Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve Episode two hundred and sixty six Coupernicus,
Part three. Just like last time, I'm going to pick it up where
we left off. In fifteen thirty one, Copernicus was living as a church
canon and carefully watching the stars, But that year events in his personal life
started to interfere with astronomy. Up to this point, Copernicus's career had been
nothing less than exemplary. He had served his uncle faithfully. He was the
resident doctor for five years. He administered to the chapter important and productive lands
around the Oidston Castle. But one Copernicus's personal life began to come under closer
scrutiny. Frankly, had Copernicus lived in fourteen thirty one or even the year
fifteen hundred, I doubt anyone would have cared that he was living with a
woman. Technically, Copernicus was a minor member of the clergy and was supposed
to be celibate. But the problem is Copernicus didn't live in fourteen thirty one
or fifteen hundred. He was living with a woman, which was against the
rules, and he lived in fifteen thirty one and in fifteen seventeen. Martin
Luther had started the Protestant Reformation. Luther had effectively opened the floodgates. Centuries
of criticism and complaints against the Roman Catholic Church came pouring out of seemingly every
parish in Europe. For the bishop, clergy and citizens of Warmia, the
Reformation manifested itself early after the hostilities between the Teutonic Knights and Warmia, allied
with Poland, ended, but while the piece was very fragile, the Grand
Master of the Teutonic Order traveled to Nuremberg in fifteen twenty two. While there
he met Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran reformer who will actually later on play a
very different role in Copernicus's story. Osiander was a zealot for the Lutheran cause,
and he converted the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order to Lutheranism, though
the conversion would not be official for a few years. The Grand Master then
returned to his castle and reluctantly decided he could not afford a resumption of hostilities
against Warmia and Poland. Thus he sought a final piece. The Treaty of
Krakaha was signed in fifteen twenty five. The agreement forced the Teutonic order and
its knights to come more firmly under the control of Poland, which was certainly
welcome news everywhere across Warmia and especially in still smoldering Frombrook. Just four months
later, though, the grand Master announced he was a Lutheran. In December,
he issued a church ordinance that converted his entire principality to Lutheranism, and
this was not welcome news in Warmian towns. Teutonic Prussia now became a dukedom
Ducal Prussia, and grand Master, whose name was Albert, was now Albert
the Duke of Prussia. This meant Warmia's longtime nemesis, a territory that basically
surrounded the small bishopric, was the first government larger than a city itself to
declare itself officially Lutheran. Now. Fortunately for the citizens of Warmia, Copernicus
included, Ducal Prussia was so impoverished that it never seriously threatened the bishopric again.
That being said, the conversion of a reasonably sized kingdom was alarming news
for the bishop and also for the super Catholic King of Poland. Now,
the events in Ducal Prussia did not go unnoticed in Warmia. The Bishop Ferber
issued an order expelling all Lutherans from Warmia in fifteen twenty six, trying to
get ahead of matters. Things didn't get better. By fifteen thirty one,
the growing Protestant movement in Germany founded the Schmaccauldic League, an alliance that made
religious war a definite possibility. Suddenly everyone was very nervous again. Should religious
war breakout, Warmia seemed like an obvious first target. For his part,
Copernicus tried to remain aloof his personality to an extent, made that easy.
Copernicus seems to have been a loner. He seems to have genuinely enjoyed isolation.
He was quiet and introspective. In fact, one of his friends openly
worried that Copernicus would die alone. Why he was like that remains a matter
of some debate. Certainly, he suffered through a series of personal losses that
might have given anyone a reason to cut ties with the outside world. His
uncle and benefactor had died in fifteen twelve. His older brother died in fifteen
eighteen. Andreas had only been two years older than Nicholas, and by all
accounts the two were extremely close. Whether these deaths made Copernicus a recluse,
or simply added fuel to the fire. We will probably never know. Certain
these deaths seemed to have darkened Nicholas's demeanor. Ironically, just as Copernicus was
pulling away, the fifteen thirties brought a certain amount of recognition to his astronomical
work. In fifteen thirty three, a friend of Copernicus wrote to a man
in Verona, claiming to include with his letter an almanac written by doctor Nicolas
Copernicus. This is not likely. We don't think Kapernicus actually wrote an almanac.
