[Footnote 178: Luther: _Tischreden_, IV, 575; "Der Narr will die ganze Kunst Astronomiæ umkehren. Aber wie die heilige Schrift anzeigt, so heiss Josua die Sonne still stehen, und nicht das Erdreich."] [Footnote 179: "Non est autem hominis bene instituti dissentire a consensu tot sæculorum." Præfatio Philippi Melanthonis, 1531, in Sacro-Busto: _Libellus de Sphæra_ (no date).] [Footnote 180: "Vidi dialogum et fui dissuassor editionis. Fabula per sese paulatim consilescet; sed quidam putant esse egregiam _katorthoma_ rem tam absurdam ornare, sicut ille Sarmaticus Astronomis qui movet terram et figet solem. Profecto sapientes gubernatores deberent ingeniorum petulantia cohercere." _Epistola B. Mithobio_, 16 Oct. 1541. P. Melancthon: _Opera_: IV, 679.] [Footnote 181: "Quamquam autem rident aliqui Physicum testimonia divina citantem, tamen nos honestum esse censemus, Philosophiam conferre ad coelestia dicta, et in tanta caligine humanæ mentis autoritatem divinam consulere ubicunque possumus." Melancthon: _Initia Doctrinæ Physicæ_: Bk. I, 63.] [Footnote 182: Ibid: 60.] [Footnote 183: Ibid: 59-67.] Melancthon thus sums up the usual arguments from the Scriptures, from Aristotle, Ptolemy and the then current physics, in opposition to this theory. Not only did he publish his own textbook on physics, but he republished Sacrobosco's famous introduction to astronomy, writing for it a preface urging diligent study of this little text endorsed by so many generations of scholars. Calvin, the great teacher of the Protestant Revolt, apparently was little touched by this new intellectual current.[184] He did write a semi-popular tract[185] against the so called "judicial" astrology, then widely accepted, which he, like Luther, condemns as a foolish superstition, though he values "la vraie science d'astrologie" from which men understand not merely the order and place of the stars and planets, but the causes of things. In his _Commentaries_, he accepts the miracle of the sun's standing still at Joshua's command as proof of the faith Christ commended, so strong that it will remove mountains; and he makes reference only to the time-honored Ptolemaic theory in his discussion of Psalm XIX.[186] [Footnote 184: Farrar: _Hist. of Interpretation_: Preface, xviii: "Who," asks Calvin, "will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?"] [Footnote 185: Calvin: _Oeuvres François_: _Traité ... contre l'Astrologie_, 110-112.] [Footnote 186: Calvin: _Op. Om._ in _Corpus Reformatorum_: vol. 25, 499-500; vol. 59, 195-196.] For the absolute authority of the Pope the Protestant leaders substituted the absolute authority of the Bible. It is not strange, then, that they ignored or derided a theory as yet unsupported by proof and so difficult to harmonize with a literally accepted Bible.