LITTLE people floated free. They were a part of the vagrant 

 JOURNEYS hagiology of the roadside preachers, who with lurid 



imaginations said the things they thought -would 

 help carry conviction home and make "believers." 

 From Bologna Copernicus moved on to Padua, where 



N 



he remained two years, teaching and giving lectures. 

 Here he devoted considerable time to chemistry, and 

 on leaving he was honored by being given a degree by 

 the University. Next we find him at Rome filling a 

 professor's chair of mathematics and also giving lec- 

 tures on chemistry. His lectures were not for the pop- 

 ulace they were for the learned few. But they at- 

 tracted the attention of the best, and were commented 

 upon and quoted by various other teachers, preachers 

 and lecturers. A daring thinker who expresses himself 

 without reservation, states the things that various 

 others know and would like to state if they dared. It is 

 often very convenient when you want a thing said to 

 enclose the matter in quotation marks. It relieves one 

 from the responsibility of standing sponsor for it, if 

 the hypothesis does not prove popular. 

 Copernicus was nineteen years old when Columbus 

 discovered America, but it seems he did not hear of 

 Columbus until he reached Bologna in 1495. At Rome 

 he made various references to Columbus in his lec- 

 tures, dwelt upon the truth that the earth was a globe ; 

 mentioned the obvious fact that in sailing westward 

 Columbus did not sail his ship over the edge of the 

 earth into hell, as had been prophesied he would. He 

 also explained that the red sky at sunset was not 

 18 