More likely was that the letter contained a printed table of planetary positions written
by Copernicus. These were oftentimes used for calendars and for astrology. Regardless,
this is one of the first written confirmations of Copernicus's continued work. Later letters
illustrate that Copernicus's work was in the mid fifteen thirties being debated as far away
as wrong, and that by fifteen thirty six, frankly, he had largely
completed his major work on the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies. In fifteen thirty
seven, Maurice Ferber, the Bishop of Warmia, passed away on July the
first, fifteen thirty seven, the Cathedral canon issued the following announcement. Quote.
The Chapter of Warmia notifies, through a mandate to the bishop's officeholders that
because of the death of Maurice Ferber, Bishop of Warmia on July the first,
fifteen thirty seven, it has taken over complete authority for the Warmian lands
until the election of his successor. It has delegated to Lidzbark as its plenipotentiary
administrators and legal advisers, Nicholas Copernicus and Felix Reich Cannons of Warmia, to
prepare there a list of the late bishop's things and things belonging to the bishopric,
and for them to take care of the affairs of the castles, towns,
officeholders and subjects of the Bishop. The Chapter calls for the manifestation of
obedience to its delegates end quote. So Copernicus suddenly found himself a little bit
busier with non star related activities, as he was by and large in charge
of most of the accounting purposes after the death of the bishop. Now there
wasn't any reason to suspect initially that a change at the top would be problematic
for Nicholas Copernicus. The new bishop was a man named Johannes Danticus. Danticus
was a staunch conservative who, as we will see, didn't want to give
the local Protestants anything to criticize. And here's where Luther becomes important in Copernicus's
story. Had the Protestant Reformation not taken place, it's not particularly likely that
anybody would have found cause to HiCon and Copernicus for living with a woman.
A lot of clergy members did. He was a low level clergy officer,
simply a member of the cannon. In other words, he wasn't going to
be applying for pope at anytime soon. But the reality was the Protestant Reformation
did change things. Suddenly, the Catholic Church found itself the subject of tons
of criticism, and it became and many of its officials, including Danticus,
became really really focused, in fact, almost hyper focused on making sure there
weren't any moral issues that the Protestants could point out, which means he's going
to have to come down hard on Copernicus. By the summer of fifteen thirty
eight, Danticus was effectively in command, and the transition of power was complete
almost precisely one year after he boarded his coach to make the solemn journey to
Lidzbark to click the body of the deceased Maurice Ferber. Previous Bishop Copernicus,
accompanied again by Felix Reich, was returning to Litzburg, but this time to
celebrate. Johannes Dantikus was prepared to perform the final ritual required to seal his
ascension to the bishopric of Warmia, an official tour of a select number of
towns in the realm. At each stop, the merchants and artisans, burghers
and gentry, the various town officials, and the peasants from the surrounding countryside
were to display their respect for the new sovereign by solemnly reciting an oath of
allegiance. Remember, the bishop in Warmia was effectively both the religious and secular
leader. Two cannons from the chapter had already formally elected him the previous September,
and they were to accompany him. Copernicus and Reich had been chosen,
probably for the same reason that they were dispatched to secure it the body of
Ferber and all of the church property the year before. They were the two
most senior canons in the chapter and thus its most visible representatives. The two
aging Cannons joined Danticus at the palace at Litzburg toward the end of July fifteen
thirty eight. The oh Allegiance Tour started there before effectively circling back. While
his incredible promotion should have left Danticus elated, it did not. Far from
it. Danticus was actually convinced the world was about to end. More realistically,
he was convinced that the Roman Catholic Church was about to lose its grip
on northern Poland. If Luther's followers dominated Armia, then how could his isolated
bishop ric survive. This is the context within which we need to understand the
Copernicus story from here. At some point in the prior year so fifteen thirty
seven, Ish Copernicus let his are down and confirmed to a friend what everyone,
frankly already knew he had a mistress. More than that he had had
a mistress since fifteen thirty one. We do not know exactly when, but
by fifteen thirty eight this information reached Danticus. Danticus had turned over a new
leaf after becoming bishop, and now intended to enforce clerical celibacy seriously, with
the Lutherans vigorously accusing the Catholics of corruption. Any flounting of the rules could
not be tolerated. Danticus told Copernicus he had to end the relationship immediately.
