r the commencement of the sixteenth century he returned to the banks
of the Vistula, and having been ordained to the priesthood, had a
canonry at Frauenburg, on the Frische-Haeff, bestowed upon him by his
uncle. The cathedral is described as a handsome building of brick,
erected in 1342, in an elevated part of the town, overlooking the flat
sandbanks of the Elbing, as it flows on its way to the Baltic. In
connection with his canonry, Copernicus had some contention about his
official rights, the nature of which does not appear. All we know is
that he settled down in that quiet, out-of-the-way corner of the world,
heedless of worldly ambition and indifferent to ecclesiastical honors
and emoluments. He was no sceptic, no free-thinker, nor do we find him
taking a part in the theological controversies of his age. No mention is
made of what he thought and did in relation to the grand quarrel between
Luther and Leo, or the Diet of Worms, or the burning of the bull at the
gates of Wittenberg, or the other stirring events of the Reformation;
only we know he remained a Catholic, a quiet, self-contained,
thoughtful, devout man, childlike in his religion, trustful in his
piety, and exemplary in the discharge of clerical duties. We can picture
him going through the usual routine of canonical services in Frauenburg
Cathedral, full of faith and prayer. With this vocation he coupled
medical practice. He turned to good charitable account that proficiency
in the healing art which he had acquired at Cracow, and visited the sick
and the poor, bringing upon himself the blessing of those who were ready
to perish. But the nature of his intellect, sharpened by studies at
Bologna and Rome, gave him special advantages in the pursuit of
astronomical knowledge; and as he had a decided taste in that direction,
what time he could spare from the cathedral and the treatment of the
sick he devoted to the study of the heavens. "He went very little into
the world; he considered all conversation as fruitless except that of a
serious and learned cast, so that he formed no intimacies except with
grave and learned men." Alone at midnight he would watch the stars; in
his study with his books he would inquire of the ancients; and then the
profound thoughts passing through his mind he would exchange with the
"grave and reverend seigniors" of his acquaintance.

The Ptolemaic hypothesis of the universe was then in fashion. It was
supposed that the earth was the ce