Breaks with Tradition

Breaks with Tradition

In the first half of the 16th century Nicholaus (Nicolas) Copernicus, a canon of Frauenberg, near the mouth of the Vistula, revived the ideas of two Greek astronomers Philolaus and Aristarchus by stating that the Earth was not necessarily at the centre of the universe. His growing conviction that the geometrical framework of Ptolemy’s system was both inaccurate and unduly involved found its final expression in a book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestrium, printed during the winter of 1542-43. In this he set out the case for thinking of the Earth as a planet. As a planet the Earth rotated on its axis once in 24 hours, thereby producing the apparent daily motion of the sun and stars, and also revolved around the sun once in a year. In his opinion the sun, not the earth, was the true centre of the universe, but since he clung to the old idea that the heavenly bodies moved with uniform motions in circular orbits, his system was still quite complicated.

Nicholaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

The proposed change in viewpoint came as a profound shock to most theologians. The idea that the earth and therefore Man did not occupy a central place in the scheme of things was taken to be a denial of Biblical accuracy and to constitute heresy. Man, it was said, must live at the centre of the universe. Was he not the “apple of God’s eye,” did he not represent the aim and object of all creation, did not the sky revolve above his head and therefor around the earth? Small wonder that Martin Luther referred to Copernicus as “the fool who would overrun the whole science of astronomy”?