In the case of Copernicus himself it does not appear that, originally, any apprehensions were entertained of any dangerous discrepancy between his doctrines and the truths of religion, either natural or revealed. The work which contains these memorable discoveries was addressed to Pope Paul III., the head, at that time, (1543) of the religious world; and was published, as the author states in the preface, at the urgent entreaty of friends, one of whom was a cardinal, and another a bishop.[33] “I know,” he says, “that the thoughts of a philosopher are far removed from the judgment of the vulgar; since it is his study to search out truth in all things, as far as that is permitted by God to human reason.” And though the doctrines are for the most part stated as portions of a mathematical calculation, the explanation of the arrangement by which the sun is placed in the centre of the system is accompanied by a natural reflection of a religious cast; “Who in this fair temple would place this lamp in any other or better place than there whence it may illuminate the whole? We find then under this ordination an admirable symmetry of the world, and a certain harmonious connexion of the motion and magnitude of the orbs, such as in any other way cannot be found. Thus the progressions and regressions of the planets all arise from the same cause, the motion of the earth. And that no such movements are seen in the fixed stars, argues their immense distance from us, which causes the apparent magnitude of the earth’s annual course to become evanescent. So great, in short, is this divine fabric of the great and good God;”[34] “this best and most regular artificer of the universe,” as he elsewhere speaks.