Abstract
This chapter argues that the masters of arts in the new universities institutionalized approaches akin to methodological naturalism in the populous medieval faculties of arts. Explanations of natural phenomena were to be justified or refuted by reason and sense perception, without appealing to the supernatural. This arts faculty naturalism diffused widely as the universities spread, and deeply shaped the intellectual landscape (e.g. Galileo). The masters of arts’ vision of their methodological autonomy also characterized theologians, many of whom were masters of arts. The Parisian condemnations of 1277 illustrate this outlook’s strength, not its weakness. Leading intellectuals of the era illustrate these naturalistic trends by using natural causes to explain occurrences that their predecessors and contemporaries treated as marvels.
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