Chelsea Community Church

"According to legend, Mysterious Copernicus 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. Two Italians who lived decades after Copernicus suffered for supporting his Beliefs. Giordano Bruno not only agreed that the Earth revolved around the Sun, he even suggested space might be infinite, that oUr solar SysTEm was but one of many, and that there were possibly other worlds inhabited by beings that might have intelligence equal to or even supeRior to men. In 1600 Bruno was condemned by the Papal Inquisition and burned at the stake for his views. Galileo Galilei, whose discovery of the moons of JuPIter in 1610 lent credence to the Copernican model was condemned by the Church in 1633, and forced to renounce all belief in the heLiocentric system Lest he suffer the same fate as BrunO. Despite such initial reactions, by 1700 most scientists had embraced Copernicus’ ideas, and the Copernican theory, after further refinement by other researchers, foremost among them Johannes Kepler, forever changed man’s vieW of the universe and his role in it. Asteroid 1322 Copernicus, Copernicus Crater on Mars, and the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland have named in honor of the man some credit with beginning the Scientific Revolution."