Nicolaus Copernicus

“ And he cherished with unshaken confidence the belief that the pattern of creation which seemed good to him had also, in the beginning, seemed good to the Creator. His scheme might, then, be accurately described as a remodelling of the received astronomy on the basis of symmetry and simplicity.
It is extremely difficult for us, in our superabundant wealth of conviction, to realise the paucity of cogent evidence as to the truth of the heliocentric system at the disposal of Copernicus. ”

“ And therefore the beginning of astronomy, except observations, I think is not to be derived from farther time than from Nicolaus Copernicus; who in the age next preceding the present revived the opinion of Pythagoras, Aristarchus, and Philolaus. ”

“ Such demonstrations, we may be sure, added to the difficulties of those friends of Copernicus who sought to impress upon him the duty of unreserved publication. The meet earnest and persistent among them was Bishop Gysius ; but it was not until his arguments were reinforced by the eager protests of Rheticus that Copernicus, worn out by their united importunities, at length consented to place the manuscript, upon the fate of which depended the whole future of astronomy, in the hands and at the absolute disposal of the Bishop of Culm. ”

“ Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 101.
Copernicus, Nicolaus—Koppernik—Zepernic—celebrated astronomer, native of Poland (1472–1543) , whose studies led him to reject the Ptolemaic system of the universe, and who proposed the one now bearing his name, is the author of “De revolutionibus orbium cœlestium,” which was published May 24, 1543, a few days before his death. He is alluded to by Gilbert (De Magnete, Chaps. [508] II, III, VI, IX, of book vi.) , who calls him “the restorer of astronomy” and “a man most worthy of the praise of scholarship.” ”

“ The most prominent example of such unlucky though well- meant activity is afforded by Johannes Broscius, an astronomical professor of high reputation at the University of Cracow in the early part of the seventeenth century. In an evil hour he resolved to erect a literary monument to the memory of Copernicus, and undertook, in 1612, a journey to the scene of his life and labours in the Prussian province of Ermland for the purpose of collecting materials. ”

“ Copernicus entered the University of Bologna, as a student of canon law, at the opening of the winter term of 1496-7. The occurrence of his name in the annals of the 'Natio Germanorum' [11] must be regarded as a strong point in favour of the upholders of his Teutonic origin. Indeed, taken in connexion with his unquestioned use of German as his mother-tongue, it might — at least by impartial outsiders possessing intelligence of the ordinary blunt, though serviceable type — be fairly held to terminate the controversy. This, however, seems beyond hope. Controversies rarely die save of inanition. ”

“ From its vicinity to the captured town, where a large body of Teutonic troops were maintained, Frauenburg was regarded as a highly unsafe residence, and most of the canons sought a refuge in Dantzic, Elbing, or Allenstein. Copernicus nevertheless refused to quit his tower and terrace, but calmly continued his planetary observations in the midst of disquietudes of the most urgent kind. Danger, indeed, at one moment had almost yielded its place to disaster. ”

“ A fresh source of scientific sympathy was, however, opened late and unexpectedly to the great astronomer. In the early summer of 1539, a traveller rode up to the gate of the cathedral-close, and asked to see Canon Nicholas Copernicus. He was unknown, and (so far as can be ascertained) without recommendation of any sort; moreover, he came from Wittenberg, the metropolis of heresy ; he followed the spiritual guidance of Luther, and was deeply indebted to the temporal patronage of Melanchthon. ”

“ This result has been achieved by the labours of many men extending over many decades. The field of enquiry was almost coextensive with Europe. The libraries and archives of Italy, Bohemia, Sweden, Prussia, and Poland, have all been examined, and have all yielded something to the search. Slowly and painfully, as the fruit of these toilsome enquiries, the true life of Copernicus has, at least partially, emerged from the shadow of four centuries. The simplicity of tradition is replaced by the complexity of actual existence. ”

“ Shortly after the death of his uncle, Copernicus resumed his place in the Chapter of Frauenburg. But here a fresh sorrow awaited him. His brother Andrew's early career had, as we have already in part seen, run strictly parallel with his own. They had been together at Cracow, at Bologna, at Rome ; they had obtained admittance to the same religious corporation, and together closed their years of study and travel. But, not long after their return from Italy, Andrew showed the first symptoms of a disease terribly familiar in medieval times, though in our part of the world now happily unknown. ”

“ His colleagues, however, showed their belief in his fitness to wield the crozier by electing him to the office of Administrator-general of the diocese during a seven months' interregnum following on the death of Bishop Fabian, January 30, 1523. It was a most critical time. The independence of Ermland was menaced both from the Polish and from the Teutonic side, and moral vigour was sorely needed to come to the rescue of material helplessness. This Copernicus displayed in ample measure. ”

“ This duty Bishop Lucas discharged with truly paternal zeal.
Nicholas Copernicus matriculated at Cracow towards the close of the year 1491. The reputation of the ' Jagellonian University ' stood then at its highest. Students flocked to it from all parts of Germany as well as from Hungary and Sweden ; a thousand auditors daily thronged the lecture-halls in St. Anne's Street, where the 'Æneid,' the ' Georgics,' and the ' Metamorphoses ' already competed for favour with the more austere attractions of Boethius ' De Consolatione,' Aristotle ' De Animâ',' Donatus, Priscian, and Franciscus Niger. ”

“ If, therefore, the earth were rotating uniformly, we dwellers upon the earth, oblivious of our own movement, would wrongly attribute to the stars the displacement which was actually the consequence of our own motion.
Copernicus saw the futility of the arguments by which Ptolemy had endeavoured to demonstrate that a revolution of the earth was impossible. It was plain to him that there was nothing whatever to warrant refusal to believe in the rotation of the earth. In his clear-sightedness on this matter we have specially to admire the sagacity of Copernicus as a natural philosopher. ”

