Catholic Authorities example essay topic

Who Won the War Between the Theologians and the Early Scientists The early modern European scientists faced lethal religious opposition. During the debate between the religious authorities and the scientists, the religious faction was immature and barbarous. Over three hundred years later, the scientists have easily won the intellectual debate. The first tangle between the scientists and the church authorities happened when after the death of the Polish monk, Copernicus.

He lived from 1472 until 1543, but the major confrontation did not occur until after his death. Fearing that his heliocentric theory of the solar system would bring about his early demise, Copernicus did not allow his views to be publicized until he was on the brink of death. After the Catholic authorities found out that Copernicus had evaded their chastisement while he was alive, they were so outraged that they exhumed his body and put it on trial. Unbelievably, they actually convicted and burned the corpse of Copernicus for heresy. The Calvinists were also angry at Copernicus for evading their punishment. They went so far as to build a effigy of Copernicus so they could put him on trial.

The Calvinists also declared Copernicus guilty, and as punishment, burned his likeness. Johann Kepler was also persecuted due to his scientific beliefs. A German mathematician who lived from 1571 to 1630, Kepler raised the debate over the Neolithic theory and developed the Three Laws of Planetary Motion, which state that: the orbits of the planets are elliptical; the further from the sun the planets are, the longer the revolution around the sun takes; and the distance of the planets from the sun are all equally proportional. He was chased out of Catholic Germany and fled to Luther a Germany.

The Lutherans granted him immunity before he returned to Catholic Germany. When the Catholic authorities found that they could not put him on trial, they decided to go after his mother. The authorities put her on trial for heresy. Kepler defended her, and he ended up winning the case. Bruno (1548-1600) was like Copernicus in that he developed new theories about the universe. Bruno theorized that the earth wasn t the center of the universe; he stated that there were many other galaxies and planets.

Bruno was given the chance to recant his findings, but he refused. Upon this refusal, he was tried, convicted, and put to death. Galileo was also a major player in helping develop the scientific world. An Italian astronomer born in 1564, Galileo developed the theory of uniformly accelerated motion, which states that no matter what the weight of an object, it always falls at the same rate. He helped perfect the telescope and was the first to see Jupiter's moons. In 1633, Galileo was brought to trial in front of the inquisition.

He was given the choice to recant and live or hold to his views and be put to death. Galileo, wanting to live to be an old man, decided to recant. As part of his punishment, Galileo was ordered to remain under house arrest until his death in 1564. Wilhelm Liebniz (1646-1716), a German statesman, mathematician, and philosopher is regarded as one of the greatest minds of the seventeenth century. In 1675, he published the fundamental principles of calculus.

This discovery was arrived at independently of the discoveries of the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton, whose system of calculus was invented in 1666. Leibniz's system was published in 1684, Newton's in 1687, and the method of notation devised by Leibniz was universally adopted. In 1672 he also invented a calculating machine capable of multiplying, dividing, and extracting square roots, and he is considered a pioneer in the development of mathematical logic. Sir Issac Newton, an English scientist and physicist who lived from 1642 to 1723, is considered one of the greatest scientists in history. His discoveries and theories laid the foundation for much of the progress in science since his time. Newton was one of the inventors of the branch of mathematics called calculus (the other was German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz).

He also solved the mysteries of light and optics, formulated the three laws of motion, and derived from them the law of universal gravitation. Despite it being a time of oppression, there were many advances in the field of biology. Vesalius was one of these early pioneers. A Belgian anatomist and physician who lived from 1514 to 1564, his dissections of the human body and the description of his findings helped to correct misconceptions which were accepted since ancient times, and he also helped to lay the foundations of the modern science of anatomy.

He was the first to discover how the blood vessels worked. He published the first complete anatomy book. It was the most comprehensive book on human anatomy to date, due to the fact that he did his work on human cadavers, a practice which could have been severely punished if it had ever been discovered. William Harvey, the English anatomist who lived from 1578 to 1687, made a major contribution to the world of anatomy. He was the first to discover how the blood circulates throughout the body. He also proved that the heart was the basis of blood circulation.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) was a Dutch scientist, who made pioneering discoveries concerning protozoa, red blood cells, capillary systems, and the life cycles of insects. He was able to make these discoveries due to the fact that he built and perfected microscopes. He was the first to see protozoa, cells, and capillary systems under a microscope. Eventually, the church authorities- both Protestant and Catholic- had to concede the field of science to the opposition. This was due to the fact religious concepts were outdated by obvious, scientific thinking that was increasingly clear and useful.