CH IV., $ 70, 7 i] The Revival of Learning 93 



discovery and the study of Greek philosophers other 

 than Aristotle naturally did much to shake the supreme 

 authority of that great philosopher, just as the Reformers 

 shook the authority of the Church by pointing out what 

 they considered to be inconsistencies between its doctrines 

 and those of the Bible. At first there was little avowed 

 opposition to the principle that truth was to be derived 

 from some authority, rather than to be sought independ- 

 ently by the light of reason ; the new scholars replaced 

 the authority of Aristotle by that of Plato or of Greek and 

 Roman antiquity in general, and the religious Reformers 

 replaced the Church by the Bible. Naturally, however, 

 the conflict between authorities produced in some minds 

 scepticism as to the principle of authority itself; when 

 freedom of judgment had to be exercised to the extent 

 of deciding between authorities, it was but a step further 

 a step, it is true, that comparatively few took to use 

 the individual judgment on the matter at issue itself. 



In astronomy the conflict between authorities had already 

 arisen, partly in connection with certain divergencies be- 

 tween Ptolemy and Aristotle, partly in connection with 

 the various astronomical tables which, though on sub- 

 stantially the same lines, differed in minor points. The 

 time was therefore ripe for some fundamental criticism of 

 the traditional astronomy, and for its reconstruction on a 

 new basis. 



Such a fundamental change was planned and worked 

 out by the grefet astronomer whose work has next to be 

 considered. 



71. Nicholas Coppernic or Coppernicus* was born on 

 February iQth, 1473, in a house still pointed out in the little 

 trading town of Thorn on the Vistula. Thorn now lies 

 just within the eastern frontier of the present kingdom of 

 Prussia ; in the time of Coppernicus it lay in a region over 

 which the King of Poland had some sort of suzerainty, the 



* The name is spelled in a large number of different ways both by 

 Coppernicus and by his contemporaries. He himself usually wrote 

 his name Coppernic, and in learned productions commonly used the 

 Latin form Coppernicus. The spelling Copernicus is so much less 

 commonly used by him that I have thought it better to discard it, 

 even at the risk of appearing pedantic. 



