Part 11 (1/2)

2. That you believe that the heavens revolve is due to ocular deception similar to that of a man on a s.h.i.+p leaving sh.o.r.e.

3. That Joshua bade the sun stand still Moses wrote for the people in accordance with the popular misconception.

4. As the planets are each a special created thing in the heavens, so the earth is a similar creation and similarly revolves.

5. The sun fitly rests at the center as the heart does in the middle of the human body.

6. Since the earth has in itself its especial _centrum_, a stone or an arrow falls freely out of the air again to its own _centrum_ as do all earthly things.

7. The earth can move five miles in a second more readily than the sun can go forty miles in the same time.

And similarly on both sides.[325]

[Footnote 322: Schotto: _Organum Mathematic.u.m_ (1667).]

[Footnote 323: Voight: _Der Kunstgunstigen Einfalt Mathematischer Raritaten Erstes Hundert_. (Hamburg, 1667).]

[Footnote 324: Voight: _op. cit._: 28.]

[Footnote 325: Ibid: 30-31.]

Another writer preferring the Tychonic scheme was Longomonta.n.u.s, whose _Astronomica Danica_ (Amsterdam, 1640) upheld this theory because it ”obviates the absurdities of the Copernican hypothesis and most aptly corresponds to celestial appearances,” and also because it is ”midway between that and the Ptolemaic one.”[326] Even though he speaks of the ”apparent motion of the sun,” he attributed diurnal motion to the heavens, and believed the earth was at the center of the universe because (1), from the account of the Creation, the heaven and the earth were first created, and what could be more likely than that the heavens should fill the s.p.a.ce between the center (the earth) and the circ.u.mference? (2) and because of the incredibly enormous interval between the sphere of the fixed stars and the earth necessitated by Copernican doctrine.[327]

[Footnote 326: Longomonta.n.u.s: _Op. cit._: 162.]

[Footnote 327: Longomonta.n.u.s: _Op. cit._: 158.]

The high-water mark of opposition after Galileo's condemnation was reached in the _Almagestum Novum_ (Bologna, 1651) by Father Riccioli of the Society of Jesus. It was the authoritative answer of that order, the leaders of the Church in matters of education, to the challenges of the literary world for a justification of the condemnation of the Copernican doctrine and of Galileo for upholding it. Father Riccioli had been professor of philosophy and of mathematics for six years and of theology for ten when by order of his superiors, he was released from his lectures.h.i.+p to prepare a book containing all the material he could gather together on this great controversy of the age.[328] He wrote it as he himself said, as ”an _apologia_ for the Sacred Congregation of the Cardinals who officially p.r.o.nounced these condemnations, not so much because I thought such great height and eminence needed this at my hands but especially in behalf of Catholics; also out of the love of truth to which every non-Catholic, even, should be persuaded and from a certain notable zeal and eagerness for the preservation of the Sacred Scriptures intact and unimpaired; and lastly because of that reverence and devotion which I owe from my particular position toward the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”[329]

[Footnote 328: Riccioli: _Alm. Nov._: Praefatio, I, xviii.]

[Footnote 329: Riccioli: _Alm. Nov._: II, 496.]

This monumental work, the most important literary production of the Society in the 17th century,[330] is abundant witness to Riccioli's remarkable erudition and industry. Nearly one-fifth of the total bulk of the two huge volumes is devoted to a statement of the Copernican controversy. This is prefaced by a brief account of his own theory of the universe--the invention of which is another proof of the ability of the man--for his scientific training prevented his acceptance of the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic theory in the light of Galileo's discoveries; his position as a Jesuit and a faithful son of the Church precluded him from adopting the system condemned by its representatives; and Tycho Brahe's scheme was not wholly to his liking. Therefor he proposed an adaptation of the last-named, more in accordance, as he thought, with the facts.[331] Where Tycho had all the planets except the earth and the moon encircle the sun, and that in turn, together with the moon and the sphere of the fixed stars, sweep around the earth as the center of the universe, Riccioli made only Mars, Mercury and Venus encircle the sun,--Mars with an orbit the radius of which included the earth within its sweep, the other two planets with orbital radii shorter than that of the sun, and so excluding the earth. This he did, (1) because both Jupiter and Saturn have their own kingdoms in the heavens, and Mars, Mercury and Venus are but satellites of the sun; (2) because there are greater varieties of eccentricity among these three than the other two; (3) because Saturn and Jupiter are the greatest planets and with the sphere of the fixed stars move more slowly; (4) Mars belongs with the sun because of their related movements; and (5) because it is likely that one of the planets would have much in common both with Saturn and Jupiter and with Mercury and Venus also.[332]

[Footnote 330: _Cath. Ency._: ”Riccioli,” and Walsh: Catholic Churchmen in Science: 200. (2nd series, 1909.)]

[Footnote 331: Riccioli: _Alm. Nov._: II, 288-289; see frontispiece.]

[Footnote 332: Riccioli: _Alm. Nov._: II, 288-289; see frontispiece.]

Then he takes up the attack upon the Copernican doctrine. M. Delambre summarizes and comments upon 57 of his arguments against it,[333] and Riccioli himself claims[334] to have stated ”40 new arguments in behalf of Copernicus and 77 against him.” But these sound somewhat familiar to the reader of anti-Copernican literature: as, for instance, ”which is more natural, straight or circular movement?” Or, the Copernican argument that movement is easier if the object moved is smaller involves a matter of Faith since it implies a question of G.o.d's power; for to G.o.d all is alike, there is no hard nor easy.[335]

Although diurnal movement is useful to the earth alone and so, according to the Copernicans, the earth should have the labor of it, Riccioli argues that everything was created for man; let the stars revolve around him. The sun may be n.o.bler than the earth, but man is n.o.bler than the sun.[336] If the earth's movement were admitted, Ptolemy's defense would be broken down through the elimination of the epicycles of the superior planets: here, if ever, the Copernicans appear to score, as Riccioli himself admits,[337] but he calls to his aid Tycho Brahe and the Bible. ”To invoke such aids is to avow his defeat” is M. Delambre's comment at this point.[338] There are many more arguments, of which the foregoing are but instances chosen more or less at random; but no one of them is of especial weight or novelty.

[Footnote 333: Delambre: _Astr. Mod._: I, 674-680.]

[Footnote 334: Riccioli: _Apologia_: 2.]

[Footnote 335: Riccioli: _Alm. Nov._: II, 313, 315.]

[Footnote 336: Riccioli: _Alm. Nov._: II, 330-351.]