The woman's name was Anna Schilling. Despite Danticus's clear order, Kapernicus did not
remove her from his house that August, so in November fifteen thirty eight,
Danticus wrote again to Copernicus reminding him of his duty. Six weeks later,
Copernicus wrote to Danticus that he had dealt with the issue. He had not.
Copernicus instead had lied to his bishop. Danticus filled this out, and
then he tried to put pressure on the head of the chapter to confront Copernicus
at a chapter meeting about the woman. To his face. His goal seems
to have been to embarrass Kapernicus into compliance, but the chapter head was presently
well dying and he knew it. Moreover, he was good friends with Copernicus,
so he deliberately avoided embarrassing his colleague. Oddly, with everything Danticus head
on his plate, by the summer of fifteen thirty nine, Anna Schilling and
her relationship with Copernicus had become a priority for him. At this point,
Copernicus's headache was of his own doing, But by late fifteen thirty nine things
started to spiral out of control rather quickly. The bishop rick was surrounded by
Lutherans. Old timers like Copernicus and Danticus must have been stunned by the swiftness
with which the world they grew up in had changed. If Lutheranism swept over
Varmia, as it had every other area around them, the bishop and the
Cannons would lose everything, certainly their posts and possessions, and perhaps even their
lives. From his correspondence, Danticus was clearly apprehensive about the threat to Catholicism
all over Europe, but especially in his bishop rick. He was also concerned
about the risk of hostilities between the countries and kingdoms on either side of the
religious line. So on March the twenty first, fifteen thirty nine, Danticus
renewed Ferber's order from thirteen years earlier, and he outlawed all Protestants and their
publications from Varmia. Then, in April fifteen forty, the King of Poland
declared Lutheranism illegal. Anyone found practicing it or expressing public sympathy for it was
subject to prison and the confiscation of property. Now we don't know Copernicus's attitude
toward the Reformation. He never wrote about it, or if he did,
it doesn't survive. Most historians agree Copernicus was probably sympathetic toward the positions reformers
were pushing, but did not endorse breaking away from the established Church. But
his personal life was under attack, and with everyone seemingly obsessed with the Reformation,
must have seemed as the calendar turned from fifteen thirty nine to fifteen forty
like there was no way Copernicus would ever publish on the revolutions of the Heavenly
Bodies. Yet hundreds of miles away events would conspire to change the course of
Western history. A few weeks after the August fifteen thirty eight tour of Armia,
during which Danticus first learned about Copernicus's mistress and ordered him to break off
the relationship, Copernicus was back in Fromburg trying to figure out what to do
about Anna's shilling. One day, during this anxious period for Copernicus, another
mathematician sat three hundred miles away in a whitewashed, deliberately plain foyer of a
spacious new house, anticipating an uncomfortable conversation with his superior. This conversation would
begin a chain of events that would change Western culture forever. The other mathematician
was named George Joachin Redicus. He was only twenty four years old, yet
already a mathematics professor at the University of Wittenberg, one of the premier universities
in Europe, and of course, the heart of the Lutheran movement. He
was actually there waiting to meet with the head of the university, manned by
the name of Philip Melancthon, who we all know. While the Reformation had
made significant progress by fifteen thirty eight, affairs remained tenuous. There was a
growing fear in fifteen thirty eight and fifteen thirty nine that war between Protestant and
Catholic Europe was imminent. But it wasn't geopolitics that prompted Melanthon to call on
Rheticus that September. It was a personal matter. Melanthon informed Rheticus that,
as rector of the university, he was giving him his youngest professor a leave
of absence from his teaching duties. He was to depart from Wittenberg immediately.
