Nicolaus Copernicus

The Church approved of the centaury old theory that everything revolved around the earth. The man who proved that the planets revolved around the sun, was ironically a man of Christian faith. In fact it was his faith that lead Copernicus to question the current accepted theory of the day. What he thought was why would God create a hugely complicated system, as Ptolemy proposed, to explain how the planets revolve around the earth. When it would simpler, logical and far more graceful to have them revolve around the sun. he used his position to advance his studies. He would often use the cathedral tower to observe the stars. Copernicus struggled with publishing his work through fear of contradicting the bible.