In like manner we find the question stirred by other eminent men. Thus John Muller of Konigsberg, a celebrated astronomer who died in 1476, better known by the name of Regiomontanus, wrote a dissertation on the subject “Whether the earth be in motion or at rest,” in which he decides ex professo[17] against the motion. Yet such discussions must have made generally known the arguments for the heliocentric theory.
[17] Schoneri Opera, part ii. p. 129.
We have already seen the enthusiasm with which Rheticus, who was Copernicus’s pupil in the latter years of his life, speaks of him. “Thus,” says he, “God has given to my excellent preceptor a reign without end; which may He vouchsafe to guide, govern, and increase, to the restoration of astronomical truth. Amen.”
Of the immediate converts of the Copernican system, who adopted it before the controversy on the subject had attracted attention, I shall only add Mæstlin, and his pupil, Kepler. Mæstlin published in 1588 an Epitome Astronomiæ, in which the immobility of the earth is asserted; but in 1596 he edited Kepler’s Mysterium Cosmographicum, and the Narratio of Rheticus: and in an epistle of his own, which he inserts, he defends the Copernican system by those physical reasonings which we shall shortly have to mention, as the usual arguments in this dispute. Kepler himself, in the outset of the work just named, says, “When I was at Tübingen, attending to Michael Mæstlin, being disturbed by the manifold inconveniences of the usual opinion concerning the world, I was so delighted with Copernicus, of whom he made great mention in his lectures, that I not only defended his opinions in our disputations of the candidates, but wrote a thesis concerning the First Motion which is produced by the revolution of the earth.” This must have been in 1590.
The differences of opinion respecting the Copernican system, of which we thus see traces, led to a controversy of some length and extent. This controversy turned principally upon physical considerations, which were much more distinctly dealt with by Kepler, and others of the followers of Copernicus, than they had been by the [272] discoverer himself. I shall, therefore, give a separate consideration to this part of the subject. It may be proper, however, in the first place, to make a few observations on the progress of the doctrine, independently of these physical speculations.
Sect. 2.—Diffusion of the Copernican Theory.
The diffusion of the Copernican opinions in the world did not take place rapidly at first. Indeed, it was necessarily some time before the progress of observation and of theoretical mechanics gave the heliocentric doctrine that superiority in argument, which now makes us wonder that men should have hesitated when it was presented to them. Yet there were some speculators of this kind, who were attracted at once by the enlarged views of the universe which it opened to them. Among these was the unfortunate Giordano Bruno of Nola, who was burnt as a heretic at Rome in 1600. The heresies which led to his unhappy fate were, however, not his astronomical opinions, but a work which he published in England, and dedicated to Sir Philip Sydney, under the title of Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante, and which is understood to contain a bitter satire of religion and the papal government. Montucla conceives that, by his rashness in visiting Italy after putting forth such a work, he compelled the government to act against him. Bruno embraced the Copernican opinions at an early period, and connected with them the belief in innumerable worlds besides that which we inhabit; as also certain metaphysical or theological doctrines which he called the Nolan philosophy. In 1591 he published De innumerabilibus, immenso, et infigurabili, seu de Universo et Mundis, in which he maintains that each star is a sun, about which revolve planets like our earth; but this opinion is mixed up with a large mass of baseless verbal speculations.
Giordano Bruno is a disciple of Copernicus on whom we may look with peculiar interest, since he probably had a considerable share in introducing the new opinions into England;[18] although other persons, as Recorde, Field, Dee, had adopted it nearly thirty years earlier; and Thomas Digges ten years before, much more expressly. Bruno visited this country in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and speaks of her and of her councillors in terms of praise, which appear to show that [273] his book was intended for English readers; though he describes the mob which was usually to be met with in the streets of London with expressions of great disgust: “Una plebe la quale in essere irrespettevole, incivile, rozza, rustica, selvatica, et male allevata, non cede ad altra che pascer possa la terra nel suo seno.”[19] The work to which I refer is La Cena de le Cenere, and narrates what took place at a supper held on the evening of Ash Wednesday (about 1583, see p. 145 of the book), at the house of Sir Fulk Greville, in order to give “Il Nolano” an opportunity of defending his peculiar opinions. His principal antagonists are two “Dottori d’ Oxonia,” whom Bruno calls Nundinio and Torquato. The subject is not treated in any very masterly manner on either side; but the author makes himself have greatly the advantage not only in argument, but in temper and courtesy: and in support of his representations of “pedantesca, ostinatissima ignoranza et presunzione, mista con una rustica incivilità, che farebbe prevaricar la pazienza di Giobbe,” in his opponents, he refers to a public disputation which he had held at Oxford with these doctors of theology, in presence of Prince Alasco, and many of the English nobility.[20] ~Additional material in the [3rd edition].~
[18] See Burton’s Anat. Mel. Pref. “Some prodigious tenet or paradox of the earth’s motion,” &c. “Bruno,” &c.
[19] Opere di Giordano Bruno, vol. i. p. 146.