Nicolaus Copernicus

From The Science of Language (1891) by Max Müller

Copernicus, in the dedication of his work to Pope Paul III, (it was commenced in 1517, finished 1530, published 1543), confesss that he was brought to the discovery of the sun's central position, and of the diurnal motion of the earth, not by observation or analysis, but by what he calles the feeling of a want of symmetry in the Ptolemaic system.   (Etc).

Founded on lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in 1861 and 1863
New York : Scribners 1891, Vol. I, pp. 18-19.

Comment : The above looks somwhat inexact -- that, from one of the most competent workers in his specialty, and it may be symptomatic of a very broad, endemic misunderstanding. Please see the text of the dediction by Copernicus to the Pope. — (WPT 17 Dec 04).

From The Integration of Human Knowledge, 1958 by Oliver Leslie Reiser

...     The inherent supernaturalism of Christianity was later tied in with the Greek geocentric theory of the universe as first set forth by Eudoxus and Aristotle and subsequently perfected by Ptolemy of Alexandria. In this Ptolemaic-Christian cosmology the universe, finite in size, came into being with the first act of Creation by Jehova some few thousands of years ago (4004 B.C. according to Bishop Ussher), with the earth as the fixed center of the system of planets and stars that revolve around it. In this earth-centered . . . universe, the heavens are above us (even though the world was known to be round) and hell is beneath our feet. Only after a bitter battle with those who embraced the new heliocentric cosmology of Copernicus the church finally did renounce the geocentric theory. It should be remembered, however, that in this conflict between science and theology the attitudes of Martin Luther and John Calvin were no more favorable to the Copernican theory than was that of the Church at Rome. It is true that the Lutherans did not put Copernicus to the stake*, but the Calvinists did burn Michael Servetus in Geneva.

Boston : Porter Sargent 1958, p, 22.

* Copernicus was prudent enough not to publish his theory till the last years of his life. (WPT)