By the Medieval period this was apparently a familiar interpretation. Flemish Catholic writer Hugh of Saint Victor (1097 - 1141) wrote in reference to Gen. 1:1 and 1:2: "perhaps enough has already been debated on these matters thus far, if we could add only, how long did the world remain in this disorder before the regular ordering of it was taken in hand? But how long it continued in this state of confusion scripture does not clearly show." In the 13th century St. Thomas Aquinas analyzed these verses in his "Summa Theologica" and wrote: "It seems better to maintain the view that the creation of the heavens and the earth was prior to any of the days, literally before the days", i.e., there was first the creation of the earth, and then the enumerated "days of creation".