Specifically, Malangthan was sending Rheticus off to study with several of the most learned
scholars in Europe. Philip had made arrangements for Rehedicus to begin his leave in
Nuremberg, where he would study with a close and talented friend, Johann Schooner.
Schooner would then introduce him to others. That Rheticus had come so far
at such a young age was remarkable. When he was only fourteen teen years
old, his father had been executed in his hometown. Rhedicus's father, a
man named George Isserin, had been the doctor of the previous fifteen years for
the small town of Feldric in the province of Vorrelberg, part of the Holy
Roman Empire, which today is in western Austria. His father was a town
leader, serving on several civic boards, and he had treated nearly every citizen
at one time or another. Yet something happened in fifteen twenty eight. The
court records are confusing. He was condemned for something either sorcery or theft,
and those two generally don't have anything to do with one another. What is
not obscure is what happened on the day the executioner came to Feldric in Vollenberg.
The method of execution in the sixteenth century was beheading by sword. Rhedicus's
father was unceremoni let up several steps to a raised wooden platform, and then
forced to kneel with no fanfare. The experienced executioner raised his sword and let
fly a vicious swing, severing Rheticus's father's head from his body in one blow.
The teenage Rheticus probably didn't witness the horror, but he certainly lived through
the shock of his father's arrest and then public humiliation following the execution. Following
his father's death, the young Rhdicus had to change his last name, an
act required of the family members of executed prisoners. He eventually chose van Lauken,
Rheticus, van Lauken being a German version of his mother's maiden name and
Rheticus being a Latinized form of the ancient name of the region that housed the
town he lived in, which is called Rhetia. After the decapitation of his
father, Rheticus, his mother and his sister were allowed to remain in Felled
Kirk. It does not appear that they were prevented from taking part in the
social conventions of the town. They weren't ostracized, and they definitely had access
to money. Rheticus himself was able to shake off the memories of that terrible
day and return to his studies and thrive. It always showed an aptitude from
mathematics, even going back to the time when his father was his tutor.
In fifteen thirty nine, Rheticus met another gentleman by the name of Achilles Gassar,
and it was Gasser who taught Rheticus the art of astrology. From this
point forward, astrology would dominate his intellectual purposes. For the next three years.
Fifteen thirty three to fifteen thirty six, Rheticus was a student at the
University of Wittenberg, the heart of the Reformation. He received his master's degree
at the end of his time there, and certainly, over the course of
three years and with only eight hundred total students enrolled at the University, Melangthan
had grown familiar with Rheticus. So it was by the time the students returned
to classes in the fall of fifteen thirty six, Rheticus, himself a student
only a few months prior, was the new lecturer in arithmetic and geometry.
Rheticus, from me Langthan's perspective, was the perfect scientist. He was talented,
He took basic science seriously, and he saw its main application as a
way to better understand God's message through the heavens. Because this was a matter
of the eternal soul, Melangthan figured that if Rheticus's skills could be improved,
then they should be. That was part of why Melangthan was intent upon sending
Redicus to meet with Copernicus. The other part was well another scandal. In
early June fifteen thirty eight, a collection of epigrams was published in Wittenberg.
The author was Simon Leminus, who was from a town near bell Kirk,
where Redicus was from. Leminus was headstrong and cocky and not overly impressed with
the Reformation or its leaders. The epigrams were meant to be barely veiled attacks
on the main personalities of Wittenberg, including Martin Luther and members of the faculty.
