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 OEOGRAPHT

447

GEOGRAPHY

ia forthcoming; vol. II, to be published by H. Winckler, will be devoted to history and geography). 4. Noiitia diffnitaium et administralionum omnium tam civilium quam militarium in partibus Orieniis et Occidentis (Bocking edit., 1839-1853); Peu~ linger Table (ed. princ, 1591; ed. Dbsjardins, Paris, 1875). 5. De Lagarde, Onomaslica Sacra (Gottingen, 1870); Klos- TERMANN, Eusebius Onomaslicon der Bibl. Orlsnamen (Leipzig, 1904); Thomsen. Palaslina nach dem Onomaslicon des Euse- bias ia ZdDPF, XXVIII, 97-141; Id., Loca sacra; Verzeichnis der 1. bis 6. Jahrh. n. Chr. erwahnten Orlschaflen Palaslinas (Halle, 1907). 6. Neubauer, La Geographic du Talmud (Paris, 1868). 7. Descriptions of the Holy Land by early Christian pilgrims may be found in P. L., VIII (Pilgrim of Bordeaux); CLV, and P. G., CXXXIII. The Palestine Pilgrims Texts Society have printed these and other texts, even of Moslem writers; some likewise (Burkard, Descriplio Terrce Sanclce, in particular), may be found in Laurent, Pcregrinalores Medii (Bi'i quatluor (Leipzig, 1873); others in Golubovich, Biblioteca bio-hibliografica della Terra Santa e deW Orienle Francescano (Quaracchi, 1906). A good criticism of some of these Pilgrims' texts is given in Baumstark, Abendlandische Palastinapilger des ersten Jahrtausends und ihre Berichle (Cologne, 1906). 8. Paris, Guillaume de Tir el ses continualeurs (Paris, 1879-80); Recueil des hisloriens des Croisades, public par les soins de V Acade- mic des Inscriptions el Belles-Letires — Hisloriens Orientaux (Paris, 1884 — ): Ret, Recherches geographiques ct hisloriques sur la dom- ination des Latins en Orient (Paris, 1877); Colonies Franques de la Syrie auXII' el au XIII' s. (Paris, 1883 ).

III. Baedeker (Benziger), Palestine and Syria (4th ed., Leipzig, 1906); Conder. Handbook to the Bible (London, 1887); Id., Palestine and numerous articles on Bibl. geography in Hast., Diet, of the Bible: Hurlbut, Manual of Biblical Geogra- phy (C^hicago, 1894); Ritter, The Comparative Geography of Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula (Edinburgh, 1866); iSmith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (New York, 1908, 13th ed.); Stanley, (Sinai and Pa/esh'ne (London, 1S66); Thomson, The Land and the Book (3 vols., London, 1881-86); Wilson, The Lands of the Bible (Edinburgh, 1847); Benziger, He- brdische Archaologie (Tubingen, 1907); Buhl, Geographic des Alten Palaslina (Freiburg and Leipzig. 1896); Riess, Biblische Geographic (Freiburg, 1872); Id., Atlas Scripturw Sacra (re- edited by Ruckert; Freiburg, 1906); Fillion and Nicollb, Atlas Geographique de la Bible (Lyons and Paris, 1890); Gratz, Thedlrc des evenements racantes dans les divines ecritures, Fr. tr., by Gimarey, revised by Bugniot (Paris, 1869); Guerin, Description geographique^ historique el arch^ologigue dc la Pales- tine (3 vols., Paris, 1868-1880); Legendre. Carte dc la Pales- tine ancienne et modcrne (Paris, s. d.); Id.,_ Palestine, and numerous geographical and topographical articles in Vigour- dux, Did. dc la Bible; Lievin de Hamme, Guide indicateur de la Terre Sainle (Jerusalem, 4th ed., 1897); Hagen, Atlas bibli- cus (Paris, 1897); Reland, Palceslina ex monumenlis veteribus illustrata (Utrecht, 1714).

