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§ 72] a canonry at Frauenburg, and at some uncertain date he also received a sinecure ecclesiastical appointment at Breslau.

72. On returning to Frauenburg from Italy Coppernicus almost immediately obtained fresh leave of absence, and joined his uncle at Heilsberg, ostensibly as his medical adviser and really as his companion.

It was probably during the quiet years spent at Heilsberg that he first put into shape his new ideas about astronomy, and wrote the first draft of his book. He kept the manuscript by him, revising and rewriting from time to time, partly from a desire to make his work as perfect as possible, partly from complete indifference to reputation, coupled with dislike of the controversy to which the publication of his book would almost certainly give rise. In 1509 he published at Cracow his first book, a Latin translation of a set of Greek letters by Theophylactus, interesting as being probably the first translation from the Greek ever published in Poland or the adjacent districts. In 1512, on the death of his uncle, he finally settled in Frauenburg, in a set of rooms which he occupied, with short intervals, for the next 31 years. Once fairly in residence, he took his share in conducting the business of the Chapter: he acted, for example, more than once as their representative in various quarrels with the King of Poland and the Teutonic knights; in 1523 he was general administrator of the diocese for a few months after the death of the bishop; and for two periods, amounting altogether to six years (1516-1519 and 1520-1521), he lived at the castle of Allenstein, administering some of the outlying property of the Chapter. In 1521 he was commissioned to draw up a statement of the grievances of the Chapter against the Teutonic knights for presentation to the Prussian Estates, and in the following year wrote a memorandum on the debased and confused state of the coinage in the district, a paper which was also laid before the Estates, and was afterwards rewritten in Latin at the special request of the bishop. He also gave a certain amount of medical advice to his friends as well as to the poor of Frauenburg, though he never practised regularly as a physician; but notwithstanding these various occupations