Wireless,

You are utterly missing what Doug and Simon have been trying to tell you and given you evidence for. The belief that the earth was flat was not even a "church view" although the people who did think this (very few) were within the church. It is even in the bible that the earth was round. Aristotle's opinion that the earth was round was well known and approved of in the very period that you are referring to. If such a belief were prevalent as you say it was, we would have texts and texts filled with flat earths. We don't.

This whole idea that Columbus had to convince the king and queen of Spain that the earth wasn't flat was pure invention, written by Washington Irving in 1828 in his book, "Columbus". His works were often laced with a little satire and written for impact. He was a satirest.

I cannot even fathom how you demand evidence and then, seemingly, duck your head in the sand when it's proffered...

Stephanie

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson