The Church tried to stifle open enquiry whenever it put Church dogma in question, but ultimately failed during the Renaissance;
''The Italian Renaissance had placed human beings once more in the center
of life's stage and infused thought and art with humanistic values. In time
the stimulating ideas current in Italy spread to other areas and combined with indigenous developments to produce a French Renaissance, an English Renaissance, and so on.''
''During the Renaissance, great advances occurred in geography, astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, manufacturing, anatomy and engineering. The rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the invention of printing which would democratize learning and allow a faster propagation of new ideas. But, at least in its initial period, some see the Renaissance as one of scientific backwardness. Historians like George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have criticized how the Renaissance affected science, arguing that progress was slowed for some amount of time.'' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_in_the_Renaissance''
''Copernicus (1473-1543) had a well-documented dispute with the church, concerning his idea that the earth moved around the sun. The astronomer, Galileo, and geologists such as Gessner and Steno, ran into similar conflicts, and Newton appeared reluctant to publish some of his findings where they conflicted with church doctrine. Strangely, a strange dualism defined the Renaissance: Many scholars found sponsorship by the church, while others found their findings suppressed or their study tainted by accusations of demonology and witchcraft. Undoubtedly, aided by the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the grip of Church doctrine on science loosened during the Renaissance. Ultimately, this provided the foundation for the Age of Enlightenment to blossom against a backdrop of revolution and conflict in Europe as the old ways gave way to the new. Certainly, most historians would not argue with the view that the Renaissance was the transformation period between the ancient world and the modern, the crucial period in history that set us on our current path, in art, literature, politics, science, and architecture.'' https://explorable.com/renaissance-science
