In Kepler's time, however, this doctrine was so far
from being regarded as absurd, that its announcement was hailed as a
great intellectual triumph. Kepler was at once regarded with
favour. It seems, indeed, to have been the circumstance which
brought him into correspondence with Tycho Brahe. By its means also
he became known to Galileo.
The career of a scientific professor in those early days appears
generally to have been marked by rather more striking vicissitudes
than usually befall a professor in a modern university. Kepler was a
Protestant, and as such he had been appointed to his professorship at
Gratz. A change, however, having taken place in the religious belief
entertained by the ruling powers of the University, the Protestant
professors were expelled. It seems that special influence having
been exerted in Kepler's case on account of his exceptional eminence,
he was recalled to Gratz and reinstated in the tenure of his chair.
But his pupils had vanished, so that the great astronomer was glad to
accept a post offered him by Tycho Brahe in the observatory which the
latter had recently established near Prague.
On Tycho's death, which occurred soon after, an opening presented
itself which gave Kepler the opportunity his genius demanded.
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