" Melanchthon then
cites the passages in the Psalms and Ecclesiastes, which he
declares assert positively and clearly that the earth stands fast
and that the sun moves around it, and adds eight other proofs of
his proposition that "the earth can be nowhere if not in the centre
of the universe." So earnest does this mildest of the Reformers
become, that he suggests severe measures to restrain such impious
teachings as those of Copernicus.[127]
While Lutheranism was thus condemning the theory of the earth's
movement, other branches of the Protestant Church did not remain
behind. Calvin took the lead, in his _Commentary on Genesis_, by
condemning all who asserted that the earth is not at the centre of
the universe. He clinched the matter by the usual reference to the
first verse of the ninety-third Psalm, and asked, "Who will
venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy
Spirit?" Turretin, Calvin's famous successor, even after Kepler
and Newton had virtually completed the theory of Copernicus and
Galileo, put forth his compendium of theology, in which he proved,
from a multitude of scriptural texts, that the heavens, sun, and
moon move about the earth, which stands still in the centre.
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