The Scientific Revolution exploded out of an era of brutal and harsh oppression and war. Yet, due to a weakening of religion, a change in the prevalent method of government, a rising middle class, and a growing curiosity about the world, that era also set the necessary stage for the scientific revolution.
Broadly, this era was a vast change in the way that people thought. Starting with the Reformation in 1517 and going through an age of absolutism and revolution in England, people were trying to find new ways to explain everything. Science fit into this very well. In addition, it meant social change. As scientists came from diverse backgrounds, equality started to come into being, although the lower classes were still very repressed.
The Reformation destroyed much of the strength of the Catholic Church. Even during the Reformation, the idea was germinating that the Catholic Church would be more open to new ideas, which of course they weren’t. For example, after he died, Copernicus published his On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543. This document attempted to convince the Pope that the new ideas that science developed were beneficial to the church, and thus was dedicated to the Pope (Doc 1). As the leader of the Catholic Church during an ongoing Reformation, Pope Paul III had no choice but to deny this and deem Copernicus’ work as blasphemy.
127 our experts are availableright now
In order to accept anything that contradicted present church doctrines, he would have to accept all the new beliefs, which was impossible. Yet the fact that Copernicus felt he could even dare to do something like that was proof that the Church was changing, as no one would have done such a thing 100 or even 50 years earlier. The Catholic Church would continue this trend of non-acceptance for a long time. In a letter to Galileo, the Italian monk Giovanni Ciampoli demanded that Galileo renounce his beliefs in 1615 (Doc 3). Immediately preceding the Thirty Years’ War, this was a tense time for the Catholic Church. They were steadily losing more and more power over
Germany and Europe, as they had been for nearly 100 years, and couldn’t risk any change; things had to remain constant for security. While the Catholic Church’s obstinacy is disturbing, many Protestant religions embraced the new ideas and methods. For example, shortly after Copernicus’ publication, John Calvin that astronomy was the work of God (Doc 2). Many other protestant religions claimed similar things. As a protestant, Calvin and others could claim this because they were the embodiment of change and new ideas, as opposed to the Catholic Church. It would also be to the advantage of these new protestant religions to attract as many people who had been alienated by the Catholic Church as possible. Furthermore, it could be used as yet another example for how the Catholic Church was wrong about everything.
In general, all of the conflict over religion brought much less unity and much more doubt to Europe. As uncertainty grew, people had to find ways to cope. For some, that meant clinging to their new religion. For others, it meant turning to science and rationality. One of the major advents of the 16th and 17th centuries was the rise of absolutist forms of government. This made the government both stricter and looser. The country under absolutist rule was subject more to the monarch’s will. If he wanted to be oppressive, he was oppressive; if he wanted to let the people be freer, they were freer. This also meant that, if the monarch had an interest in science, the country was a center for innovation.
For example, drawing commemorating Louis XIV’s visit to the French Royal Academy in 1671 shows how much research was done while Louis was in power (Doc 7). In this period, Louis supported the sciences immensely, but it was all at his discretion. Anything that he didn’t like was discarded. Thus, innovation was limited. Nevertheless, the French Royal Academy made many important discoveries. Similarly, the English Royal Society also made many important discoveries. But its position was different. It was much less controlled by the monarch; it was controlled almost entirely by the scientists themselves. This made innovation even greater in England than in France, although it was still initially prompted and created by a monarch. Thomas Hobbes noted this separation in his 1668 Leviathan (Doc 5). In the aftermath of the English Civil War, were becoming more and more distrustful of the government, and there was much conflict. But the conflict was not over science; that was always progressing.
As the middle class rose, so did the number of important people with money. Many of these people were well educated and became patrons of the sciences. This was a very important development as it allowed scientists to work even more separate from the church and the government. Marin Marsenne wrote in a letter to his patron that his work was at the whim of the patron (Doc 4). This was in a period were the number of middle class and noble patrons was growing incredibly. This was a social development that gave many scientists the necessary means to do their work.
This period also saw the growth for a curiosity about the world. This was evidenced in the immense amount of navigation and exploration that was going on. There were so many explorers, that the invention of new techniques and tools was warranted. This allowed science to once again take a great leap as innovation became more and more accepted.
The Scientific Revolution was not only a time of innovation, but marked a growth in rational thought. This type of thinking began to be applied to other fields besides science. That would soon lead to much philosophizing and ultimately the Enlightenment.
