There's always this discussion about how various breakthroughs and discoveries would put the researchers involved at odds with Christian dogma, and therefore at odds with the Church and at risk of life and limb in some cases. But then I also read how monks and other kinds of people did things like conduct research, preserve texts, and train individuals in ways that they could become both literate and eventually scientists. So I want to ask, did both these things occur simultaneously to a large extent? Or was one a rare occurrence and the other common? Did Jesuits and related monastic orders operate "under the radar" in this regard and/or was it just a few really dramatic discoveries that clashed with a specific leader's view of the scriptures/God/universe etc? I've felt that broad condemnations of the church were either not warranted or come from anti-religions motivations, but I'm not sure if my opinion is accurate. No, I'm not Catholic. But it is somewhat personal to me because I am a PhD student doing research and also I practice my particular religion. This is not a question on how much good or bad the Church or Christianity has done at large, though obviously there's some relationship.