The only ones who were not attacked were Melancthon, who had befriended the
various poets and the other poets, including Redicus. The printing of the volume
was halted immediately by Martin Luther, and the dozens that had come off the
press were ordered to be burned. Leminus left town under the cloak of darkness
just as he was ordered to stand trial. It was suspected that Melangthen assisted
his escape. Leminus found refuge in one of the various Catholic principalities. When
Leminus then continued his activities, Melangthan got into trouble for having supported him in
the first place. Malangthan was stood the immediate storm and knew he could eventually
gain Martin Luther's complete forgiveness. Luther could not stay upset with Melangthen for long,
but the same could not be said of Leminus's other compatriots, including Rheticus.
Melangthan thought it was prudent for Redicus to leave Wittenberg until the Leminist scandals
settled. Fortunately, a productive exile opportunity had presented itself, and so by
mid September fifteen thirty eight, Rhdicus was in Nurham, about two hundred miles
southwest of Wittenburg. Most of their journey would have looked like it sprang from
the pages of the Brothers Grimm. Than a few miles from Nuremberg, the
dense wood gave way to rolling open fields, and to a large extent,
especially when you got within a half a mile of the city. This was
intentional. The town government did want the armies sneaking up on Nuremberg. At
the time, Nuremberg, the prior home of Reggia Montanus, retained its title
as the most important central European city for astronomy and astrology. Redicus would have
been keenly aware of this reality. There, Ridicus met Johann Schooner, the
man who seemed to be, for all practical purposes, Reggia Montanus's rightful heir.
Schooner was born in fourteen seventy seven, making him four years younger than
Copernicus. He was a Lutheran and he knew me Lengthen by trade. He
was a teacher of mathematics. He was also much more knowledgeable of astronomy than
Rheticus. He introduced Rheticus to a process that was to prove extraordinarily important publishing
in the fifteen thirties. Nuremberg was by far and away the most important center
for German language publishing. In addition to publishing his own works, Schooner was
a kind of talent scout for another publisher in Nuremberg named Johannes Petrius, the
man who would be Copernicus's publisher. In the mid fifteen thirties, Petrius was
known as the leading publisher printer in the city. By fourteen eighty, just
twenty five years or so after printing was invented, there were around one hundred
and ten printers in Europe, mostly in Italy and Germany. Of these,
Petrius was quite the phenomenon. Frankly, not only would he go on to
publish The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, but Petrius had already published works by
Martin Luther, Erasmus, heinrichs Vingli, Melancthon and Henry the Eighth of England.
Quite the list of accomplishments. The last individual who was part of the
same intellectual Rheticus increasingly found himself a part of somebody I already talked about.
Andreas Oceander born in fourteen ninety eight. Oceander played a key role in the
success of Lutheranism in Nuremberg. He was a luther advocate, having converted himself
in fifteen twenty two. In terms of Prussian Lutheranism, he was about as
important as a man that you would find in any history book. The months
that Rheticus spent in and around Nuremberg in late fifteen thirty eight in early fifteen
thirty nine were extraordinary, living in Reggio Montanus's city, visiting his observatory,
handling his manuscripts, and especially interacting with the men who were preserving his legacy.
