The Copernican System in Great Britain

Abstract

During the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries England was, from the scientific point of view, relatively isolated from the Continent. There had been a modest but promising revival of learning in the early sixteenth century, in which John Colet, John Fisher, William Grocyn, Thomas Linacre and Thomas More had played a prominent part. They were helped by such international scholars as Desiderius Erasmus and Luis Vives, who visited England and were on the friendliest terms with the English scholars. This circle, apart from its theological interests, was mainly concerned with humanistic studies and with the propagation of Greek studies in the Universities and elsewhere. They were less concerned with philosophical and scientific problems. The revival was brought to an end by the increasingly autocratic behaviour of King Henry VIII, culminating in the execution of Fisher and More in 1535 on religious grounds. For the next hundred years or more, English scientists, with the notable exceptions of William Gilbert and William Harvey, contributed little to the European cultural community. This is not to say that there was no scientific activity during this period. There was a lively interest in practical applications, especially in the fields of surveying and navigation. But the published works were mainly textbooks or popular expositions, some of which reached a high standard in their own field but which contributed little to the advancement of science. In any case, they were normally written in English and were scarcely known on the Continent.