Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), Imperial Mathematician at Prague, who worked through the observations Tycho Brahe left him until the orbit of Mars gave way and yielded the first two of his three laws — the ellipse, and equal areas in equal times. He had trained for the Lutheran ministry at Tübingen and was refused communion by his own church for refusing to sign the Formula of Concord; he called astronomy thinking God’s thoughts after him, and the preface in which he answered the objection from Scripture was written six years before Galileo’s letter and makes the same case.
The theological part of Kepler’s preface to the Astronomia Nova of 1609, abridged and put into English by Thomas Salusbury and printed with Galileo’s letter to the Grand Duchess. It is the argument Galileo would make six years later, and made first: that Scripture speaks of the sun and the earth as they appear to the eye because it was given to men and not to astronomers, that Joshua asked for a longer day and not for a lecture on the motion of the earth, and that no one should meddle with the Holy Spirit, nor bring him with contempt into the School of Physiologie.
It must be confessed, that there are very many who are devoted to Holinesse, that dissent from the Judgment of Copernicus, fearing to give the Lye to the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures, if they should say, that the Earth moveth, and the Sun stands still. But let such consider, that since we judge of very many, and those the most principal things by the Sense of Seeing, it is impossible that we should alienate our Speech from this Sense of our Eyes. Therefore many things daily occur, of which we speak according to the Sense of Sight, when as we certainly know that the things themselves are otherwise. An Example whereof we have in that Verse of Virgil; Provehimur portu, Terraeque urbesque recedunt.
So when we come forth of the narrow straight of some Valley, we say that a large Field discovereth it self. So Christ to Peter, Duc in altum; [Lanch forth into the Deep, or on high,] as if the Sea were higher than its Shores; For so it seemeth to the Eye, but the Opticks shew the cause of this fallacy. Yet Christ useth the most received Speech, although it proceed from this delusion of the Eyes. Thus we conceive of the Rising and Setting of the Stars, that is to say, of their Ascension and Descension; when at the same time that we affirm the Sun riseth, others say, that it goeth down. See my Optices Astronomiae, cap. 10. fol. 327. So in like manner, the Ptolomaicks affirm, that the Planets stand still, when for some dayes together they seem to be fixed, although they believe them at that very time to be moved in a direct line, either downwards to, or upwards from the Earth. Thus the Writers of all Nations use the word Solstitium, and yet they deny that the Sun doth really stand still. Likewise there will never any man be so devoted to Copernicus, but he will say, the Sun entereth into Cancer and Leo, although he granteth that the Earth enters Capricorn or Aquarius: And so in other cases of the like nature. But now the Sacred Scriptures, speaking to men of vulgar matters (in which they were not intended to instruct men) after the manner of men, that so they might be understood by men, do use such Expressions as are granted by all, thereby to insinuate other things more Mysterious and Divine. What wonder is it then, if the Scripture speaks according to mans apprehension, at such time when the Truth of things doth dissent from the Conception that all men, whether Learned or Unlearned have of them? Who knows not that it is a Poetical allusion, Psal. 19. where, whilst under the similitude of the Sun, the Course of the Gospel, as also the Peregrination of our Lord Christ in this World, undertaken for our sakes, is described, The Sun is said to come forth of his Tabernacle of the Horizon, as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber, rejoycing as a Giant to run a Race? Which Virgil thus imitates; Tithono croceum linquens Aurora cubile: For the first Poets were amongst the Jews. The Psalmist knew that the Sun went not forth of the Horizon, as out of its Tabernacle, & yet it seemeth to the Eye so to do: Nor did he believe, that the Sun moved, for that it appeared to his sight so to do. And yet he saith both, for that both were so to his seeming. Neither is it to be adjudged false in either Sense: for the perception of the Eyes hath its verity, fit for the more secret purpose of the Psalmist in shadowing forth the current passage of the Gospel, as also the Peregrination of the Son of God. Joshua likewise mentioneth the Vallies on or in, which the Sun and Moon moved, for that they appeared to him at Jordan so to do: And yet both these Pen-men may obtain their ends. David, (and with him Syracides) the magnificence of God being made known, which caused these things to be in this manner represented to sight, or otherwise, the mystical meaning, by means of these Visibles being discerned: And Joshua, in that the Sun, as to his Sense of Seeing, staid a whole day in the midst of Heaven, whereas at the same time to others it lay hid under the Earth. But incogitant persons onely look upon the contrariety of the words, The Sun stood still, that is, The Earth stood still; not considering that this contradiction is confined within the limits of the Opticks and Astronomy: For which cause it is not outwardly exposed to the notice and use of men: Nor will they understand that the onely thing Joshuah prayed for, was that the Mountains might not intercept the Sun from him; which request he expressed in words, that suited with his Ocular Sense: Besides it had been very unseasonable at that time to think of Astronomy, or the Errours in Sight; for if any one should have told him that the Sun could not really move upon the Valley of Ajalon, but onely in relation to Sense, would not Joshuah have replyed, that his desire was that the day might be prolonged, so it were by any means whatsoever? In like manner would he have answered if any one had started a question about the Suns Mobility, and the Earths Motion. But God easily understood by Joshuahs words what he asked for, and by arresting the Earths Motion, made the Sun in his apprehension seem to stand still. For the summ of Joshuahs Prayer amounts to no more but this, that it might thus appear to him, let it in the mean time be what it would of it self. For that its so seeming, was not in vain and ridiculous, but accompanied with the desired effect. But read the tenth Chap. of my Book, that treats of the Optick part of Astronomy, where thou shalt finde the Reasons why the Sun doth in this manner seem to all mens thinking to be moved, and not the Earth; as namely, because the Sun appeareth small, and the Earth bigg. Again, the Motion of the Sun is not discerned by the eye, by reason of his seeming tardity, but by ratiocination onely; in that after some time it varieth not its proximity to such and such Mountains. Therefore it is impossible that Reason, unless it be first instructed, should frame to it self any other apprehension, than that the Earth with Heavens Arch placed over it, is as it were a great House, in which, being immoveable, the Sun like a Bird flying in the Air, passeth in so small a Species out of one Climate into another. Which imagination of all Man-kinde being thus, gave the first line in the Sacred Leaves: In the beginning (saith Moses) God created the Heaven and the Earth;1 for that these two are most obvious to the eye. As if Moses should have said thus to Man; This whole Mundane Fabrick which thou seest, lucid above, and dark, and of a vast extent beneath, wherein thou hast thy being, and with which thou art covered, was created by God.