Reply #10: I'm in a mood to nit pick. You're wrong.

[Jack Rabbit]

They never burned round earth supporters. Thomas Aquinas made reference to the fact the earth is round in Summa Theologica. It was, as far as he was concerned, a trivial fact. Since few people traveled far from home in those days, and crossing the ocean was unthinkable, such knowledge was of no practical value, but it wasn't dangerous.

Eratosthenes first demonstrated mathematically that the world in round in the 3rd Century BC, even coming very close to giving its correct circumferance. Before that, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle all speculated that the earth was round; Aristotle knew that if some stars were visable in Egypt that could not be seen in Greece, and vice versa, and reasoned that this could only be possible on a curved surface.

Ptolomy of Alexandria also knew the world was round. He was the authority for geography in the post-classical world. Therefore, as long as Ptomolmy said so, no one was going to get in trouble for saying the world was round.

Now, heliocentric theory supporters weren't always so lucky.