The Church and Science

The dichotomy between religion and science, particularly Christianity, did not always exist as it currently does.  In fact, as the Church was the primary vehicle for education in the Middle Ages, many scientists of that era were ecclesiastics.  In fact, David C. Lindberg, in his 1986 publication "God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science" describes Jesuits as, "the single most important contributor to experimental physics in the seventeenth century."

The pursuit of science, however, was not limited to monks cloistered away in monasteries.  Parish priests and bishops, such as Tiedemann Giese who was Bishop of Kulm and later Prince-Bishop, were also among those who zealously pursued scientific knowledge.

Other well-known scientists who were also ecclesiastics of various echelons within the Catholic Church include Copernicus, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Gregor Mendel, Theodoric Borgognoni, and Francesco Grimaldi, to name a few.  These men conducted research and published papers on subjects ranging from astronomy to physics to medicine.

For example, Albertus Magnus, who lived from about 1206 to 1280 AD, was a Dominican friar and Bishop of Regensberg.  He is considered the patron saint of natural sciences, completing works in physics, logic, metaphysics, biology, and psychology.  He was beatified in 1622 and canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1931.

Albertus Magnus
Painting by Joos van Gent

Or, how about Theodoric Borgognoni, who lived from 1205 to 1298.  He was also a Dominican friar and the Bishop of Cervia.  He was a medieval surgeon who made important contributions to antiseptic practices and the use of anasthetics.

Anatomical drawing by Theodoric Borgognoni
showing circulation of the blood.  Image from
Wikipedia Commons

And of course, let's not forget Copernicus (1473-1543).  He was mostly just a canon of the church with ecclesiastic connections through his family rather than serving as an active priest.  He was well-known in his day as a physician, but is remembered primarily because of his work in astronomy and his publication of works on heliocentrism.

Copernicus Self-Portrait

Not until the Renaissance did the partnership between Church and Science begin to weaken.  Learning was no longer strictly centered within the Church.  As scientific pursuits called into question some of the early assumptions about the natural world that the Church, in the absence of any real knowledge, had embraced, the partnership began to dissolve.