The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory of the Universe

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART TWO THE RECEPTION OF THE COPERNICAN THEORY. CHAPTER I. Opinions And Arguments In The Sixteenth Century. DURING the life-time of Copernicus, Roman Catholic churchmen had been interested in his work: Cardinal Schonberg wrote for full information, Widmanstadt reported on it to Pope Clement VII and Copernicus had dedicated his book to Pope Paul III.1 But after his death, the Church authorities apparently paid little heed to his theory until some fifty years later when Giordano Bruno forced it upon their ' attention in his philosophical teachings. Osiander's preface had probably blinded their eyes to its implications. The Protestant leaders were not quite so urbane in their attitude. While Copernicus was still alive, Luther is reported2 to have referred to this "new astrologer" who sought to prove that the