In the summer of 1538, a personal scandal involving Nicolaus Copernicus and a woman named Anna Schilling came to light. We can only surmise this relationship’s true nature. Still, this revelation emerged at a moment of intense religious upheaval across Northern Europe, the culmination of two decades of mounting tensions that had transformed Copernicus's world.
The Protestant Reformation, launched by Martin Luther in 1517, had steadily gained momentum across the region. By 1525, the transformation reached Copernicus's doorstep when Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, converted Prussia to Lutheranism. The Treaty of Kraków (April 8, 1525) and the subsequent Prussian Homage (April 10, 1525) formalized these changes, effectively surrounding the Catholic bishopric of Warmia, where Copernicus served as canon, with Protestant territories.
The religious landscape continued to shift dramatically over the next decade. Sweden became Protestant in 1529, followed quickly by Denmark. In 1531, the formation of the Schmalkaldic League - a Protestant military alliance - raised the specter of religious warfare. These developments prompted increasingly defensive measures from Catholic authorities in Warmia, including Bishop Maurice Ferber's 1526 expulsion of Lutherans and the destruction of Protestant publications.
This period illustrates how the Reformation transformed from a distant theological dispute into an immediate political and social reality that forced local authorities to take decisive positions and actions. For Warmia, it began a period of increasing isolation as a Catholic entity in an increasingly Protestant region. It was against this backdrop of escalating religious tension that Copernicus's relationship with Anna Schilling developed.
As a church canon, Copernicus resided at the cathedral in Frombork, located on the Baltic coast of Poland. In Frombork, most canons had apartments in the dormitory adjacent to the cathedral. Copernicus, however, purchased one of the defensive towers of the cathedral fortress, occupying all three stories with access to a catwalk offering views of the town and sea. Outside the fortress walls, each canon had a curia—a spacious house on Cathedral Hill—and many also owned a countryside villa called an allodium or grange. Copernicus's curia, bought in 1514, was on the edge of Cathedral Hill, near the west gate of the fortress, with a view overlooking the town.
Between 1531 and 1538, Anna Schilling became a regular visitor to his curia. It was common practice for canons to take in female relatives as housekeepers. At the same time, the rules of celibacy among canons were often ignored. Priests, clerics, and other officials frequently lived with women and even had families. Yet, this practice was not universal. Of the sixteen canons at the cathedral in Frombork, only three supposedly had mistresses: Leonard Niederhoff, Alexander Scultetus, and Copernicus. Scultetus was the only one of the three who had children with his mistress. However, this was one of many controversies surrounding Scultetus, ultimately leading to his persecution as a Lutheran sympathizer.
The death of Bishop Ferber in 1537 led to a carefully managed transition of power, with Copernicus playing key administrative roles both during the interim period and in establishing a relationship with the new bishop, Johannes Dantiscus. Dantiscus rose from modest beginnings as a brewer's son to become a significant diplomatic and religious figure. After studying at the University of Kraków, he served in the Polish army, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and became secretary and ambassador for Polish King Sigismund I. In his diplomatic role, he developed relationships with major European rulers and earned recognition as a poet.
Unlike Copernicus, who focused on scholarly pursuits, Dantiscus was known for his worldly interests in poetry, women (including two documented mistresses), and intellectual discourse. Despite his successful diplomatic career and reputation as a womanizer, he shifted to religious life in his forties. He secured a canonry in 1529, became Bishop of Chełmno in 1530/32, and was positioned to eventually succeed Ferber as Bishop of Warmia, a more prestigious and wealthy position.
Upon his elevation as bishop, Dantiscus faced multiple crises that deeply troubled him. On a geopolitical level, he was concerned about Poland's difficult war with Moldova, France's alliance with the Ottoman Empire, and the rapid spread of Lutheranism across Northern Europe, including Henry VIII's break with Rome and the growing Protestant influence around Warmia. He worried this religious transformation threatened Warmia's stability as a Catholic territory. He feared any misconduct or impropriety would provide fodder for the church’s critics. Part of combating this would be to reestablish discipline among the Frombork cathedral canons.
And so it must have been disconcerting for the new bishop to learn of Copernicus’s little secret. The truth emerged during the summer of 1538. Copernicus traveled with Bishop Dantiscus and Canon Felix Reich through the dusty roads of Warmia on an oath-taking tour. Over evening drinks in castle halls, either Copernicus himself or Reich let slip the open secret of Frombork – that Copernicus was receiving regular visits from a woman suspected of being more than a housekeeper.
The woman at the center of this scandal was Anna Schilling, the daughter of a Dutch immigrant named Arend van der Shelling, who had settled in Gdańsk and married into Copernicus's extended family. Far from the stereotype of a simple domestic servant, Anna was by all accounts an educated woman who shared Copernicus's passion for astronomy. Their connection likely formed through her father's seven-year collaboration with Copernicus as legal guardians of orphaned children between 1529 and 1536.
By 1538, Anna had become a regular presence at Copernicus's house in Frombork. The official story – maintained by Copernicus himself – was that she served merely as his housekeeper, a common and accepted arrangement for canons who often employed female relatives in domestic roles. Yet this explanation grew increasingly thin as rumors circulated through the cathedral community. The situation was particularly scandalous because Anna was technically still married, though separated from her husband.
Dantiscus's reaction was swift and severe. He demanded Copernicus end the relationship immediately, leading to months of uncomfortable correspondence. Copernicus initially promised to find "a proper female relative" to replace Anna by Christmas, then claimed he had complied with the order. This claim proved false when Anna was spotted continuing to visit his home.
