Ptolemaists

Aristotelians and Ptolemaists received the information with much disfavour and incredulity, and many persons positively refused to believe Galileo, whom they accused of inventing fables.

The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' Thomas Nathaniel Orchard

This stellar conception of the poet's harmonised with the views of the Ptolemaists, who believed that the universe was of limited extent, and though its dimensions were vast beyond comprehension, it was, nevertheless, enclosed by the tenth sphere or Primum Mobile.

The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' Thomas Nathaniel Orchard

The Ptolemaists, who believed in the diurnal revolution of the spheres, assigned to the stars a very subordinate place in their cosmology, which was the one adopted by Milton; and although Copernicus relegated them to their proper location in space, yet he had no clear conception of a universe of stars.

The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' Thomas Nathaniel Orchard

Though it is impossible to regard the Earth as possessing the importance ascribed to it by the ancient Ptolemaists; nevertheless, our globe is a great and mighty world, and appears to be one of the most favourably situated of all the planets, being neither near the Sun nor yet very far distant from the orb; and although, when compared with the universe, it is no more than a leaf on a tree in the midst of a vast forest; still, it is not the least important among other circling worlds, and unfailingly fulfils the part allotted to it in the great scheme of creation.

The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' Thomas Nathaniel Orchard