Stifel And Roberval
Michael Stifel Michael Stifel was a German mathematician who lived in the
late fifteenth century and early to mid-sixteenth century. He was born in 1487,
in Esslingen, Germany. The exact date of his birth is unknown. Stifel died on
April 19, 1567, in Jena, Germany. His father was Conrad Stifel, a well-respected
member of the community. When Michael was young his family did not have much
money. Not much is known about Stifel's life until the time he attended the
University of Wittenberg, in Germany. After he graduated, Stifel was awarded an
M.A. from the university. Then Stifel began his life with the church. He entered
the Augustinian monastery and became a catholic priest in 1511. Soon after this,
Stifel began questioning the Catholic Church. He did like the idea of taking
money from poor people. As a result of this, Stifel was forced to leave the
monastery in 1522. Now he decided to go to Wittnenberg and become a Lutheran.
During this time, Stifel became friends with Martin Luther himself, and lived in
his house for a time. In 1523, Martin Luther made Stifel a pastor, but because
of anti-Lutheran feelings Stifel was forced to leave this job. Then in 1528,
Martin Luther decided to give Stifel a parish in Lochau, which is now Annaberg.
This where Stifel's story gets wacky. While in Lochau, Stifel decided to
announce to everyone that the world was going to end on October 19, 1533 at
exactly 8:00 AM. It seems that Stifel performed a series of calculations in
which he changed the letters to their successive triangular numbers. However,
how these calculations proved that the world was coming to end is beyond my
comprehension of mathematics. Stifel told the people of Lochau of his findings
on New Year's Eve of 1522. This announcement had amazing repercussions.
The
sleepy town of Lochau believed Stifel. They all began living for the day and not
worrying about what the future would bring. They did not bother to plant crops
or store what food they had. Lochau also became a destination for pilgrims. Once
they got to Lochau people began to prepare for the end of the world. Some people
even took their own life instead of waiting. Some of the town's people burned
their houses in an attempt to remove themselves from material objects and make
it easier for to get to Heaven. Lochau had only two bars, and in the time
between Stifel's announcement and the end it was said that they were never
empty. The owner's gave away free drinks. The owners' of the town's inns also
let people stay there for free. While all of this was happening, Lochau's
historian took all the money from the treasury and left. As a result of this
craziness Stifel was forbidden to preach. Finally, the last day came and Stifel
began to prepare his followers for the end. Fortunately for everyone except
Stifel the world did not end that day. At 8:30 AM the authorities took Stifel
away and put him in protective custody, for his own protection. Crowds gathered
outside his cell and chanted Stifel must die for many days after this. Martin
Luther got Stifel out of this, but he had to promise not to make anymore
prophecies. Another one of Stifel's adventures had to do with the newly crowned
pope Leo X. Since he was a Lutheran, Stifel was not too fond of Leo and he had
the calculations to back up his opinions. Stifel took the name Leo X and wrote
it in Latin; this was LEO DECIMVS. He then assigned the numerical counterparts
(Roman Numerals) of these letters, throwing out the non-numerical E, O, and S.
He rearranged the remaining letters and came up with MDCLVI. The next logical
step was to add back the X from Leo's original name and Stifel had MDCLXVI. He
then took off the M because it was the initial of mysterium, a word for a
religious mystery.
