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 independently 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 between Ptolemy and Aristotle, partly in connection with the various astronomical tables which, though on substantially 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, great astronomer whose work has next to be considered.
71. Nicholas Coppernic or Coppernicus[1] was born on February 19th, 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.
