November 8. Nicolaus Copernicus. After Copernicus earned a doctorate in church law, he became a church administrator and a medical doctor. For fun, he studied, and that included astronomy.
By 1514, he was widely known as an expert in astronomy, and church leaders sought his help in reforming the Julian calendar. He was the first to propose that Earth revolved around the Sun. He also taught that the Earth rotated on its axis. Nowadays, middle-school kids know that, but in the 16th century, the ideas were new and controversial.
On this date in 1510, Copernicus was elected Chancellor in Frombork, Poland. This is today’s story.
Challenge the thinking of the day, and make a better future.
Copernicus wasn’t your typical astronomer. His job revolved around medical and priestly duties, and he was so busy managing church affairs that astronomy became little more than a hobby. But his hobby led him to discover knowledge. New knowledge that could lead to important advances for society and to being shunned or worse … to his death.
And with the dangerous new knowledge, Copernicus discovered that, though people often resist new knowledge, a courageous few can make lasting change.
Copernicus was meticulous in his studies. Everything he did, he did with care and as much precision as possible.
At the time, the Earth was thought to be the center of the universe. Even the church supported this notion, using it as proof of God. But what Copernicus saw in the motions of the heavens didn’t match what he had previously learned, and so he proposed a new theory: the Earth wasn’t the center. He postulated that the sun was the center of the Universe, and the Earth revolved around it. So did the other planets. And his discoveries didn’t challenge his belief in God, but strengthened it.
But would others come to believe as he did? The world was changing. Columbus had discovered a new land. Martin Luther had challenged the church. Explorers were expanding a world once thought small and confined.
But not everyone was on board with such drastic changes. Anyone who dared to challenge the knowledge of the day risked the death penalty. Copernicus understood this, and it worried him. Stories about fellow intellectuals being burned at the stake echoed in his mind. He didn’t want to face such a fate.
So Copernicus stayed silent. Fear, at first, had won. For more than thirty years, his discoveries remained hidden to all but a select few.
But one day, as Copernicus got older, a German named Rheticus came across Copernicus’s work and deemed it revolutionary. Originally, Copernicus had resolved that his discoveries would only be subtle talk amongst the scientific community, but Rheticus disagreed. Copernicus needed to publish his work to everyone—and therefore change the world.
Copernicus hesitated. He remembered what had happened to people who dared to challenge the knowledge of the day. He also wanted to make sure the work was done right. The mathematics had to be perfect, the science unmistakable. If he was to be challenged, he wanted to make sure the proof was unchallengeable.
But Rheticus would not give up. He reminded Copernicus that despite the fear that kept him quiet, there were younger intellectuals who would crave his scientific knowledge. And if that knowledge got out, everyone would finally realize the truth. That truth wouldn’t challenge their faith or make the authority of the church crumble. It would make God’s creation understood.
Rheticus’s persistence paid off, and after realizing that his friend was right, Copernicus agreed to publish. The man who had spent a lifetime serving the faith now had to put it to practice. The truth of how God had made the universe needed to get out to the public, and fear couldn’t stop him.
The book with Copernicus’s discoveries was assembled and sent to Nuremberg, Germany, to be printed. But the controversy had only just begun.
When word reached the people of the town that such a book was about to be released, accusations of heresy and threats of excommunication showed up. The university there even threatened to break the printing press.
Friends had to get weapons and protect the printing press, and three times there was an attempted break-in, once with fire. For Copernicus, anxiety rose, but he didn’t back down. He would see the book finished and published.
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you” (Psalm 56:3 NIV).
It wasn’t long before Copernicus, in his old age and frail health, had a stroke. He became paralyzed on one side. But a notice came that the printed book would be ready in three days. Copernicus managed to stay alive just long enough. As he lay dying, the messenger arrived and put the book in his hand. The truth had been printed. Faith had overcome fear.
In the end, his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium went on to change the scientific world as we know it.
Does the status quo need to be challenged? Challenge the thinking of the day, and make a better future.
Neil, Samuel. Epoch Men, and the Results of Their Lives. Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, 1871.
Kesten, Hermann. Copernicus and His World. New York: Roy Publishers, 1945.
Story read by: Daniel Carpenter
Would You Like to Learn More About This Man?
Galileo Learned from Copernicus
On June 22, 1633, Galileo stood trial before the Catholic Church. While a devoted Catholic himself, he had made many enemies in the higher ranks of the church.
The court accused him of heresy. His crime was to believe and teach something that most of his society did not believe—the idea that the Sun lay at the center of the Solar System, and the Earth orbited around the Sun.
While we now know that the Sun lies at the center of our solar system, and not the entire universe, the idea that everything in our solar system revolved around the Sun was still a great leap in scientific thought at the time. And Galileo faced the wrath of the Church authorities for teaching his ideas.
It had been a long time since he had first heard and believed Copernicus’s theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. On January 7, 1610, Galileo used his homemade telescope to look at the stars and see the evidence that the heavenly bodies orbited around the sun, and not the Earth.
Galileo knew that the right thing to do was to make this knowledge public. In trying to share the truth with the scientific community, he spent many years fighting the authorities of his society.
This long and weary scientific battle had finally ended for Galileo, and he had seemingly lost it. His enemies in power would no longer allow him to teach the idea that the Earth revolved around the sun, even going so far as to ban his book on the subject.
Galileo listened as the speaker for the court continued his long-winded monologue and finally arrived at Galileo’s punishment. He was forced to declare that he was wrong, and he spent the remainder of his life under house arrest.
This was not the end of the cause he fought for, however. The truth of the solar system’s structure was eventually revealed to the wider scientific community, and the Catholic Church had little choice but to update their view of the world.