[Footnote 116: See the Topographia Christiana of Cosmas,
surnamed Indicopleustes, or the Indian navigator, l. iii. p.
178, 179, l. xi. p. 337. The entire work, of which some
curious extracts may be found in Photius, (cod. xxxvi. p. 9,
10, edit. Hoeschel,) Thevenot, (in the 1st part of his
Relation des Voyages, &c.,) and Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec.
l. iii. c. 25, tom. ii. p. 603 - 617,) has been published by
Father Montfaucon at Paris, 1707, in the Nova Collectio
Patrum, (tom. ii. p. 113 - 346.) It was the design of the
author to confute the impious heresy of those who maintained
that the earth is a globe, and not a flat, oblong table, as
it is represented in the Scriptures, (l. ii. p. 138.) But
the nonsense of the monk is mingled with the practical
knowledge of the traveller, who performed his voyage A.D.
522, and published his book at Alexandria, A.D. 547, (l. ii.
p. 140, 141. Montfaucon, Praefat. c. 2.) The Nestorianism of
Cosmas, unknown to his learned editor, was detected by La
Croze, (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 40 - 55,) and is
confirmed by Assemanni, (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 605,
606.)]