Define ancient. We do know that cultures from 2000+ years ago believed in a flat earth. There is enough proof for this, and Ancient Greece and Romans discovered this to be wrong. But independent of this, there is also the claim that people in medieval Europe believed in a flat earth, again, and this was brought up as a reason why Columbus expedition would fail when he searched for supporters and ships.
And in fact, such stories are not that uncommon at the 18. Century. Thinkers and scientists were fighting against the church, and they made up many fake stories to show how stupid and dangerous the church is. And AFAIK the church believing in a flat earth was one of them.
And in fact, such stories are not that uncommon at the 18. Century. Thinkers and scientists were fighting against the church, and they made up many fake stories to show how stupid and dangerous the church is. And AFAIK the church believing in a flat earth was one of them.