Early Scientists

Albertus Magnus (ca. 1200–80) was a priest born in Germany,
who was educated at Padua and went on to become a fine teacher
in Paris. While a certain degree of science had been used during
the Roman Empire, Albertus was the first European to use the
scientific method. He built his theories on Aristotle and added
to these the idea that there could be the possibility of chemical
change. The church ultimately canonized him as a patron saint
of scientists.

Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) was regarded as a great theologian
and philosopher. He became the principal interpreter of Aristotle’s
works, and he taught a methodology that combined Aristotle’s
emphasis on naturalism with scientific rationalism and theology.
Aquinas was canonized in 1323 and came to be considered the
patron of Catholic schools.
Roger Bacon (ca. 1220–92) was a Franciscan monk who
explored the world of science under the protection of Pope Clement
IV. When Clement died, Bacon was put in prison and some of
his writings were burned. In 1733, 450 years after his death, his
major work was finally published; it revealed that even earlier
than Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Bacon predicted steamships,
automobiles, submarines, and flying machines. In 1230 he wrote of the possibility of the world being circumnavigated. One of his
medical creations was the invention of spectacles.
False Gerber was a Spanish monk who was interested in chemistry.
(The original Gerber was an Arabic mathematician and
chemist whose real name was Jabir ibn Hayyan (ca. 721–ca. 815)
so when another came along, he became known as False Gerber.)
False Gerber is now recognized for making the study of chemistry
into a modern science. He discovered vitriol (sulphuric acid),
which was the greatest chemical advance since the discovery of
iron smelting 3,000 years earlier. False Gerber also described how
to make strong nitric acid, a process that was originally created by
alchemists. His writings date from about 1300.
Arnold of Villanova was a physician born in Spain in the 14th
century whose work focused on improving the elixirs that were
being used medicinally. Alcohol was among them; Arnold learned
to isolate it and called it aqua vitae (“water of life”). He also came
to understand the existence of carbon monoxide.