The Sleepwalkers (68 page)

Why
did
Copernicus,
after
ten
years
spent
in
the
bubblebath
of
Renaissance
Italy,
adopt
this
arrogantly
obscurantist
and
anti-humanistic
attitude?
Why
did
he
hug
that
apocryphal
letter
for
forty
years
so
close
to
his
heart,
like
a
talisman,
make
a
new
translation
of
it
and
quote
it
to
the
Pope?
How
could
a
Renaissance
philosopher,
a
contemporary
of
Erasmus
and
Reuchlin,
Hutten
and
Luther,
approve
of
the
preposterous
notion
that
one
should
not
pour
the
clear
water
of
truth
into
the
muddy
wells
of
the
human
mind?
Why
was
Copernicus
so
afraid
of
the
Copernican
Revolution?

The
answer
is
given
in
the
text:
because
the
pure
water
would
be
wasted
and
the
dirt
would
only
get
agitated
.
Here
is
the
core
of
that
anxiety
which
paralysed
his
work
and
crippled
his
life.
The
hocus-pocus
about
the
Pythagorean
mysteries
was
a
rationalization
of
his
fear
of
getting
sprayed
with
dirt
if
he
published
his
theory.
It
was
quite
enough
to
be
an
orphan
at
ten,
with
a
leper
for
a
brother
and
a
sombre
bully
for
a
ward.
Was
it
necessary
to
expose
oneself
to
the
scorn
and
ridicule
of
one's
contemporaries,
to
the
risk
of
being
"hissed
off
the
stage"?

It
was
not,
as
legend
would
have
it,
religious
persecution
that
he
had
to
fear.
Legend
pays
little
attention
to
dates;
yet
it
is
essential
to
remember
that
the
Book
of
Revolutions
was
not
put
on
the
Index
until
seventy-three
years
after
it
was
published,
and
that
the
notorious
trial
of
Galileo
took
place
ninety
years
after
Copernicus'
death.
By
then,
owing
to
the
Counter-Reformation
and
the
Thirty
Years'
War,
the
intellectual
climate
of
Europe
had
radically
changed
–
almost
as
radically
as
between
the
mid-Victorian
and
the
Hitler-Stalin
era.
Canon
Koppernigk's
youth
and
middle
years
were
spent
in
the
golden
age
of
intellectual
tolerance:
the
age
of
Leo
X,
patron
of
learning
and
the
arts;
at
a
time
when
the
highest
dignitaries
of
the
Church
freely
indulged
in
liberal,
sceptical,
revolutionary
philosophizing.
Savonarola
was
burnt
and
Luther
was
excommunicated,
but
only
after
they
had
openly
defied
the
Pope,
and
after
all
attempts
to
appease
them
had
been
exhausted.
Scholars
and
philosophers
had
no
reason
to
fear
persecution
for
their
opinions
so
long
as
they
refrained
from
directly
and
explicitly
challenging
the
authority
of
the
Church.
If
they
exercised
a
minimum
of
discretion
in
their
choice
of
words,
they
could
not
only
say
pretty
well
what
they
liked,
but
were
even
encouraged
to
do
so
by
ecclesiastic
patronage;
and
this
is
what
actually
happened
to
Copernicus
himself.
The
astonishing
proof
of
this
is
a
document,
included
by
Copernicus
in
the
prefatory
matter
of
the
Book
of
Revolutions
,
and
preceding
his
dedication
to
the
Pope.
It
is
a
letter
which
I
have
already
mentioned,
written
to
Copernicus
by
Cardinal
Schoenberg,
who
occupied
a
position
of
special
trust
under
three
succeeding
Popes
–
Leo
X,
Clement
VII,
and
Paul
III.

"
Nicolaus
Schoenberg,
Cardinal
of
Capua,
sends
his
greetings
to
Nicolaus
Copernicus.

When
several
years
ago
I
heard
your
diligence
unanimously
praised,
I
began
to
feel
an
increasing
fondness
for
you
and
to
deem
our
compatriots
lucky
on
account
of
your
fame.
I
have
been
informed
that
you
not
only
have
an
exhaustive
knowledge
of
the
teachings
of
the
ancient
mathematicians,
but
that
you
have
also
created
a
new
theory
of
the
Universe
according
to
which
the
Earth
moves
and
the
Sun
occupies
the
basic
and
hence
central
position;
that
the
eighth
sphere
[of
the
fixed
stars]
remains
in
an
immobile
and
eternally
fixed
position
and
the
Moon,
together
with
the
elements
included
in
its
sphere,
placed
between
the
spheres
of
Mars
and
Venus,
revolves
annually
around
the
Sun;
moreover,
that
you
have
written
a
treatise
on
this
entirely
new
theory
of
astronomy,
and
also
computed
the
movements
of
the
planets
and
set
them
out
in
tables,
to
the
greatest
admiration
of
all.
Therefore,
learned
man,
without
wishing
to
be
inopportune,
I
beg
you
most
emphatically
to
communicate
your
discovery
to
the
learned
world,
and
to
send
me
as
soon
as
possible
your
theories
about
the
Universe,
together
with
the
tables
and
whatever
else
you
have
pertaining
to
the
subject.
I
have
instructed
Dietrich
von
Rheden
[another
Frauenburg
Canon]
to
make
a
fair
copy
of
this
at
my
expense
and
to
send
it
to
me.
If
you
will
do
me
these
favours,
you
will
find
that
you
are
dealing
with
a
man
who
has
your
interests
at
heart,
and
wishes
to
do
full
justice
to
your
excellence.
Farewell.