These stimulating days energyized an already enthusiastic young man. Rhedick has finished his
study with tons of new mentors. Someone, probably Schooner, had a copy
of, or at least had read Copernicus's short essay on the heliocentric theory,
penned all the way back before fifteen fourteen. The scholars of Nuremberg had also
read Copernicus's criticism of their late colleague Johannes Werner. Copernicus was clearly a topic
of heated discussion, because at some point Rhddick has made the decision that he
must go and meet him. Quote. I have heard of the fame of
Master Nicholas Copernicus in the Northern lands, and although the University of Wittenberg had
made me a public professor in those arts, Nonetheless, I did not think
that I should be content until I had learned something more than the instruction of
that man. And I also say that I regret neither the financial expense,
nor the long journey, nor the remaining hardships. Yet it seems to me
that there came a great reward for these troubles, namely that I, a
rather daring young man, compelled this venerable man to share his ideas sooner in
this discipline with the whole world. End quote. On May fourteenth, fifteen
thirty nine, Rehdikus wrote to Schooner in Nuremberg that he was on his way
to meet with Copernicus in Frombork. When he arrived, Rhdikus immediately presented the
reclusive astronomer with three books, an important gift given the price of books at
the time. The first bound book contained two works, a fifteen thirty three
Greek edition of Euclid's Elements, coupled with the Reggio Montanus's on the Triangles of
every Kind. The Euclid volume had been published in Basil in fifteen thirty three,
and the Reggio Montanus was actually published by Petraeus, also in fifteen thirty
three. These two combined volumes represented the most important work on geometry, coupled
with the most important work on trigonometry. The second bound book contained three works,
Peter Appian's Instrumentum premi Mobilis, which was published again by the same publisher,
Petraeus in fifteen thirty four, and Gerber's De astronomer Libra nine, published
by you guessed it Petraeus in fifteen thirty three, and Whitlow's Perspectiva, also
published by Petraeus in fifteen thirty five. The third and final book was a
major prize, Ptolemay's Alma Guest. Specifically, the Greek edition published in fifteen
thirty eight. Redicus had inscribed all three volumes, indicating that they were gifts.
Reggio Montanus's on Triangles was important because the Cannon did not own a copy,
and the Greek translation of Ptolemay would have been instantly useful for Capernicus.
Copernicus's personal library was actually quite small. He might have borrowed some volumes from
colleagues that we don't know about, but regardless, it's interesting because He had
plenty of money to purchase books, he just apparently chose not to. As
a fellow astronomer, Reddicus would have realized that the catwalk on the ramparts along
the cathedral was not wide enough for astronomical observations or instruments. Even more problematic
was the wind, which would have made careful use of delicate instruments impossible.
The cathedral courtyard was also unworkable for observations because of the high walls surrounding it.
Instead, Copernicus had built a simple patio near his house more than twenty
five years earlier, and this was where he formerly observed the heavens. In
the winter of fifteen thirteen, Copernicus had bought eight hundred bricks and a barrel
of chlorinated lime from the cathedral's brickyard and limehouse, likely the raw materials for
the patio. Copernicus did this groundbreaking work with shockingly primitive instruments. Mostly he
used what was called a try quinn trum try quintrum fun word. It consists
of three obviously wooden components, an upright pole about twelve feet tall, a
second piece hinged to the pole that had two sites on it kind of like
a gun barrel, I suppose, and was used to find the planet or
star to be observed, and a third piece that measured angles. Years later,
one of Kapernicus's greatest admirers, Tico Brahey, sent his assistant to Fromberg
to purchase his old try quintrum so that he could better understand how Copernicus went
about his observations. Back in Denmark and working with this tool, Braje was
incredulous. He wrote that the ipiece was so imprecise quote an error of several
minutes can occur. Hence is it a wonder how not only Copernicus, but
also the ancients, who use such high pieces, could have attained any precision
or even anything else that was in perfect order? End quote. The second
instrument that Copernicus used was a quadrant, which he later described in great lengths
in the Revolutions. A quadrant looks a lot like a sun dial mounted on
a wall. Its vertical base was large, at a radius of at least
five or six square feet. It was used to note the summer and winster
solstices more than anything else. And his last instrument was a spherical astra lab
Astra labs consisted of circles made of brass. It was used to chart the
heavenly bodies by determining their celestial latitude and longitude. Again, compared to the
devices that are going to be used by tikal Brahe and Galileo, these are
all basically instruments. To say it the way it is. Still, it's
certain from everything that followed that Rheticus at least was impressed. He now knew
that the legends surrounding this man was accurate. He would later write, quote
this man Kapernicus, whose work I am now treating in every field of knowledge
and in the mastery of astronomy, not inferior to Reggio Montanus. Frankly,
I'd rather compare him with Ptolomay end quote. Having met Kapernicus, Rheticus now
set himself to doing everything he could to get the astronomer to the finish line
to make sure he published his work. It would not be an easy task.
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