1883. Prowe's Life of Copernicus. 323
amazement when we consider that these evidences of lifelong familiarity with affairs, sometimes momentous, sometimes minutely vexatious, always exacting, refer to a man who accomplished, alone and unaided, one of the greatest and most laborious works that ever quitted the factory of the human brain.
And all this time we have left out of sight his medical capacity. Yet be was a physician in high repute, and active if not constant practice during a period of close upon thirty years. Gassendi tells us [1] that he was 'regarded as another 'Æsculapius,' and interprets the phrase (possibly upon traditional authority) to signify a special dedication of his skill to the service of the poor. The gloss, however, must be taken on trust ; for documentary evidence naturally regards only his more distinguished patients. Even within the Chapter his prescriptions were a matter of course, and, as a matter of course, were left unrecorded ; but the memory of episcopal maladies has in some cases survived. Letters demanding his instant presence at Heilsberg are even now extant, the hot haste of suffering still legible in their hurried lines ; he was repeatedly at Löbau in attendance on the Bishop of Culm, and the wide reach of his fame as a healer was attested by a summons to Königsberg.
Notwithstanding his heretical proceedings, Duke Albert of Prussia remained on the best terms with the strictly Catholic ecclesiastics of Ermland. Bishop Dantiscus,[2] one of the most accomplished men of his time, and one of the most earnest in combating the new opinions, kept up a confidential correspondence with him ; and the Chapter, whether from policy or goodwill, showed, on occasion, the utmost readiness to oblige him. Thus, when the Duke wrote in much distress, April 6, 1541, to implore the aid of the capitular physician for a trusted counsellor who lay dangerously ill, ' Doctor Nicholas ' was not only despatched to Königsberg without delay, but his absence was permitted to extend over nearly a month, and that too at the time of Easter. His treatment was so far successful that the sick man lived two years longer ; indeed, his patients seem, as a rule, to have thriven in his hands. Yet, so far as we are able to judge of his practice from his principles, the fact is one to occasion some surprise.
