1. The Impact of the Scientific Revolution
Ch. 14 part 2

2. Today’s Standard Essential Question
Describe the attempts made by scientists to reconcile religion and the “new science”
How did the Catholic Church react to the developments of the Scientific Revolution and what was the result of this?
Essential Question

3. Continuing Superstition
belief in magic and the occult persisted through the end of the 17th c.
witch-hunts: 70,000–100,000 put to death, 1400–1700; 80% women
village society: magic helped cope with natural disasters and disabilities
Christian clergy: practiced high magic (Eucharist, Penance, Confession, exorcism)
Traditional [tolerant] attitudes towards witchcraft began to change in the 14th century, at the very end of the Middle Ages. ... Early 14th century central Europe was seized by a series of rumor-panics. Some malign conspiracy (Jews and lepers, Moslems, or Jews and witches) was attempting to destroy the Christian kingdoms through magick and poison. After the terrible devastation caused by the Black Death [bubonic plague] ( ), these rumors increased in intensity and focused primarily on witches and "plague-spreaders." Witchcraft cases increased slowly but steadily from the 14th-15th century. The first mass trials appeared in the 15th century. At the beginning of the 16th century, as the first shock-waves from the Reformation hit, the number of witch trials actually dropped. Then, around 1550, the persecution skyrocketed. What we think of as "the Burning Times" -- the crazes, panics, and mass hysteria -- largely occurred in one century, from In the 17th century, the Great Hunt passed nearly as suddenly as it had arisen. Trials dropped sharply after 1650 and disappeared completely by the end of the 18th century. (Gibbons, "Recent Developments in the Study of the Great European Witch Hunt".)

4. New Science and Religion
Three major issues:
Certain scientific theories and discoveries conflicted with Scripture.
Who resolves such disputes: religious authorities or natural philosophers?
New science’s apparent replacement of spiritually significant universe with purely material one.

5. Science and Religion
Catholic Inquisition places Copernicus’s On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres on Index of Prohibited Books, 1616
Galileo Incident: Roman Catholic authorities condemn Galileo, 1633—under house arrest for last nine years of his life
Roman Catholic Church formally admits errors of biblical interpretation in Galileo’s case, 1992

6. Attempts to Reconcile Reason and Faith
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), French mathematician
opposed both dogmatism and skepticism
erroneous belief in God is a safer bet than erroneous unbelief
Francis Bacon
two books of divine revelation: the Bible and nature
since both books share the same author, they must be compatible
Economics: technological and economic innovation seen as part of a divine plan—man is to understand world and then put it into productive rational use