(November 19, 2023 at 11:27 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Right, I wasn't saying the Church was entirely hostile. The astute reader will have noted that I was pointing out that medieval rulers were quite happy to use religious justification to secure their earthly positions. An even-smarter fella might have noticed that this Church didn't bother to object -- unless said regent interfered with that Church's own Earthly concerns.
OK, "fairly hostile attitude" isn't the same as "entirely hostile."
We can agree that, given the evidence, the church's attitude to science didn't prevent hundreds and hundreds of clergymen and lay Catholics from making significant contributions to science and mathematics. In many cases, the educational institutions where these people worked were sponsored and paid for by the church, and the teachers were clergy.
Can you give any specific examples of this "fairly hostile attitude" dissuading anyone from his research?
