[Footnote 185: Calvin: _Oeuvres François_: _Traité ... contre l'Astrologie_, 110-112.]
[Footnote 186: Calvin: _Op. Om._ in _Corpus Reformatorum_: vol. 25, 499-500; vol. 59, 195-196.]
For the absolute authority of the Pope the Protestant leaders substituted the absolute authority of the Bible. It is not strange, then, that they ignored or derided a theory as yet unsupported by proof and so difficult to harmonize with a literally accepted Bible.
How widespread among the people generally did this theory become in the years immediately following the publication of the _De Revolutionibus_? M. Flammarion, in his _Vie de Copernic_ (1872), refers[187] to the famous clock in the Strasburg Cathedral as having been constructed by the University of Strasburg in protest against the action taken by the Holy Office against Galileo, (though the clock was constructed in 1571 and Galileo was not condemned until 1633). This astronomical clock constructed only thirty years after the death of Copernicus, he claims represented the Copernican system of the universe with the planets revolving around the sun, and explained clearly in the sight of the people what was the thought of the makers. Lest no one should miscomprehend, he adds, the portrait of Copernicus was placed there with this inscription: Nicolai Copernici vera effigies, ex ipsius autographo depicta.
[Footnote 187: P. 78-79: "Ce planétaire ... represente le système du monde tel qu'il a été expliqué par Copernic."]
This would be important evidence of the spread of the theory were it true. But M. Flammarion must have failed to see a brief description of the Strasburg Clock written in 1856 by Charles Schwilgué, son of the man who renovated its mechanism in 1838-1842. He describes the clock as it was before his father made it over and as it is today. Originally constructed in 1352, it was replaced in 1571 by an astrolabe based on the Ptolemaic system; six hands with the zodiacal signs of the planets gave their daily movements and, together with a seventh representing the sun, revolved around a map of the world.[188] When M. Schwilgué repaired the clock in 1838, he changed it to harmonize with the Copernican system.[189]
But within eighteen years after the publication of the _De Revolutionibus_, proof of its influence is to be found in such widely separated places as London and the great Spanish University of Salamanca. In 1551, Robert Recorde, court physician to Edward and to Mary and teacher of mathematics, published in London his _Castle of Knowledge_, an introduction to astronomy and the first book printed in England describing the Copernican system.[190] He evidently did not consider the times quite ripe for a full avowal of his own allegiance to the new doctrine, but the remarks of the _Maister_ and the _Scholler_ are worth repeating:[191]