Dantiscus grew impatient. He attempted to use Felix Reich, who was both Copernicus's friend and patient, to apply additional pressure. Despite a secret agreement with Dantiscus, Reich proved reluctant to act against Copernicus. Reich employed several delaying tactics to avoid directly confronting Copernicus while nominally appearing to cooperate with Bishop Dantiscus.
First, when Dantiscus sent Reich a letter to read aloud to Copernicus as part of their secret agreement, Reich found a legal pretext to avoid doing so. As a papal and imperial notary, Reich claimed that certain words in Dantiscus's letter raised legal concerns, making him uncomfortable delivering it. This technical objection allowed Reich to protect Copernicus while maintaining the appearance of professional diligence.
Second, Reich delayed action by identifying procedural flaws in the legal documents Dantiscus drafted. For example, he pointed out that banishing people to "ten miles from Frombork" would exceed the bishop's jurisdiction since Frombork was less than ten miles from the diocese boundary. By focusing on such technical details, Reich could stall the proceedings while appearing to help improve them.
Third, when Dantiscus sent a letter addressed to the Warmia Chapter along with a wine and beer shipment, Reich chose not to deliver it. He justified this by noting that only three canons were present - too few to adequately address such weighty matters as proceedings against fellow canons. While this might seem like overstepping his authority, Reich presented it as protecting proper procedure.
Reich's approach shows considerable diplomatic skill - he never directly refused to help Dantiscus but instead found procedural and legal reasons to delay taking action against his friend and doctor. His actions protected Copernicus while maintaining plausible deniability about his intentions. The strategy proved effective until Reich's death on March 1, 1539, though his conflicted feelings about the situation are evident in both his will (where he left gifts to Copernicus) and his letters (which he signed with "sick and trembling hand").
By January 11, 1539, Copernicus informed Dantiscus that he had dismissed Anna Schilling, who owned a house in Frombork and planned to return to her birthplace of Gdańsk. However, the situation didn't end there. Reports reached Dantiscus suggesting that Copernicus was still meeting Schilling secretly. This led Dantiscus to seek help from Tiedemann Giese, Bishop of Chełmno and Copernicus's closest friend, in July 1539.
The matter reached a critical point when Giese confronted Copernicus about these allegations during a visit involving Georg Joachim Rheticus, a Lutheran scholar studying Copernicus's astronomical work. Copernicus firmly denied the accusations, explaining that he had only spoken to Schilling once in passing as she was leaving for Königsberg. The Warmia chapter administrator independently confirmed this account.
The episode reveals the complex web of relationships and politics in the Warmian diocese. Dantiscus, despite expressing admiration for Copernicus's scholarly achievements, pursued the matter aggressively. While helping Dantiscus, Giese reminded him of his indiscretions, including those of his illegitimate daughter. The situation ultimately reflected broader tensions in the diocese, as evidenced by Dantiscus's 1540 criticism of the Warmian Chapter for their lax attitude toward Protestant influences and the canons' female employees.
The fact that Copernicus initially resisted pressures from church authorities, even attempting to maintain the relationship through the fiction of Anna's role as "housekeeper," suggests their connection transcended mere convenience or passion. The forced separation of Copernicus and Anna in 1539 came at a crucial moment. While we cannot draw direct lines between their relationship and Copernicus's scientific work, the timing raises intriguing questions. During these years, he refined the mathematical models that would eventually appear in "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium." While multiple factors contributed to Copernicus’s hesitation to publish his work, including the broader religious tensions of the Reformation, the loss of an intellectual companion who shared his astronomical interests may have played a role in his continued reluctance to present his ideas to the world.
Years after Copernicus died in 1543, when the Frombork canons requested permission for Anna to return to the town, Dantiscus's response was immediate and harsh. He described her as a dangerous temptress who had "deranged" Copernicus and might "ensnare" other canons if allowed to return. However, the canons’ request suggests Anna was more than a scandal – she was a woman of substance whose absence was felt by the community that had known her.
The story of Copernicus and Anna Schilling raises broader questions about how personal relationships shape scientific advancement. How many other intellectual partnerships have been obscured by social conventions and religious restrictions? What role did unofficial collaborators – particularly women – play in the scientific revolution? These questions remain relevant to modern scientific work discussions about recognition and credit.
Their relationship also highlights the often-overlooked human dimension of scientific advancement. Revolutionary ideas are not developed in isolation from personal relationships and social contexts. The emotional and intellectual support provided by close companions, whether officially recognized or not, can play a crucial role in scientific breakthroughs.
The historical record leaves us with tantalizing hints rather than definitive answers about the true nature of Copernicus and Anna Schilling's relationship. Yet what emerges is a picture not just of scandal but of a complex intellectual partnership that challenges our understanding of how scientific knowledge developed in early modern Europe.
In Anna Schilling, we may be seeing not merely a "housekeeper" who caused a scandal but an educated woman whose astronomical interests and intellectual companionship played a role in one of history's significant scientific breakthroughs. In studying their relationship, we better understand Copernicus's world and insight into how knowledge advances through human connection, even in the face of institutional resistance.
Listen to Episode 63 - The Reluctant Revolutionary: A Mind in Motion, A Life in Balance
Further Reading:
Copernicus's Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began by Jack Repcheck
The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus by Owen Gingerich
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos by Dava Sobel