New Listserve Member

[Elin Fowler]

Hello from Marietta, Georgia USA! I'm Elin Fowler, a high school teacher of
French and Spanish.

Welcome to the GOCAMINO list.  We are of all sorts and kinds, those who have
been on the Camino, and those who want to be. You'll find lots of help here.
I have not walked the Camino, but have traveled its length with people
interested in cultural and spiritual aspects.  I have also lived in Santiago
for a month in 1999, attending Spanish pedagogy classes at the University. I
plan to walk all or parts of it in May of 2003.

I thought it interesting that today, along with your message, was the
following , from a religious List to which I subscribe:


NICOLAS COPERNICUS, PRIEST AND SCHOLAR (24 MAY 1543)

Nicola(u)s Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik) was born in Poland in 1673.
His parents died when he was twelve, and he was entrusted to his
uncle (soon to be the Bishop of Ermland), who sent him to the
University of Cracow (astronomy) and then to Bologna (Greek,
mathematics, Plato) and Padua (law and medicine) and Ferrara (Doctor
of Canon Law). Having been elected a canon of Frauenberg Cathedral,
he returned home, assisted his uncle until the uncle's death, and
then opened a free clinic for the poor.

His interests were many and varied, including theology, poetry, and
the natural and social sciences. He is the first known formulator of
what we now call Gresham's Law ("Bad money drives out good" -- that
is, if there are two kinds of coins in circulation that have the
same legal or face value, but one is more valuable in terms of its
content (say a silver dime and a cupro-nickel "sandwich" dime),
consumers will tend to hoard the more valuable coins and spend the
less valuable ones, so that soon only the less valuable ones will be
in circulation).

He is chiefly remembered, however, for his work as an astronomer. In
his day, the common view of the world was the geocentric model --
the theory that the earth was a motionless sphere and that the
heavenly bodies all revolved around it. There was a minority view:
Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, for example (Papal legate to Germany, who
by careful measurements showed that a growing plant did not derive
its increased mass principally from the soil, but rather from the
air, and who died a century before Galileo was born) wrote: "When we
say that the earth does not move, we mean simply that the earth is
the point with reference to which man makes his observations of
celestial phenomena." But, by and large, the stability of the earth,
backed by what was thought to be good scientific evidence, was the
view that prevailed. (It is often said that medieval Christians
thought that the earth was flat, but that is pure hoax. Dante,
writing in the early 1300's, refers to the earth as a sphere, and so
does Thomas Aquinas in the opening section of the SUMMA TH., and so
does Bede in the early 700's, and so does Irenaeus in the late
100's. The issue was not shape but motion.)

The geocentric model had been interwoven with other theories in
chemistry, physics, music, natural theology, and other disciplines,
into one unified theory of nature, so that it seemed that rejecting
any single part (such as the stability of the earth) imperilled the
whole theory. However, as the astronomers of the day measured the
motions of the heavenly bodies with increasing accuracy, and the
theory was patched up to fit the measurements,, it became an
increasingly awkward theory. Copernicus proposed to simplify it by
supposing that the sun, not the earth, was at the center. He first
produced a summary of his theory in 1530 in a paper called the
COMMENTARIOLUS, which received papal approval. He then spent the
next thirteen years revising it, expanding it to book length,
rechecking his calculations, rewriting his arguments, postponing
publication until he was sure that he had not overlooked something.
(Some writers today will know the feeling.) Finally, he entrusted it
to an old pupil, Georg Rhaeticus, a professor at Leipzig, who
published it there, with a preface added by the Lutheran pastor
Osiander stating that the heliocentric model was only a device to
simplify computations. The printed book, called DE REVOLUTIONIBUS
ORBIUM CAELESTIUM (The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies), was
brought to Copernicus only a few hours before his death 24 May 1543.

His work roused little opposition at first, but when Galileo
quarreled with the University establishment in Italy and finally
with the Pope, the whole geocentric model fell under suspicion and
Copernicus's book was placed on the Index "donec corrigetur" ("until
it be corrected") from 1616 to 1758.

PRAYER (traditional language):
   Almighty God, who hast caused the heavens to declare thy glory
   and the firmament to show forth thy handiwork: we bless thy
   Name for that thou hast placed us in a rational universe, and
   hast given us rational minds suited for the understanding of
   the same; and on this day we praise thee especially for the
   gifts of intellect that thou hast given to thy servants Nicolas
   Copernicus and others, whereby our understanding of the nature
   of thy creation hath been much advanced, to our good and thy
   glory, who livest and reignest, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
   one God, now and for ever.

PRAYER (contemporary language):
   Almighty God, who have made the heavens to tell your glory and
   the firmament to proclaim your handiwork: we bless you for
   placing us in a rational universe, and for giving us rational
   minds suited for understanding it; and today we praise you
   especially for the gifts of intellect that you have given to
   your servants Nicolas Copernicus and others, by which our
   understanding of the nature of your creation has been much
   advanced, to our good and your glory, who live and reign,
   Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

 + For information, visit <http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/> +
----- Original Message -----
From: Stanislaw Burdziej <stachuaCC.UNI.TORUN.PL>
To: <GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 6:22 AM
Subject: New Listserve Member


> Hello to Everybody!
> I'm a student of sociology at the University of Nicoals Copernicus in
> Torun, Poland. I've joined the list for two reasons:
> 1) in case to get some information before my pilgrimage planned for
> August-September
> 2) to contact anyone interested in socio-anthropological aspects of the
> Camino. I'm planning to write my thesis on this subject so your articles,
> discussions relations and remarks would be of enormous help for me.
>
> I hope it's possible to combine these two motivations - spiritual and
> scientific - on the pilgrim's ways...
>
> So far I've got one major question:
> - what type of roads do you usually walk on the French route? are they
> country or bitumen roads? Do you walk along heavy traffic routes (it looks
> like that if you look at the map..)?
>
> with regards,
>
> Stanislaw Burdziej
> Nicolas Copernicus University
> Torun, POLAND
> stachuacc.uni.torun.pl