EUROPE - Summary

Europeans who had contact with Eastern knowledge often embraced new ways of thinking. A scientific revolution resulted, as Europeans began to explore and test the laws of nature. Frederick II of Sicily conducted numerous experiments, including disemboweling men to see how their digestive systems worked. Working in Paris, France, and Oxford, England, Roger Bacon dissected human eyes. His discoveries contributed to the invention of spectacles. A new religious movement encouraged people to regard the natural world as a thing to be loved and studied rather than feared. But these innovative movements would be stalled in the following century as disease and climatic change wiped out much of the population.