What Was Nicolaus Copernicus's Controversy In The Church?

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The Renaissance was a period of the revival of classical learning. The term, “Renaissance” actually means rebirth , and that is exactly what it was. Europe was reborn out of the medieval era, and into an era of learning and creativity. People started to create different styles of art, made more books, and huge advances in science were made. Some people were creative, and thought outside of the box. They proposed extraordinary ideas and theories that went against what everybody accepted. One of those people was Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory of heliocentricity caused controversy in the church because it went against everything the church proclaimed. Nicolaus Copernicus had a good education, which helped his discoveries …show more content…

Copernicus’ theory had many main points, and was well developed and informed, but the main point of it all was that the Earth was not the center of the universe. It was just one of many planets orbiting the sun(“Nicolaus Copernicus Biography”). The church believed that God created the world and placed it in the center of the universe, where the sun and other planets orbited it, meaning the earth did not move. The church believed that humans were at the center of everything, since they were the children of God. His theory went against this idea and created controversy within the church. The church was so passionate about this, that anybody who disagreed with this was charged with heresy. People then believed this theory, because the church commanded it (“Nicolaus Copernicus”). Some people hated his theory, and greatly disapproved, while some accepted it, and were open to new ideas, making his theory controversial. This was not even the first occurrence of heliocentricity. An early scientist, named Aristarchus was actually the first to propose this idea. He lived during 270 B.C in Samos (“Nicolaus Copernicus”), but as soon as he proposed the idea, it was dismissed by the public, because of their passionate belief in geocentricity (Steele 37). People seemed to have been attached and passionate about …show more content…

Nicolaus did not publish De Revolutionibus, but he did begin to let some good friends and astronomers know about his new theory. Eventually there was a rumor going around that Copernicus had made a theory of heliocentricity. Even the Pope found out, but he did not order him to face inquisition, which is what the church used to try heretics(“Nicolaus Copernicus”). Years passed, and the book was not published, but Copernicus met a German astronomer named Georg Rheticus. Copernicus allowed Rheticus to read his book, and was allowed to write and publish a book that summarized his theory. This book also did not anger the church yet. “So Copernicus gave the manuscript of his book to Rheticus to be printed in Germany”. While printing in Germany, there was a note added to the beginning, calling his theory an “Unusual hypothesis” and not a real theory, much to the displeasure of Copernicus, but he did not do anything about, because it could have been the only thing that saved the book from becoming banned immediately. Copernicus actually died shortly before the book came off the printing presses, and never got to see the amount of controversy his book was about to cause. (“Nicolaus Copernicus”). After the release, as time went on, support for his theory grew because of how well it explained many things that made no sense in the geocentric theory. Many astronomers began to build off of it,

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