Free A More Perfect Heaven by Dava Sobel

had ever made such a concession before, Dantiscus had little to lose by acquiescing on this score. As bishop, his landholdings and income dwarfed the annual receipts from his canonry. He readily let it go—not to Bona’s handpicked worthy (a second cousin of Copernicus), but to his own protégé Stanislaw Hozjusz. This move gave Dantiscus a new ally in the chapter. It also allowed him to wield Bona’s concerns about being bishop and canon in the same church as a weapon against Giese. In point of fact, Giese was bishop of one church (Kulm) and canon of a different one (Varmia), but Dantiscus waved aside that detail.
While Copernicus stalled to protect Giese, Dantiscus shifted his focus to the issue of the canons’ female housekeepers. Unless these were relatives, the bishop proclaimed, they must be dismissed. Copernicus’s present cook, Anna Schilling, a married woman separated from her legal husband, may have been the same individual who had aroused the late Bishop Ferber’s outrage.

“My lord, Most Reverend Father in Christ, most gracious lord, to be heeded by me in everything,” Copernicus opened his reply to Dantiscus on December 2, 1538, “I acknowledge your Most Reverend Lordship’s quite fatherly, and more than fatherly admonition, which I have felt even in my innermost being. I have not in the least forgotten the earlier one, which your Most Reverend Lordship delivered in person and in general. Although I wanted to do what you advised, nevertheless it was not easy to find a proper female relative forthwith, and therefore I intended to terminate this matter by the time of the Easter holidays. Now, however, lest your Most Reverend Lordship suppose that I am looking for an excuse to procrastinate, I have shortened the period to a month, that is, to the Christmas holidays, since it could not be shorter, as your Most Reverend Lordship may realize. For as far as I can, I want to avoid offending all good people, and still less your Most Reverend Lordship. To you, who have deserved my reverence, respect, and affection in the highest degree, I devote myself with all my faculties.”
In a Greek flourish at the end of this letter, instead of identifying his locale as “Frauenburg,” in the usual way, Copernicus wrote “Gynopolis.” One could argue that “Gynopolis” matched the literal meaning of the place name. But, given the context of the discussion, Copernicus seems mischievously to suggest that “the city of Our Lady” has gained new significance for its less exalted women—the female housekeepers.

“I have now done what I should not or could not in any way have failed to do,” he capitulated in early January 1539. “I hope that what I have done in this matter quite accords with your Most Reverend Lordship’s warnings.” She had gone. Her leaving, however, did not satisfy Dantiscus’s urge to punish Copernicus and two other canons who had flouted him in the matter of the housekeepers. The bishop now entered into clandestine communication with Canon Felix Reich, who had no compunctions about ratting on his brethren—even as Copernicus was treating him for a bleeding ulcer. In exchange for inside information, Bishop Dantiscus volunteered to procure whatever Reich requested against his painful condition, including light beer in wholesome daily doses and unlimited quantities of Hungarian wine to strengthen his heart.
Reich’s years as a notary had made him an expert on legal protocol. Now he instructed Bishop Dantiscus to send sealed writs addressed individually to the three scandalous canons. Separate writs for the women should be sent to the local priest, who would issue the warnings to them.

“Care should also be taken to omit from the letters to the other two, who do not have legal husbands,” Reich stipulated, “what is in that earlier letter concerning Nicolaus’s cook, who does have a legal husband. The impending commencement of the proceeding against the women too will strike terror to no