ologna to study canonic law at the university in order to perform the administrative duties that his uncle desired of him, but left with an education in astronomy and mathematics. While in Bologna, Copernicus went to live with a mathematician, Domenico Maria de Novara (Encarta). Copernicus may not have dreamed of a heliocentric model of the universe before arriving in Bologna; he was a devout Catholic with a bishop for a guardian, and such thoughts were pure heresy. Yet he was also a young man, and Copernicus' dissatisfaction with the Ptolemaic system opened the door for his new teacher: in Novara, Copernicus had found a mentor who would begin to set Copernicus' path. Novara was a noted reader of Hermetic readings and a dissenter with Ptolemy's universal structure, and a worshipper of the Sun (Speke, 28). Copernicus bought into this line of thinking; if the Sun itself was the most important celestial body, then it should be the center of the universe, and thereby, the earth could move (Speke, 29). Copernicus, under the tutelage of Novara read nearly every astronomical text available at that time (Sarton, 57) and by 1500, Copernicus was lecturing in Rome on astronomy, having learned enough astronomy at Bologna to become a noted scholar (Encarta).
             However, before Copernicus could start his march towards astronomical fame, his uncle recalled him to Poland to the bishopric palace in Lidzbark Warminski (Encarta). Copernicus was needed as he was both his uncle's main assistant in the Polish diocese and his uncle's personal physician (Sarton, 55). Copernicus stayed again with Watzenrode, a strict and grim sort of man who never laughed and tested political waters, brazen for an unchaste bishop. Copernicus lived with this strict uncle and served him for six years until his death in 1512 (Kesten, 117). Having little to do other than act as his uncle's crony, and being well fed, Copernicus began his astro...