1614
Napier Publishes Logarithms
The Scottish laird John Napier, working alone in his tower at Merchiston for twenty years, published a table of logarithms that turned multiplication into addition. Astronomers and navigators across Europe nearly wept with gratitude. Kepler said Napier had added years to his life by shortening his arithmetic, and the tables became indispensable tools of science for three centuries.
Anti-Christian Edict in Japan
Shogun Tokugawa Hideyori issued a sweeping edict declaring Christianity an evil doctrine and ordering the expulsion of all missionaries. Some three hundred thousand Japanese converts went underground, worshipping in secret for generations and disguising the Virgin Mary as the Buddhist bodhisattva Kannon. When Japan reopened two centuries later, missionaries found these hidden Christians still faithfully keeping a faith no priest had tended.
Logarithms Transform Astronomy
Within months of Napier's publication, Johannes Kepler began using logarithms to compute the Rudolphine Tables, the most accurate ephemeris of planetary positions yet produced. Calculations that had taken weeks took hours. Accurate astronomy became possible for ordinary astronomers, not just geniuses, and the mathematical infrastructure of the scientific revolution gained one of its most practical and widely adopted tools.
Addled Parliament Dissolved
James I's second English parliament sat for nine bitter weeks, passed no laws, and was dismissed by the king in fury over its refusal to grant him money without redress of grievances. Contemporaries called it the Addled Parliament. Constitutional conflict between Crown and Commons had begun to sharpen, foreshadowing the violent ruptures that would come within a generation.