alternatehistory.com

Medieval philosophers went about the study of nature with minimal interference from annoying theologians, partially because most of the relevant theologians also tended to be natural philosophers. The basic university curriculum for some time was grounded in natural philosophy, along with logic, mathematics, and astronomy, and very little in the way of art and humanities.
They also took their Christianity for granted, but given that God had endowed material things with the ability to act according to their natures ('earthy' and 'watery' things fall, 'airy' and 'firey' things rise, etc.), there should be natural laws to explain the world, and it was considered unnecessary to invoke God for any natural phenomenon.

That all kind of went to pot with the rise of Renaissance romanticism, until we eventually ended up with people getting religiously offended over silly things like whether or not the Earth moved.

So, question- how could we maintain the more practical Medieval view of the world, and keep the Catholic Church from meddling in questions of science? My first thoughts are that we might do something about the Black Plague; a third of the population dying is a bit of an apocalyptic experience, likely to bring out religious fervor in just about anyone....
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