THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. gg 



about fourteen hundred years. It accorded with 

 Scripture ; it was adopted by the Church ; and, more- 

 over, it was confirmed by the senses, the correc- 

 tion of which still remains, and will long remain, a 

 condition of intellectual advance. Little wonder is 

 it, then, that Copernicus hesitated to broach a theory 

 thus supported, or that, when published, it was put 

 forth in tentative form as a possible explanation 

 more in accord with the phenomena. A preface, 

 presumably by a friendly hand, commended the 

 Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies to Pope Paul 

 III. It urged that " as in previous times others had 

 been allowed the privilege of feigning what circles 

 they chose in order to explain the phenomena," Co- 

 pernicus " had conceived that he might take the lib- 

 erty of trying whether, on the supposition of the 

 earth's motion, it was possible to find better explana- 

 tions than the ancient ones of the revolutions of the 

 celestial orbs." A copy of the book was placed in 

 the hands of its author only a few hours before his 

 death on 23d of May, 1543. 



This " upstart astrologer," this " fool who wishes 

 to reverse the entire science of astronomy," for 

 " sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded 

 the sun to stand still, and not the earth " these are 

 Luther's words was, therefore, beyond the grip of 

 the Holy Inquisition. But a substitute was forth- 

 coming. Giordano Bruno, a Dominican monk, had 

 added to certain heterodox beliefs the heresy of Co- 

 pernicanism, which he publicly taught from Oxford 

 7 