IV. 1. Robinson, Physical Geography of the Holy Land (Lon- don, 1865): Hull. Memoir on the Geology^ and Geography of Arabia Petrasa, Palestine and adjoining districts (London, 1889): Lartet, Essai sur la geologic de la Palestine ct des contrees avoisi- nantes, in Annates des sciences geologiques.X (1869); Blancken- horn, Entstehung und Geschichte des Todten Mceres, in ZdDPV, XIX (1896). 2. Van Kasteren, La fr&ntikre septentrionale de la Terrc Promise, in Rerue Biblique, IV (1895), 23 sqq. 3. FuR- RER, Die antiken Stadte und Orlschaflen im Libanongebiele, in ZdDPV, VIII (1885). 4. FuRRER, Zur Ostjordanischen Topo- graphic, in ZdDPV, XIII (1890) ; Schumacher, Der Dscholan, in ZdDPV, IX (1886), tr. The Jaulan (London, 1888). 5. de Luynes, Voyage d'Exploration a la Mcr Morte (Paris, s. d.); de Saulcy, Voyage autour dc la il/er A/or(e (Paris, 1853); Gautier, AutouT de la Mcr Morte (Paris, 1898). 6. Conder, Heth and Moab (London, 1889); Tristram, The Land of Moab (London, 1874): Bronnow and von Domaszeswki, Die Provincia Ara- bia (Strasburg, 1904); MusiL, Karte von Arabia Petrcca (Vienna, 1906); Id., Arabia Petroea: Topoqraphischer Reiseberichl; I, Moab; II. Edom (Vienna. 1907). 7. Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus (Cambridge, 1871); de Laborde, Commentaire geo- graphique sur VExode et les Nombres (Paris, 1841); Lagrange, Le Sinai biblique. in Revue Biblique (1889), 369-92; Id., U Itinir- aire des hraitiles du pays de Gessen aux bords du Jourdain in Revue Biblique (1900), 63-86: 273-87; 443-49; Szczepanski, Nach Pelra und zum Sinai (Innsbruck, 1908).

Charles L. Souvay.

Geography, Ecclesiastical. See Statistics, Ecclesiastical.

Geography and the Church. — The classic liisto- rians of geography, Alexander von Humboldt, Carl Ritter, and Oscar Peschel, never forgot to acknowl- edge how greatly their science was indebted to the Church. Of course the beginnings of all profane knowledge can be traced back to the time when "priest" and ".scholar" meant one and the same thing. But with geography especially the Church had very close relations — relations which are readily explained by the nature of this science and the course of its evolution.

The object of geography is to extend our knowledge of the earth's surface and to determine the position of

our planet in relation to cosmic and physical phe- nomena. For the fulfilment of its first and more im- portant task, the accumulation of geographic infor- mation, the prerequisites were at hand even in the earlier days. It needed only intrepid men to pene- trate from known to unknown countries. But the powerful incentive of a purely scientific interest was still lacking. The motives that led to geographical progress at that time were greed and lust of conquest, as well as a far nobler motive than these — the spread of Christianity. To this mission the most intelligent, the most upright, and the most persevering of all explorers devoted themselves. Consequently, it was they who achieved the greatest success in the fieltl of discovery during the Middle Ages and far into later days, right up to the time when modern scientific re- search became its successor. The second purpose, geographical theory, commonly called universal geog- raphy, could only be profitably attempted after adequate progress had been made in the auxiliary sciences of astronomy, mathematics, and physics. But herein, too, medieval clerical scholars were the first to show their clearsightedness. For them there was no more attractive pursuit than to trace the ves- tiges of the Creator in all the marvellous harmony of the universe. How, then, was it possible that the laws governing this globe of ours could escape their search for truth? Of course, they could only have a presentiment of these laws, but frequently enough their ideas came very close to the precise results of the great modern scientists, equipped with the best of modern instruments. Again, one of the greatest of them all was a theologian — Copernicus.

Under these circumstances it was inevitable that the part contributed by the Church to this branch of human knowledge should be of great importance, as the most distinguished geographers bear witness. We may therefore rightfully present a coherent picture thereof. To this end we have divided the subject ac- cording to the following aspects: I. The Influence of the Activity of the Church on the Discoveries of New Lands and Races during the Middle Ages; II. The Views and Statements of Medieval Theologians; HI. The Opening up of Foreign Lands by Missionaries from the Age of Discovery down to the Present Day, and the Part Borne by Catholic Scholars in Modern Geographical Research.

I. — The confines of the world as known to geogra- phers at the beginning of the Christian Era are shown in the famous geography of the Alexandrian, Claudius Ptolemseus (150 a. d.). Southwards they extended to the White Nile and the northern boundary of the Sudan ; in the west they included the Canary Isles and the British Isles; to the north they reached as far as the German Seas and thence over the Low Coun- tries of Russia and the Aral Sea to the sources of the Indus and the Ganges. In the Orient they took in Arabia and the coasts of India and Indo-China as far as the Archipelago. Their certain knowledge, how- ever, did not extend beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire when it was at its zenith. At the very time when this empire was falling to pieces, it was overrun by the peaceful missionaries of the new spiritual power, Christianity. Even in the first few hundred years they found their way to the Far East. According to tradition, the Apostle Thomas himself reached Meliapur. In any case Christianity had been spread in Malabar, on the coast of Coromandel, in Socotra and Ceylon as early as the fourth century, as Cosmas Indicopleustes informs us in his "Christian Topography", a very important work from a geo- graphic standpoint. Even in Abyssinia and in Southern Arabia the Faith found a footing. Simul- taneously the frontier lands on the Rhine and the Danube were opened up. The subsequent centuries were spent in exploring the North. To this end a cen- tre of operations was established which, for the pur-