The Sleepwalkers (71 page)

The
old
Canon
felt
that
what
he
really
needed
was
a
young
disciple
in
the
Pythagorean
tradition,
who
would
hand
the
teaching
down
to
the
select
few
without
stirring
up
the
dirt
at
the
bottom
of
the
well.
His
only
friend,
the
gentle
Giese,
no
longer
lived
in
Frauenburg;
he
had
been
made
Bishop
of
the
neighbouring
Prussian
diocese,
Kulm.
Besides,
Giese
too
was
by
now
nearly
sixty,
and
merely
an
amateur
astronomer
who
did
not
qualify
as
a
disciple.
The
young,
enthusiastic
Professor
from
Goettingen
did.
It
seemed
that
Providence
herself
had
sent
him
–
even
if
it
was
a
Lutheran
Providence.
From
the
Catholic
side
there
was
not
much
to
fear,
as
Schoenberg's
letter
proved:
young
Rheticus,
on
the
other
hand,
was
a
protegé
of
Melanchton's;
he
would
secure
the
Lutheran
flank
and
carry
the
message
straight
into
their
headquarters,
into
Wittenberg
and
Goettingen.

Nevertheless,
Copernicus
hesitated.
He
could
decide
nothing
without
Giese.
Besides,
the
presence
of
his
Protestant
guest
in
Frauenburg
was
an
embarrassment,
even
if
the
guest
was
a
sacred
cow.
A
few
weeks
after
Rheticus'
arrival
Canon
Koppernigk
packed
him
off,
and
they
both
went
to
stay
with
Bishop
Giese
at
his
residence
in
Loebau
Castle.

For
some
time,
master
and
disciple
were
the
Bishop's
guests.
The
cosmological
triumvirate
in
the
mediaeval
castle
must
have
argued
endlessly
through
the
milky
nights
of
the
Baltic
summer
about
the
launching
of
the
Copernican
system:
Rheticus
and
Giese
pressing
for
publication,
the
old
Canon
maintaining
his
stubborn
opposition,
yet
forced
to
yield,
step
by
step.
Rheticus
describes
a
few
phases
of
the
struggle
with
a
kind
of
embarrassed
restraint,
oddly
in
contrast
with
his
usual
flamboyance.
He
quotes
long
passages
of
dialogue
between
his
domine
praeceptor
and
Bishop
Giese,
passing
with
modest
silence
over
his
own
participation
in
the
debate:

"Since
my
Teacher
was
social
by
nature
and
saw
that
the
scientific
world
also
stood
in
need
of
improvement
...
he
readily
yielded
to
the
entreaties
of
his
friend,
the
reverend
Prelate.
He
promised
that
he
would
draw
up
astronomical
tables
with
new
rules,
and
that
if
this
work
had
any
value
he
would
not
keep
it
from
the
world...
But
he
had
long
been
aware
that
[the
theory
on
which
the
tables
were
based]
would
overturn
the
ideas
concerning
the
order
of
the
motions
and
spheres
...
that
were
commonly
accepted
and
believed
to
be
true;
moreover,
the
required
hypotheses
would
contradict
our
senses.

He
therefore
decided
that
he
should
...
compose
tables
with
accurate
rules
but
no
proofs.
In
that
way,
he
would
provoke
no
dispute
among
philosophers
...
and
the
Pythagorean
principle
would
be
observed
that
philosophy
must
be
pursued
in
such
a
way
that
its
inner
secrets
are
reserved
for
learned
men,
trained
in
mathematics,
etc.

Then
His
Reverence
pointed
out
that
such
a
work
would
be
an
incomplete
gift
to
the
world
unless
my
Teacher
set
forth
the
reasons
for
his
tables
and
also
included,
following
the
example
of
Ptolemy,
the
system
or
theory
and
the
foundations
and
proofs
upon
which
he
relied...
There
was
no
place
in
science,
he
asserted,
for
the
practice
frequently
adopted
in
kingdoms,
conferences
and
public
affairs,
where
for
a
time
plans
are
kept
secret
until
the
subjects
see
the
fruitful
results...
As
for
the
uneducated,
whom
the
Greeks
call
'those
who
do
not
know
theory,
music,
philosophy
and
geometry',
their
shouting
should
be
ignored..."
⁴³

In
other
words,
the
wily
Canon,
hard
pressed
by
Rheticus
and
Giese,
proposed
to
publish
his
planetary
tables
but
to
withhold
the
theory
on
which
they
were
based;
the
motion
of
the
earth
was
not
to
be
mentioned.

This
manœuvre
of
evasion
having
failed,
the
struggle
in
the
triumvirate
was
resumed.
The
next
stage
ended
in
an
astonishing
compromise,
a
triumph
of
Copernican
obliqueness.
Judging
by
the
results,
the
terms
of
the
agreement
must
have
been
as
follows:

Copernicus'
Book
of
Revolutions
was
not
to
be
printed.
But
Rheticus
was
to
write
an
account
of
the
contents
of
the
unpublished
manuscript,
and
publish
this
account
–
on
condition
that
he
nowhere
mentioned
Copernicus
by
name.
Rheticus
was
to
call
the
author
of
the
unpublished
manuscript
simply
domine
praeceptor
;
and
on
the
title
page,
where
mentioning
some
name
could
not
be
avoided,
he
was
to
refer
to
Copernicus
as
"the
learned
Dr.
Nicolas
of
Torun".
⁴⁴