabitants of the earth will almost give a sort of antipodes.
Several pious theologians pretend to prove that the prayer of the mother of the sons of Zebedey (Zebedee) had become true, when she begged the Lord Christ, that of her sons one might sit on his right hand and the other on his left. This, it is said, really so happened, inasmuch as James is supposed to have been buried at Compostela, not far from Finis Terræ (Finisterre), which is commonly called Finstern Stern, and is held in honour. And that the other apostle rests in India, or towards the rising of the sun. That therefore the antipodes have long existed, and that even without considering that at the time of Augustin the new world America, under the earth, had not been discovered, they would yet in this way have existed. Some theologians, and especially Nicolaus Syra (who otherwise is respected as an excellent man), assert that whereas the earthball, or the world, for the half part lies and floats on the water, therefore that the hemisphere upon which we live projects above the waters, yet the other part underneath us is in such a manner surrounded by water that no beings can exist there, all which is against the science of cosmography, and has now, moreover, through the many voyages of the Spanish and Portuguese, been found to be far different; that the earth is everywhere inhabited, yea even in the subtorrid zone, which our forefathers and writers never would admit. Our generally used spices, sugar, pearls, and many similar wares, are brought to us from these countries.