re: The Earth is Flat

Educated people in the Middle Ages knew the earth was a sphere. Indeed since ancient times, that was understood by educated people. The controversy between the Catholic Church and Galileo and between the Catholic Church and Copernicus was not about the shape of the earth, but the earth's position as the center of the universe, and the motion of the earth. We have been fed myths about what ancient and medieval people believed about the shape of the earth. The controversy at the time regarding Columbus wasn't the shape of the earth, but its size. Contemporary critics of Columbus argued he underestimated the size.