COPERNICUS. 121 



scientific criteria. Calvin's words fell within one universe of dis- 

 course, Kepler's in another. There was no conflict between religion 

 and science as such. Calvin sat as judge of a conflict between religion 

 and a possible heresy. Kepler asked himself if this new assertion was 

 substantial truth or merely error masquerading in a scientific form. 

 Phenomena can not be judged by criteria belonging to a world to 

 which they are foreign. It is in a light like this that we must examine 

 the relations of such men as Copernicus and Galileo to their times. 



The Lateran council (1512-17) appointed a committee to consider 

 the much needed reform of the Church calendar, and in 1514 the help 

 •of Copernicus was asked — a proof that he was not only remembered in 

 Eome, but that his reputation had grown since his residence there. 

 He declined to give advice, for the reason that the motions of the sun 

 and moon were, as yet, too imperfectly known. At the request of the 

 chief of the committee, Copernicus continued his researches on the 

 length of the tropical year — a fundamental datum. 



In November, 1516, the quiet life of Copernicus at Frauenburg 

 was broken up by his appointment as Administrator bonorum com- 

 munium at Allenstein. The appointment was for one year, but the 

 administration of Copernicus was so successful that he occupied the 

 post during the years 1516-19 and again in 1520-21. His mani- 

 fold duties in this place brought him again into conflict with the 

 Teutonic knights. The interests of the order and of the church in 

 Ermeland were totally antagonistic. At times open hostilities oc- 

 curred and towns were besieged, taken and plundered. It is not neces- 

 sary to follow this harassing strife into the details of Prussian and 

 Polish politics. It is recounted in history as the Frdnhischer Reiter- 

 hrieg. In 1521 Copernicus, then the recognized head of his chapter, 

 was selected to draw up a statement of grievances against the order to 

 be laid before the estates of Prussia. The lands of the chapter of 

 Frauenburg had been overrun, the towns and villages plundered, the 

 peasants had fled or had been killed. The castle of Allenstein, the 

 residence of Copernicus, was itself in danger until it was saved by a 

 four years' truce concluded at Thorn. In such stormy times astron- 

 omy was not to be thought of. 



It was at this period that Copernicus composed, at the request of 

 the Prussian estates, a memorial on the debasement of the coinage of 

 the country and on the remedies to be adopted. "Money," he says, 

 "is a measure, and like all measures it must be constant in value. 

 What would one say to a yard or a pound whose values could be changed 

 at the will of the measure-makers? The value of money depends not 

 on the stamp it bears, but on the value of the fine metal it contains." 

 Nothing could be clearer than this. His conclusions on the effects of 

 a debased currency on the interests of landlord and tenant are not so 



