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 



