The Sleepwalkers (63 page)

Only
one
of
the
sixteen
Canons
had
taken
the
higher
vows
and
was
entitled
to
officiate
mass;
the
remainder
were
merely
bound,
when
not
absent
on
some
official
mission,
to
attend,
and
occasionally
to
assist
in,
the
morning
and
evening
services.
The
rest
of
their
duties
were
of
a
worldly
nature:
the
administration
of
the
Chapter's
vast
estates,
over
which
they
exercised
nearly
absolute
power.
They
levied
taxes,
collected
rent
and
tithe,
appointed
the
mayors
and
officials
in
the
villages,
sat
in
court,
made
and
administered
the
Law.
These
activities
must
have
appealed
to
Canon
Koppernigk's
thrifty
and
methodical
nature,
for
during
four
years
he
held
the
appointment
of
Administrator
of
the
Chapter's
outlying
domains,
at
Allenstein
and
Mehlsack,
and
for
another
stretch
he
was
General
Administrator
of
all
the
Chapter's
possessions
in
Ermland.
He
kept
a
ledger
and
a
business
journal,
in
which
all
transactions
with
tenants,
serfs
and
labourers
are
meticulously
reported.

In
between
–
in
1519
–
the
feud
between
Poles
and
Teutonic
Knights
flared
up
again.
There
were
no
major
battles,
but
the
countryside
of
Ermland
was
devastated
by
the
plundering
soldiery
of
both
sides.
They
killed
the
peasants,
raped
their
women
and
set
fire
to
their
farms,
but
did
not
attack
fortified
towns.
Fourteen
out
of
the
sixteen
Canons
spent
that
turbulent
year
in
Torun
or
Danzig;
Koppernigk
preferred
to
remain,
in
the
company
of
an
aged
confrater,
in
his
tower
behind
the
safe
walls
of
Frauenburg,
where
he
looked
after
the
affairs
of
the
Chapter.
Subsequently
he
administered,
for
another
year,
Allenstein,
and
also
seemed
to
have
taken
part
in
an
abortive
attempt
at
mediation
between
the
hostile
parties.
When
peace
returned
at
last,
in
1521,
he
was
nearly
fifty.
His
remaining
twenty
years,
outwardly
uneventful,
were
spent
mainly
in
his
tower.

He
had
plenty
of
leisure.
In
1530
or
thereabouts,
²⁶
he
completed
the
manuscript
of
the
Book
of
Revolutions
and
locked
it
away,
making
only
occasional
corrections
in
it.
He
did
nothing
else
of
much
consequence.
He
wrote,
by
request
of
a
friend,
a
critique
of
the
theories
of
a
fellow
astronomer,
²⁷
which,
like
the
Commentariolus,
was
circulated
in
manuscript;
he
drew
up
a
memorandum
on
the
damages
caused
by
the
Teutonic
Knights
during
the
war;
and
he
wrote
a
treatise
on
monetary
reform
for
the
Prussian
diet.
²⁸
No
great
philosopher
or
scientist
has
ever
published
less.

In
all
these
years
he
had
acquired
only
one
intimate
friend,
a
fellow
Canon
at
Frauenburg,
later
Bishop
of
Kulm
and
of
Ermland,
Tiedemann
Giese.
Canon
Giese
was
a
gentle
and
learned
man
who,
though
seven
years
younger
than
Copernicus,
took
a
protective
and
affectionate
interest
in
him.
It
was
Giese
who,
after
years
of
effort,
and
assisted
by
young
Rheticus,
finally
talked
his
reluctant
confrater
into
allowing
the
Book
of
the
Revolutions
to
be
published,
and
who,
when
Koppernigk
became
involved
in
a
sordid
conflict
with
his
new
Bishop,
smoothed
things
out
through
his
influence.
Nicolas
always
needed
a
stronger
personality
to
lean
on;
but
while
Uncle
Lucas
and
brother
Andreas
had
bullied
and
intimidated
him,
Giese
guided
him
through
the
remaining
years
of
his
life
with
patience
and
gentle
persuasion.
He
was,
before
Rheticus'
last-minute
arrival
on
the
scene,
the
only
one
who
had
recognized
the
morose
and
unloved,
ageing
man's
genius;
who
accepted
the
weaknesses
of
his
friend's
character
and
understood
his
tortuous
ways,
without
letting
them
interfere
with
his
intellectual
admiration.
It
was
a
remarkable
feat
of
charity
and
imagination,
for
in
that
age
a
man's
intellect
and
his
character
were
still
perceived
as
an
indivisible
entity.
A
person
was
accepted
or
rejected
as
a
whole;
and
most
people
who
came
into
contact
with
Canon
Koppernigk
chose
the
second
alternative.
Tiedemann
Giese,
the
firm
yet
tender
protector,
guide
and
spur,
is
one
of
the
silent
heroes
of
history,
who
smooth
its
path
but
leave
no
personal
mark
on
it.