lated by Kepler. The second law tackled the problem of
why planets move around the sun with varying speed by
declaring that a radius vector joining the sun and planet
would sweep out equal areas in equal times. In his third
law Kepler noted the basic relationship between a planet’s
distance from the sun and its orbital period by noting that
the square of the period varied as the cube of the distance.
The harmonic law, as it became known, would later prove
to be the key with which astronomers would work out the
scale of the solar system. Kepler’s laws also posed the
problem of what held the system together, and why there
seemed to be such a close relationship between the orbit
and velocity of a planet and the sun. Kepler himself could
do little more than talk unconvincingly of a magnetic at-
traction emanating from the sun. It remained for Isaac
Newton, later in the century, to provide a firm dynamical
basis for Kepler’s laws with his introduction into astron-
omy of universal gravitation.
Further reading: Howard Margolis, It Started With
Copernicus: How Turning the World Inside Out Led to the
Scientific Revolution (New York: McGraw–Hill, 2002);
Richard Parek, Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope
Opened Our Eyes to the Heavens (New York: Penguin
Viking, 1998).
Athene See MINERVA
Aubigné, Theodore d’Agrippa d’ (1551–1630) French
poet, soldier, polemicist, and historian of his own times
After a studious youth at several European universities,
Aubigné, an ardent Protestant, joined the Huguenot forces
and served throughout the French religious wars, latterly
as master of horse to Henry of Navarre. After Henry’s ac-
cession (1589) as HENRY IVand conversion to Catholicism,
Aubigné withdrew to his estates in Poitou, where he did
much of his writing and became gradually estranged from
his fellow Protestants. Haunted perhaps by his king’s ab-
juration, he frequently depicts in his work the conflict be-
tween truth and outward show and celebrates the justice
of an avenging deity, as in his epic poem, Les Tragiques
(1616). His most interesting work is probably his Histoire
universelle (1616–20), which deals with the years
1553–1602 and contains many lively eyewitness accounts
of the events in which he played a part. Publication of the
final volume of the history caused Aubigné to be pro-
scribed, after which he lived in Geneva until his death.
Auerbach, Johannes See AMERBACH, JOHANNES
Augsburg A south German city on the junction of the
Wertach and Lech rivers. Founded as a Roman colony (15
BCE), Augsburg became the seat of a bishopric (759), an
imperial free city (1276), and a member of the Swabian
League (1331). Close to rich silver mines and situated on
the principal trade route from the Mediterranean to north-
ern and western Europe, Augsburg developed as a major
banking and commercial center in the 15th and 16th cen-
turies. The FUGGER FAMILY, its leading merchants, became
Europe’s greatest bankers and lent large sums to the HAPS-
BURGSand other princes. Augsburg was one of the first im-
portant centers of Renaissance arts and scholarship
outside Italy. It was a center for humanist scholars and the
artists Hans HOLBEIN, Elder and Younger, were natives of
the city. The oldest European settlement for the poor, the
Fuggerei, was built in Augsburg in 1519. Notable build-
ings from the Renaissance period include the Gothic addi-
tions (1331–1432) to the 11th-century cathedral, the
church of SS. Ulrich and Afra (1474–1604), and the town
hall (1615–20).Augsburg, Confession of The classic statement of
Lutheran doctrine submitted to the Diet of Augsburg on
June 25, 1530, and originally called the Articles of
Schwabach. The diet had been called by CHARLES Vin his
search for German unity at a time when the empire was
threatened by Turkish invasion. The confession was com-
piled by MELANCHTHONand approved by LUTHERprior to
its presentation to the diet. It was divided into two parts,
the first comprising 21 articles conciliatory and compara-
tively inoffensive to the Roman Church. The second part,
however, consisted of seven articles attacking what the
Lutherans considered its main abuses; these included as-
pects of Roman ceremony, certain clerical vows, and the
secular authority exercised by its bishops. In response
the Roman Catholics drew up the Confutatio presented
in August 1530, rejecting any settlement based on the
confession.Augsburg, Interim of (1548) A peacetime agreement
drawn up under the direction of Emperor CHARLES V, de-
signed to satisfy Lutherans without greatly offending
Catholics. It admitted the universality and indivisibility of
the Church, the seven sacraments, and the doctrine of
TRANSUBSTANTIATION, while allowing to the Protestant side
the legality of clerical marriages and, to some extent, the
doctrine of JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.
See also: LEIPZIG, INTERIM OFAugsburg, Peace of The treaty concluded on September
25, 1555 that ended the religious wars in Germany during
the Reformation period. It was the product of the Diet of
Augsburg, held between February and September that
year. For the first time in the Christian West two confes-
sions, Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism, were ac-
corded equal legal recognition. This and the freedom it
gave individual princes to choose their own and their sub-
jects’ religion marked the ultimate defeat of CHARLES V’s
endeavors to create a unified Germany. In addition,
Lutheran or Roman Catholic dissenters were to be allowed
freedom to emigrate, Lutheran knights and towns within3366 AAtthheennee