In 1595 Kei>ler completed his Mi/sterium Cosmorjraj^h- icum, in which he details the many hypotheses he had successively formed, examined, and rejected concerning the number, distance, and periodic times of the planets, and endeavors to demonstrate the correctness of the Co- pernican system, which at that time was stUl discredited and rejected as un-Biblical by both Romanists and Prot- estants. To avoid persecution, Kepler took the precau- tion to secure the opinion of eminent theologians of both churches before publication, and for this purpose sub- mitted the ^IS. to the faculty of Tlibingen University. Of course they quickly condemned the sacrilegious effort and daring of the j'oung astronomer (see below), but not so thought duke Louis of Wiirtemberg, who not only approved of the w^ork, but furnished the means (in 159G) to defray the expense of printing it. It must be borne in mind that in the IGth century astronomical truth was equally unknown to the clergy and the laity, and that the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun were doctrines apparently inconsistent with holy Scripture. Besides, in those days the truths of re- ligion were guarded by a sternness of discipline and a severity of punishment which have disappeared in more enlightened times. In order to form a correct judgment respecting the causes which led to the opposition to Kepler bj^ the Church, and the subsequent trial and condemnation of (ialileo (([. v.), we must turn to that period when they first submitted their opinions to the public. The philosophy of Aristotle was then preva- lent throughout Europe. It was taught in all its uni- versities by professors lay and clerical, and every at- tempt to refute their doctrines exposed its author to the opposition of the learning and scholarship of that day. One of the principal dogmas of the Aristotelian philos- ophy was the immutability of the heavens. The bril- liant discoveries of Kepler and Galileo struck a blow at the ancient jihilosophy, and consequently exposed them to the hostility of the Peripatetic philosophers. Now when we reflect that the minds of all thinking men were then completely moulded by that philosojjhy, and that these, again, governed the reflections of those im- mediately beneath them, and from them the residts
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of Aristotelianism, minglint; up, as they did, especially with the rehgioiis opinions of tlie day, thus reached the whole of the popular intellect, we will lind it no matter of surprise that the zeal of these innovators met with the most determined opposition. "The Aristote- lian professors, the temporizing Jesuits, the political churchmen, and that timid but respectful body who at all times dread innovation, whether it be in legislation or in science, entered into an alliance against the philo- sophical tyrants who threatened them with the penal- ties of knowledge." " He who is allowed to take the start of his species," says Sir David Brewster, " and to penetrate the veil which conceals from common minds the mysteries of nature, must not expect that the world will be patiently dragged at the chariot-wheels of his philosopliy. Mind has its inertia as well as matter, and its progress to truth can only be insured by the gradual and jiatient removal of the difficidties which embarrass it." Those Protestants, therefore, who are so ready to censure the Church of Home for its action with regard to these great men should remember that it was but carrying out the spirit of the age, and a measure which the "spirit of the people demanded. Surely Protestant- ism has but little to boast of in this matter. More than half a century later we tind that the great and good Sir Matthew Hale condemned to death two women for witch- craft on the ground, first, that Scripture had affirmed the reality of witchcraft ; and, secondly, that the wis- dom of all nations had provided laws against persons accused of the crime. Sir Thomas Browne, the cele- brated author of the Religio Medici, was called as a wit- ness at the trial, and swore " that he was clearly of opinion that the persons were bewitched." Not only so, but Henry j\Iore and Cudworth strongly expressed their belief in the reality of witchcraft ; and, more than all, Joseph Glauride, probably the most celebrated theo- logical thinker of his time, wrote a special defence of the superstition, without doubt the ablest book ever written on that subject. As late as 1G92 nineteen per- sons were executed and one pressed to death in iSIassa- chusetts on the same plea for witchcraft. See Salesi. '• To deny the possibility, nay, actual existence of witch- craft and sorcery," says Sir ■\\'illiam Blackstone (Com- mentciry on the Laics of England, bk. iv, ch. iv, sec. 6), " is at once flatly to contradict the revealed Word of God in various passages both of the Old and New Tes- taments." See WlTCUCKAFT.
In 1597 Kepler married Barbara JNIiiller von IMiihl- eckh. She Avas already a widow for the second time, although two years younger than Kepler himself. In the year following his marriage, on account of the troubled state of tlie province, arising out of the two great religious parties into which the German empire was then divided, he was induced to withdraw into Hun- gary. The Jesuits, anxious to secure for the Piomish Church the learning and renown of Kepler, earnestly worked in his behalf, and secured permission for his re- turn to Gratz. Verj' independent in character, Kepler was not the man to eat the bread of his opponents, and upon his frank refusal to join the Romanists he was vis- ited with still fiercer opposition. In lOOO he paid a visit to Tycho Brahe, and, by recommendation of the latter, was appointed assistant imperial mathematician b_v em- peror Kudolph II. Upon the death of Tycho in 1(501, Kepler succeeded him as principal mathematician to the emperor, and took up his residence at Prague. The special task intrusted to Kepler at this time was the re- duction of Tycho's observations relative to the planet Mars, and to this circumstance is mainly owing his grand discovery of the law of elliptic orbits, and that of the equable description of a>ras. These continued studies, his searchings after liarmony, led him at last to the dis- covery of tlie three remarkable truths called Kepler's Laws. (For an account of these, and the st6ps that led to their discovery, see the Knf/lish Cyclopedia, s. v., where also will be found a list of Kepler's works.) In 162-i he went to Vienna, the emperor finding it impos-