ANTIPODI. — Those who inhabit a part of the earth diametrically opposite a given place. Thus, for us today, to admit the existence of the antipodes is equivalent to admitting the sphericity of the earth. For the ancients, however, the antipodes were men who inhabited the regions situated beneath their feet and who, separated from them by an immense, impassable expanse of water, would have been of a different origin. With regard to their existence, as with regard to the sphericity of the earth, the opinions of the holy Fathers differed: they were more accommodating concerning the sphericity, and less—much less—concerning their actual habitability. From this fact the adversaries of the Church derive grounds for arguing that the holy Fathers condemned belief in the antipodes and, consequently, in the sphericity of the earth. They cite the case of Pope St. Zaccaria, who, in a letter to St. Bonifacio, bishop and apostle of Germany, is said to have declared it false and heretical. This is further proof, they say, that the mentality of the Church is always backward in the face of the advance of science.
The answer is easy: 1) The holy Fathers cannot be blamed if, before the era of the great discoveries of the sixteenth century and the voyages of Magellano, when no argument scientifically demonstrated the sphericity of the earth, they remained doubtful about it (e.g. St. Agostino, Confess., I, 16, 9) or denied it as absurd (e.g. Lattanzio, Div. Instit., I, 3, 24). The opinion, however, was free, and several other Fathers held it to be true (e.g. Pope St. Clemente, Epist. I ad Corint., 20; St. Ilario di Poitiers, Tract. in psalmum, II, n. 32: PL 9, 281). 2) On the other hand, the two arguments—the sphericity of the earth and the existence of the antipodes—which could indeed be discussed separately, often intersected, insofar as they could lead to assertions contrary to the fundamental dogma of the universality of the human race and of redemption; for some inferred from them that the antipodes, being of a different race and not descended from Adam, would have had no need of baptism and redemption, since they did not share in Adam’s sin. 3) As regards the condemnation pronounced by Pope St. Zaccaria, historically we know very little. All that is known to us is contained in the pope’s letter (Epist. 117, of 1 May 748: PL 89, 946–47) to St. Bonifacio, from which we learn that the latter had invoked papal censure against a certain Virgilio, a missionary among the Germans, among other reasons because of the theory he professed that “beneath the earth there was another world and other men, another sun and another moon.” If this were true, Bonifacio “was to convene a council, excommunicate Virgilio, and deprive him of his priestly dignity, if he was a priest.” And the Pope continued with these words: “Nevertheless, we too are writing to the aforesaid duke (of Bavaria, Otilone) that, by virtue of our letter of summons addressed to Virgilio, the latter should present himself to us in order that we may subject him to a careful examination; and if he should prove to be infected with error, he will be condemned with the canonical sanctions.” Nothing more. If, admitting the sphericity of the earth, Virgilio had inferred from it only the existence of the antipodes, he would have done no more than follow the opinion of Ilario and certainly would not have been condemned; all the more so since Bonifacio was an assiduous reader of the works of the venerable Beda, who likewise had taught that opinion (De rerum natura, chap. 46). If, on the other hand, Virgilio held that the antipodes belonged to a race different from that descended from Adam, which therefore would not have inherited original sin, he would rightly have been condemned, because he was opposed to the doctrine of the Church, which teaches that all men descend from Adam and that all have been redeemed by Jesus Christ.
Who this Virgilio actually was is not known exactly; some would identify him with the Irish monk V. Ferghill, missionary and later bishop of Salzburg in 760 and venerated as a saint; but this is very far from being proved (v. VIRGILIO). Nor is it known whether the investigation and condemnation of Virgilio ever took place, either before the council that Bonifacio was supposed to convene or before the supreme tribunal of the Pope. This, however, in no way diminishes the force of the answer. The Church, then, has never condemned the theory of the sphericity of the earth, nor that of the antipodes, when properly understood.