“ Copernicus, who revolutionized astronomy, was one of the purest Christians who ever lived—a simple, laborious minister of religion, walking beneficently among the poor by day, and living among the stars by night; and yet one writer of our day has dared to say, in what he takes to be the interest of science, that Copernicus was "aware that his doctrines were totally opposed to revealed truth." ”

“ There is perhaps no better example in all the world of the simplicity of true genius nor any better example of how sublimely religious may be the soul that has far transcended the bounds of the scientific knowledge of its own day.
The greatness of Copernicus's life-work can best be realized from the extent to which he surpassed even well-known contemporaries in astronomy and from his practical anticipation of the opinions of some of his greatest successors. ”

“ Astronomers justly affirm that the book of Copernicus, "De Revolutionibus," changed the face of their science. It incontestably established the heliocentric theory. It showed that the distance of the fixed stars is infinitely great, and that the earth is a mere point in the heavens. Anticipating Newton, Copernicus imputed gravity to the sun, the moon, and heavenly bodies, but he was led astray by assuming that the celestial motions must be circular. Observations on the orbit of Mars, and his different diameters at different times, had led Copernicus to his theory. ”

“ For in every department of science the great truths which dawn upon the mind are usually attended with a cloud of difficulties, and, but for the habit in question, they would soon be permitted to fade away, and be lost in their original obscurity. Copernicus has, therefore, been justly applauded,219 not only for conceiving, but for firmly grasping the heliocentric theory of the world, notwithstanding the many formidable objections which it had to encounter in his own mind. ”

“ By the time he was twenty-seven years old, it would seem that Copernicus had given up the notion of becoming a medical practitioner, and had resolved to devote himself to science. He was engaged in teaching mathematics, and appears to have acquired some reputation. His growing fame attracted the notice of his uncle the bishop, at whose suggestion Copernicus took holy orders, and he was presently appointed to a canonry in the cathedral of Frauenburg, near the mouth of the Vistula. ”

“ The astronomy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can show a large list of noted names; but it is epitomized in Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler and Galileo. It is commonly taken for granted that Copernicus burst forth from darkness and made a new epoch. He stands, indeed, for a new epoch; but he was no less the product of his time than Darwin, another Bahnbrecher. There was great activity among astronomers in the decade just preceding the publication of his great book in 1543. Copernicus was the child of universities; the schools of Italy which he frequented for years were alive with inquiry. ”

“ Copernicus was a canon of Frauenburg, and led the quiet, retired life of a student. The great work which made him immortal, De Revolutionibus, was the result of many years' meditation and work, and was not printed until he was on his deathbed. In this work Copernicus showed that he was one of those great thinkers who are able to look beyond the mere appearance of things and to grasp the reality of the unseen. ”

“ Copernicus was born in Westphalia in 1473, he studied at Cracow, where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine; at Bologna his piercing genius discovered that the sun was the centre of the planetary system, that the earth was a planet and revolved round the sun like other planets, and thus was first made known the true system of the universe. These discoveries being distasteful to the church, the Pope issued a sentence of excommunication; and the great astronomer died with a heart oppressed by such unmerited persecution. ”

“ Galileo, however, afterwards demonstrated the independence of the two motions in question, and proved that the third was unnecessary.
Copernicus was born in the Polish village of Thorn, in 1473, and died in 1543, at Warmia, of which he was canon, and where he built an observatory. The voyages of his youth, his labours, adversities, and old age at last broke him down, and in the winter of 1542 he took to his bed, and was incapable of further work. ”

“ Such were the astronomical systems in vogue before the time of Copernicus—all of them based upon the principle of the earth being the immovable centre of the universe. We must now turn to trace the history of the introduction of that system which has completely thrown over all these former ones, and which every one knows now to be the true one—the Copernican.
No revolution is accomplished, whether in science or politics, without having been long in preparation. The theory of the motion of the earth had been conceived, discussed, and even taught many ages before the birth of Copernicus. ”

“ At the threshold of modern natural science there stands the man who solved the riddle that had puzzled centuries before him, the father of modern astronomy, Nikolaus Copernicus. He had studied at the universities of Cracow, Bologna, Ferrara, and Padua, and while he was one of the foremost historians of his time, it was astronomy that had engaged his enthusiastic devotion from his youth. ”

“ In consequence of these combined causes, aided by some others of secondary importance, [17] the Genius of the human race seems, all at once, to have awakened with renovated and giant strength, from his long sleep. In less than a century from the invention of printing, and the fall of the Eastern empire, Copernicus discovered the true theory of the planetary motions, and a very few years afterwards, was succeeded by the three great precursors of Newton,—Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo. ”

“ He conceived of-the universe as a vast organism, the life of which is the breath of God, and which has neither centre nor circumference, but is infinite as its maker. Such views were largely prevalent in Italy, at that time the focus of infidelity, and there Copernicus had been. ”

“ I shall do so with the more pleasure, because I have been for many years an adherent of the Copernican system, and it explains to me the causes of many of the appearances of nature which are quite unintelligible on the commonly accepted hypothesis. I have collected many arguments for the purpose of refuting the latter; but I do not venture to bring them to the light of publicity, for fear of sharing the fate of our master, Copernicus, who, although he has earned immortal fame with some, yet with very many (so great is the number of fools) has become an object of ridicule and scorn. ”

“ Copernicus showed the absurdity of these notions, and taught that the sun is the centre of his own, or the solar, system, in which this globe of ours is comparatively but a mole-hill. But knowing of the hosts of priests who were ready to pounce upon him if he discovered these truths openly, he declined to publish his works till near the time of his death, and he lived just long enough to receive a corrected copy of them. ”