THE BEGINNINGS OF EXPERIMENTATION 51 



invading barbarians in whole armies. By the time of 

 Charlemagne in 800 the union of Church and State 

 had been formed which was to dictate the life of Europe 

 for centuries. 



This dictation entered into science as well as into 

 religion. Of this the striking example is the as- 

 tronomical system of Ptolemy. It is the easiest of 

 which to persuade the ignorant, for it is the most 

 obvious. In addition it had been elaborately and in- 

 geniously supported by geometrical reasoning. How 

 with the years it gathered authority, and even became 

 so firmly held that disbelief of it was punished by the 

 Christian Church, is an interesting illustration of 

 Europe's attitude toward science in the medieval 

 ages. 1 How it was ultimately discarded in favor of 

 the heliocentric system of Copernicus is one of the 

 important stories of the Renaissance. 



During the 14th and 15th centuries occurred those 

 marked changes in the intellectual life of Europe that 

 constitute the Renaissance. To some extent this was 

 merely a revival of interest in the learning, that is, the 

 literature, art, and philosophy, of the classical world. 

 For centuries this pagan learning had for the most 

 part been under the disapproval of the Christian 

 Church, although some of it, e.g. the work of Aris- 

 totle, formed part of the education of the time. Such 

 knowledge as medieval scholars had of the courageous 

 intellectual life of the Greeks was frequently obtained 

 from Latin translations, made by Jews, of Arabic 



1 Galileo in his last years was compelled to recant and deny the 

 Copernican theories with which he had previously expressed his 

 agreement. 



