proaches nearer and nearer, and therefore by ever-lessening cir-
cles reaches the tropics and the equator every year a little
sooner. They measure months by the course of the moon,
years by that of the sun. They praise Ptolemy, admire Coper-
nicus, but place Aristarchus and Philolaus before him. They
take great pains in endeavoring to understand the construction
of the world, and whether or not it will perish, and at what time.
They believe that the true oracle of Jesus Christ is by the signs
in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, which signs do not thus
appear to many of us foolish ones. Therefore they wait for
the renewing of the age, and perchance for its end.

They say that it is very doubtful whether the world was made
from nothing, or from the ruins of other worlds, or from chaos,
but they certainly think that it was made, and did not exist
from eternity. Therefore they disbelieve in Aristotle, whom
they consider a logican and not a philosopher. From analo-
gies, they can draw many arguments against the eternity of the
world. The sun and the stars they, so to speak, regard as the
living representatives and signs of God, as the temples and holy
living altars, and they honor but do not worship them. Be-
yond all other things they venerate the sun, but they consider
no created thing worthy the adoration of worship. This they
give to God alone, and thus they serve Him, that they may not
come into the power of a tyrant and fall into misery by undergo-
ing punishment by creatures of revenge. They contemplate and
know God under the image of the Sun, and they call it the sign
of God, His face and living image, by means of which light,
heat, life, and the making of all things good and bad proceed.
Therefore they have built an altar like to the sun in shape, and