322 Prowe's Life of Copernicus. Oct.
he counselled, ' take a wife, and found an hereditary principality.' Albert smiled inscrutably, but laid the precept to heart. Conformably to it was framed the treaty concluded at Cracow, April 8, 1525, whereby he exchanged the spiritual dignity of Grand Master for the temporal one of Duke of Prussia. The transition was effected with perfect smoothness; it had been long in preparation. Lutheran opinions were already extensively diffused among the knights ; vows, once sacred, had become a burden or a mockery ; and only one conspicuous member of the Order raised a protest against its dissolution.
The revolution, however, brought no mitigation of economic difficulties. The currency question came up for discussion year after year ; at one Diet after another the unanswerable arguments of Copernicus were reiterated; resolutions were passed, edicts were issued, of which the attempted enforcement added to the confusion. The last glimpse we catch of the matter is in 1530, when the Frauenburg astronomer still occupies the foreground, though having left far behind his last hope of bringing it to a successful issue. It was evidently one for the strong hand to deal with.
Copernicus might with great probability have attained, had he aspired to, the episcopate ; but he appears to have been totally devoid of personal ambition. His colleagues, however, showed their belief in his fitness to wield the crozier by electing him to the office of Administrator-general of the diocese during a seven months' interregnum following on the death of Bishop Fabian, January 30, 1523. It was a most critical time. The independence of Ermland was menaced both from the Polish and from the Teutonic side, and moral vigour was sorely needed to come to the rescue of material helplessness. This Copernicus displayed in ample measure. He not only obtained from King Sigismund an edict for the restoration of all places in Ermland occupied by Polish troops during the war, but — what was probably more difficult — secured its execution. The lawless forces of the Order, on the other hand, both kept (for the time) what they had got, and, when occasion offered, seized more. It has further, by diligent enquiry, been ascertained that in the years 1524, 1526, 1531, and 1538, Copernicus acted as 'nuncius capituli,' or itinerant inspector of the secular possessions of the Chapter, and that, under the title of ' visitator,' he filled the same office in purely ecclesiastical matters in December, 1535. So much has been briefly transmitted to us ; and we know that the record must be incomplete. It is, however, amply sufficient to excite our
