How did the Medieval church react to scientific advances?

Answer 1

The Church exercised only a limited direct influence on science during the middle ages. The Church did one thing that some people might consider a negative action, but it nevertheless had a positive effect. In the Condemnations of 1210 to 1277, the Church declared the physical treatises of Aristotle heretical. This had the very positive effect of freeing the scientists from an incorrect scientific model and allowing them to pursue science empirically. The empirical approach was largely a matter of acquiring data and reporting it, which was hard to proscribe. It was considered legal to continue teaching what the heretical teachings were, by the way (except in Paris); it was just not allowed to say they were true.

During the middle ages, science tended to be very practical. Theoretical astronomy was not of nearly so much interest as Metallurgy, for example. Without investigations into cosmology, science was not something that was likely to lead to questioning theology.

Also books on science might be written, but they needed to be copied by hand, so the influence of new books was not nearly as interesting to the Church as the influence of radical preachers.

Indirectly, the Church had a greater influence by sending men off on the crusades. Crusaders were exposed to new lands and new ideas. When they came home, they had different views about things than they did when they left. This promoted science a good deal.

Answer 2

Probably the most important contribution the Catholic Church made to science of the Middle Ages was a set of actions called the Condemnations of 1210 to 1277, which freed scientists from the things taught in the physical treatises of Aristotle. Though these were actually condemnations making these teachings heresy, they made it possible to replace Aristotle's teachings with empirically derived material. There are historians who use 1277 as the date for the birth of modern science, though they probably take this a bit too far.

Of course, the Church kept education alive throughout the Middle Ages by running schools in monasteries, and in some countries these may have been the only schools available. Also, the Church founded some of the universities opened during the Middle Ages.

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Answer 3

in numerous ways actually,

for example, in astronomy, it opposed the idea of earth revolving around sun as it contradicted it's belief of earth being the center of universe.

it also opposed laws of gravitation which proved that time of free fall of a body doesn't depend on it's mass etc.

Answer 4

The Medieval church was not accepting of scientific advances. The church felt that scientific advances tried to explain things that was done by God and would take away power from the church.