Note 116
From Chapter 47 of the Decline & Fall

See the Topographia Christiana of Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, or the Indian navigator, l. iii. p. 178, 179, l. xi. p. 337. The entire work, of which some curious extracts may be found in Photius (cod. xxxvi. p. 9, 10, edit. Hoeschel.), Thevenot (in the 1st part of his Relation des Voyages, etc.), and Fabricius (Bibliot. Graec. l. iii. c. 25, tom. ii. p. 603 - 617) has been published by Father Montfaucon at Paris, 1707, in the Nova Collectio Patrum (tom. ii. p. 113 - 346.). It was the design of the author to confute the impious heresy of those who maintained that the earth is a globe, and not a flat, oblong table, as it is represented in the Scriptures(l. ii. p. 138.). But the nonsense of the monk is mingled with the practical knowledge of the traveller, who performed his voyage A.D. 522, and published his book at Alexandria, A.D. 547 (l. ii. p. 140, 141. Montfaucon, Praefat. c. 2.). The Nestorianism of Cosmas, unknown to his learned editor, was detected by La Croze, (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 40 - 55,) and is confirmed by Assemanni (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 605, 606.).

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