Faldoni, parts 2972 - 2975

 2972. “Pointed arched in cathedrals makes as much sense as cubical orbits for the stars. Do the stars stop and make right angle turns when the traverse the sky? No, God’s creations are all assembled from circles and the introduction of points and sharp angles is a form of disrespect of the heavens.”

 2973. This is not as absurd as it sounds. You have to remember that when the pointed arch was being introduced into architecture the earth was still flat, and the sun was still rotating around the earth. It would be a few hundred years until the earth began to orbit the sun.

 2974. The monks of that time were not even sure about the question of orbits. They could see that the sun came up in one place and set in another but where it went at night was anybody’s guess. It seems very obvious that a big circle was probably involved, and that at night the sun was going underneath things and coming out again on the other side.

2975. But there were others that felt that the sun and the stars died each night, were buried in the ocean, and then were reborn again in the morning. This death and rebirth of the sun and stars actually made more sense that the other idea that the sun kept going round and round forever.