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222 and applied for leave to take down the arched roof of the chapel and put a flat ceiling in its place, which would simplify the repairs, and this he received permission to do in November 1594; but he did not carry out his proposal, and he must have managed to repair the chapel in some other manner.

Tycho's conduct in these various transactions could not but undermine his position in Denmark, and there was doubtless more than one of his fellow-nobles who took the opportunity of fanning the flame of discontent with the self-willed and highly-paid astronomer which gradually sprang up among the rulers in Denmark. Among these, Tycho had hitherto had a very powerful friend in the Chancellor, Niels Kaas, but he died in June 1594, and after his death Tycho must have felt himself less secure in the enjoyment of his several endowments. Possibly Tycho may also gradually have become tired of the continued residence on the lonely little island, from which his very frequent trips to Scania and to Copenhagen cannot always have been pleasant, particularly in winter, and he may by degrees have become desirous of making a change. He had not been outside Denmark since 1575, and must have longed for the easy intercourse with learned men which he had once hoped to find at Basle, and for which the occasional visits of learned foreigners to Hveen was not a sufficient compensation. Reports must also have reached him of the great love of astronomy and alchemy of the Emperor Rudolph II., and the thought may easily have arisen in his mind that he might find the same liberality in the German monarch as he had formerly found in King Frederick. With the Emperor's physician, Hagecius, Tycho