Rosalyn DeLuise

Copernicus studied law and medicine at the Universities of Bologna and Padua, then returned to Poland after witnessing a lunar eclipse in Rome in 1500. In 1501 he went back to Italy for further studies at the Universities of Padua and Ferrara and received a doctorate in canon law from the later in 1502. It was in this period that he probably read ancient Greek theories on the movement of the Earth through the heavens, including some writings that espoused a heliocentric view that all of the planets, including the Earth, orbited the Sun. This was in direct contradiction of the teachings of the Catholic Church, which espoused the Ptolemaic view of the Universe.

In 1504, Copernicus began the research that culminated in his heliocentric theory. He had already returned to Poland, taking a position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Breslau, Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland). In 1512, Copernicus became canon in the Ermland Chapter at Frauenburg (now Frombork, Poland). In his new position, he was able to devote more time to his study of astronomy and had an observatory built in one of the towers in the town wall. Until just before his death, Copernicus conducted most of his astronomical observations and calculations there, usually working alone. His observations were made with the “naked eye,” as the invention of the telescope would not occur for decades after his death. In 1514, he distributed a hand-written, unpublished manuscript entitled the Little Commentary that included the following axioms:

1) There is no one center in the Universe.

2) The Earth’s center is not the center of the Universe.

3) The center of the universe is near the Sun.

4) The distance from the Earth to the Sun is imperceptible compared with the distance to the stars.

5) The rotation of the Earth accounts for the apparent daily rotation of the stars.

6) The apparent annual cycle of movements of the Sun is caused by the Earth revolving around it, and,

7) the apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by the motion of the Earth from which one observes.

After years of observation and calculations, he published his masterpiece, On the Revolutions (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium), just before his death in 1543. It contained the mathematical and astronomical data that form the basis of the Copernican system. Central to his model is his proposal that the Earth has three distinct motions: a daily axial rotation, an annual rotation about the Sun, and a third motion related to precession (the 25,800-year-long cycle reflecting the changing position of the Earth in space). In the book’s introduction, Copernicus credits his heliocentric hypothesis to the ideas of ancient Greek writers such as Aristarchus and Philolaus.

Copernicus had hesitated for years to publish his theory, not because he feared he had contradicted Catholic dogma (though De Revolutionibus was on the Vatican’s Index of Forbidden Works from 1616 until 1835), but rather because he thought, even after working on it for three decades, that his theory was still incomplete. According to legend, he first saw a published copy of his work from his deathbed.

Copernicus died of a cerebral hemorrhage on May 24, 1543. His writings soon created controversy in European scientific and religious circles by challenging many beliefs that had become religious dogma since the end of the Classical Era a thousand years before. Copernicus was the first to combine physics, astronomy, and mathematics into a fact-based model of the universe. Ironically, Copernicus, a devout Catholic, believed his theory did not actually contradict what the Bible said about the structure of the Universe.

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You will not be able to reach highest affinity with Danse until you complete Brotherhood Quest Blind Betrayal . After reaching the highest affinity with Danse , you will gain the Know Your Enemy perk, which gives +20% dmg against Feral Ghouls, Super Mutants and Synths.