(x) First objection:  Why is the projecting
        continent then, not circular, since the
        motion of these stars is circular?

        Answer:  Because the material did not
        suffice for so great an elevation.

        (y) Second objection:  Why is this elevation
        in this particular place?

        Answer:  Because God whose ways are
        inscrutable, willed it so.

        We should therefore desist from examining
        too closely the reasons, which we
        can never hope to fathom.

  D. Refutation of the original arguments: 
    Reason 1. Invalid because Earth and Water are spheres
    with the same center.
    Reason 2. Invalid because of the external influence of
    Universal Nature, counteracting the internal influence
    of Particular Nature.
    Reason 3. Invalid because it is sphericity of the sea and
    not the lowness of the land which interferes with one’s
    view at sea.
    Reason 4. Invalid because Water does not flow to the
    tops of mountains, but ascends thither in the form of
    vapors.
    Reason 5. Invalid because Water imitating the moon in
    one respect, need not imitate it in all.[61]

This brief obviously illustrates much more than the form of the mediaeval Disputation.  It leaves one in no doubt as to the difference between the natural science of the Middle Ages and that of our own time.  It also illustrates the weakness of the scholastic method when applied to questions which modern science would settle by experiment.  The argument abounds in misstatements of fact, the conclusion is incorrect, and the “reasoning” by which it is reached can be described, from the modern point of view, only as grotesque.  The weakness of the method was recognized by Roger Bacon so early as the thirteenth century.  The growing recognition of its futility finds repeated expression in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably in the New Method (Novum Organum) of Francis Bacon.

Like the scholastic method and the worship of Aristotle, the Disputation fell into disrepute because of the extravagant lengths to which it was carried.  The following sarcastic criticism by the Spanish scholar, Juan Luis Vives (1462-1540), is one illustration of the growing revolt of his times against it: 

Disputations, also, to no slight degree have blinded judgment.  They were instituted originally (but only among young men) to stimulate mental vigor, often torpid, and to make young men keener in their studies, so that they might either conquer or not be conquered, and also that the instruction received from their teachers might be more deeply impressed upon them.