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Cultural Impact of the Scientific Revolution
Despite the advances in science in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Scientific Revolution had a severely limited impact on the everyday lives and thoughts of the mass of European citizens. For example, despite the advances in biology and the subsequent development in medical theory, serious misconceptions about the human body remained widely adhered to. The most notable example of this is the prevailing theory of the four humors, developed by the Greeks. This theory held that the human body contained four major fluids—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—and that if one of the four fluids were present in too little or too great an amount, predictable illness would result. The most widely experienced manifestation of this theory was the use of leeches in the act of bloodletting, a long-standing medical practice widely employed in the effort to return the four humors to equilibrium.
Witch Hunts and Witch Trials
The discoveries of the Scientific Revolution that overturned the tenets of traditional belief systems were only gradually accepted by the general population, and were often rejected by those who found their traditional beliefs easier to comprehend, as well as more similar to the beliefs of their neighbors and of their church. One of these traditional beliefs was in the existence and powers of witches, which resulted in persecution, trial, and execution for those believed to be witches. The total numbers of executions in Europe are unknown for certain, but it is estimated that between 1550 and 1700, about 5000 women were executed for witchcraft in Switzerland, 700 in Germany, and 1000 in England. Fortunately, by the dawn of the 18th century, the witch hunts had largely ended. One of the last spates of witch trials occurred in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692.
The Commoner’s View of the Scientific Revolution
The reception (or the lack thereof) of the Scientific Revolution in Europe demonstrates the stratification of society into citizens to whom the progress of science was accessible and understandable, and those to whom the progress of science was neither accessible nor understandable. Even if elites were not wholeheartedly prepared to accept the Scientific Revolution, they were often educated enough to comprehend. On the other hand, the masses were largely uneducated and thus unprepared for any news of scientific progress and revolutionary change that might trickle down to their ears. Despite advances in literacy and the wider spread of books which resulted from the proliferation of the printing press, the common European was left largely in the dark as to what was occurring in the world of science. Thus, when the first signs of the Scientific Revolution began to show themselves to the masses, many reacted, not surprisingly, in fear and disbelief.
Furthermore, in the lives of the impoverished masses, stability was of the utmost importance. Maintenance of one’s job, one's family life, one’s quality of living were the utmost goals of the commoner, and these goals informed the reaction to suggestion that the principles upon which everyday life was thought to be based were no longer valid. In the face of this threatened instability and change, common Europeans often turned to the stability of the Church for guidance. The combination of the influence of the Church and the traditions which had been passed down for hundreds of years produced an attitude of mysticism which seemed to answer all the difficult questions of everyday life, leaving almost no room to desire a scientific revolution.
