Protestants campaigned for FLat EArth Error?

I am not sure that there was an official Catholic teaching in the middle ages saying that the earth was round : the Greeks and Romans were thinking that it was round, and some members of the Church followed them, while some others, doing a literal reading of the Bible, were saying that the earth was flat. None of both theories has been condemned by the Church. Later Copernicus has been condemned because he was teaching that the sun was the center of the universe, not because he was teaching that the earth was round : flat or round the earth had to be the center.

Yeah. That seems to be the common misconception. It was being pushed that many people believed the earth was flat. But people back in the day could still draw logical deductions from things like the sun, the moon, our rotation, the curvature of the sky, etc. In the mainstream, it IS pushed that just about everyone thought the earth was flat. It's what I learned in school. It's what I've gone through most of my life believing. But just like it wasn't Paul Revere who rode out, some things sound better to say. If you were born in 1960, everything prior is ancient history. It may as well have been 360. Your perception remains the same, and someone could have rewritten the entire world history canon in 1959, and how would you ever know otherwise if you were being taught the revision?

I think this issue was sure complicated, not because of the lack of knowledge of people at the time, but rather some groups inhibit the truth to be disseminated. It was even made more complicated by groups with a dirty political agenda.

Hi Letran Knight: What I can say is that every ancient religion has commit mistakes. Mostly because of intolerance and thinking they have the last word on every subject. Protestans also have burned some women accused of witchcraft some centuries before. ALVARO

I think you are wrong. the Catholic pope and bishops at that time believed otherwise. Actually, Galileo had a large following among the Roman Curia, including the pope. However, Galileo got himself into trouble by teaching that the heliocentric (Sun-centered universe) theory was fact. However, at the time it was just a theory or hypothesis and Galileo even stated that he could not prove it. Had he changed his approach to the subject we never would have heard today of the controversy. Unfortunately, Galileo was not a humble person and had quite a temper and sarcastic manner and began to attack the Church in speech and his writing. Even his close friend the pope became the target of his rage. Of course, this did not endear him to the Church and he lost much of his standing with the Roman clergy..... an excerpt from: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_Roman_Catholic_church_oppose_Galileo%27s_ideas

This is a link to webpage that discusses Eratosthenes a Greek mathematician who calculated the circumference of earth around 240 BC. His calculations were not far off the mark.

Well those were the times that humanity was still learning to understand science and was not really accepted by the Church. I think in time, the Church accepted this was true because of the early explorers adventure to the seas that led the discovery of other places other than their own and continuing to travel in the same direction and getting back home without going back on the same route. I guess this proves that earth was indeed round. I think this was proven by Magellan's expedition when he started going to Americas and beyond which ended up to Philippines and continued their travels going round the world and ended back home.