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308 Prowe's Life of Copernicus. Oct. we have no means of knowing, but it is certain that in the autumn of 1499 they were completely at the end of their resources, and that their necessities were relieved by a loan of a hundred ducats, raised in Rome, at beggaring interest, on the security of their uncle's name. The transaction, however, was a strictly honourable one, and the money borrowed appears to have been promptly repaid. Holy Week of the Jubilee year found them both in Rome, and they were, no doubt, amongst the two hundred thousand who knelt in the piazza of St. Peter's to receive the Easter blessing of Alexander VI. Their stay lasted a full year. Nicholas himself informs us that he there, on November 6, 1500, observed an eclipse of the moon ; and we learn from Rheticus that he lectured during the ensuing winter on mathematical (or astronomical) subjects before brilliant and crowded audiences. The summer was consumed in a journey to Frauenburg for the purpose of obtaining from the Chapter (of which the elder brother became a member in 1499) leave to prolong their absence ; and on their return to Italy, Andrew proceeded once more to Rome, while Nicholas halted at Padua.

The ' University of the Ox' was the classic school of medicine, and to medicine Copernicus had pledged himself to devote the years of study yet before him. The earlier canons against the practice of the healing art by ecclesiastics had, before then, fallen obsolete, or rather they had gradually become restricted to the surgical branch of the profession. The service of the altar, even the dignity of the episcopate, was no longer held incompatible with the skilled treatment of disease ; but no sacred office was permitted to be exercised by those whose hearts (it was supposed) were hardened by the familiar use of the knife and the cautery. Copernicus, however, although the holder of two benefices, never became a