the modesty and dignity with which he brought forward his proposals.
Columbus spoke, as he tells us, as one specially appointed by God
Himself to carry out this discovery. The king did not, however, at once
adopt the scheme, but gave out that a council of men of learning should
be called together to consider it.

Columbus himself says that he entered the service of the sovereigns
January 26, 1486. The council to which he was referred was held in
the university city of Salamanca, in that year. It gave to him a full
opportunity to explain his theory. It consisted of a fair representation
of the learning of the time. But most of the men who met had formed
their opinions on the subjects involved, and were too old to change
them. A part of them were priests of the church, in the habit of looking
to sacred Scripture as their only authority, when the pope had given no
instruction in detail. Of these some took literally expressions in the
Old Testament, which they supposed to be fatal to the plans of Columbus.
Such was the phrase in the 104th Psalm, that God stretches out the
heavens like a curtain. The expression in the book of Hebrews, that the
heavens are extended as a tent, was also quoted, in the same view.

Quotations from the early Fathers of the church were more fatal to the
new plan than those from the Scripture.

On the other hand there were men who cordially supported Columbus's
wishes, and there were more when the congress parted than when it met.
Its sessions occupied a considerable part of the summer, but it was not
for years that it rendered any decision.

The king, queen and court, meanwhile, were occupied in war with the
Moors. Columbus was once and again summoned to attend the court, and