Page:The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory of the Universe.djvu/34

 weight upon the much needed reform of the Prussian currency. His skill as a physician was in demand not only in his immediate circle but in adjoining countries, Duke Albrecht once summoning him to Königsberg to attend one of his courtiers. He was a humanist as well as a Catholic Churchman, and though he did not approve of the Protestant Revolt, he favored reform and toleration. Gassendi claims that he was also a painter, at least in his student days, and that he painted portraits well received by his contemporaries. But his interest and skill in astronomy must have been recognized early in his life for in 1514 the committee of the Lateran Council in charge of the reform of the calendar summoned him to their aid.

He was no cloistered monk devoting all his time to the study of the heavens, but a cultivated man of affairs, of recognized ability in business and statesmanship, and a leader among his fellow canons. His mathematical and astronomical pursuits were the occupations of his somewhat rare leisure moments, except perhaps during the six years with his uncle in the comparative freedom of the bishop's castle, and during the last ten or twelve years of his life, after his request for a coadjutor had resulted in lightening his duties. In his masterwork De Revolutionibus there are recorded only 27 of his own astronomical observations, and these extend over the years from 1497 to 1529. The first was made at Bologna, the second at Rome in 1500, and seven of the others at Frauenburg, where the rest were also probably made. It is believed the greater part of the De Revolutionibus was written at Heilsburg where Copernicus was free from his chapter duties, for as he himself says in the Dedication to the Pope (dated 1543) his work had been formulated

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