The Copernican System

I was reviewing this past week's readings, and I had a real quick question. In class, we had talked about how although the Copernican system correctly modeled the solar system, the West wished to maintain an Earth-centric view of the solar system. This obviously occurred for several reasons, including the ingrained tradition of the Ptolemaic system as well as the opposition of the Church. At the time of Copernicus, only a handful of individuals bought into his theory. At what point did it become commonly accepted knowledge in Europe that the sun was the center of the solar system?