All tagged history
Obviously, the Earth revolves around the Sun. This is obvious now in part because we—maybe not me or you, but someone—can go to space, and see it happening. The trouble is that is was not at all obvious in 1543. Nicolaus Copernicus died in 1543: he lived just long enough to see the publication of his magnum opus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. It is said that he held a copy of it on his death bed.
John Chrysostom, whose name is Greek for “Golden-Mouth”, was born to an army officer and his (possibly pagan) wife in 349. He was not baptized until he was thirteen. Furthermore, when he went to study in Antioch—the chief city of Syria and the Levant—he pursued his studies in rhetoric with the pagan Libanius, the greatest master of rhetoric in the fourth century before Chrysostom himself. At the same time, he did consider himself a Christian and embraced an ascetic life which suited his bookish temperament. […]
