Editing Spontaneous generation (section)

== Middle Ages ==

{{multiple image
|total_width=400
|footer=In the [[Middle Ages]], it was thought that the goose barnacle gave birth to the barnacle goose, supporting the [[virgin birth of Jesus]].<ref name="Gerald of Wales"/>
|image1=Barnacle Geese Fac simile of an Engraving on Wood from the Cosmographie Universelle of Munster folio Basle 1552.png
|caption1=Barnacles turning into geese, in the 1552 ''[[Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)|Cosmographia]]''
|image2=Pollicipes cornucopia.jpg
|caption2=The [[Pollicipes cornucopia|goose barnacle]]
|image3=Branta leucopsis.jpg
|caption3=The [[Branta leucopsis|barnacle goose]]
}}

From the [[decline of the Roman Empire|fall of the Roman Empire]] in 5th century to the [[East–West Schism]] in 1054, the influence of [[Greek science]] declined, although spontaneous generation generally went unchallenged. New descriptions were made. Of the beliefs, some had doctrinal implications. In 1188, [[Gerald of Wales]], after having traveled in Ireland, argued that the [[barnacle goose myth]] was evidence for the [[virgin birth of Jesus]].<ref name="Gerald of Wales">{{cite book |author=Giraldus Cambrensis |author-link=Gerald of Wales |title=Topographia Hiberniae |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1188geraldwales-barnacle.html |year=1188 |publisher=Humanities Press |isbn=0-85105-386-6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509162745/https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1188geraldwales-barnacle.asp |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Where the practice of fasting during [[Lent]] allowed fish, but prohibited fowl, the idea that the goose was in fact a fish suggested that its consumption be permitted during Lent. The practice was eventually prohibited by decree of [[Pope Innocent III]] in 1215.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lankester |first=Edwin Ray |author-link=Edwin Lankester |title=Diversions of a Naturalist |edition=illustrated |orig-year=1915 |year=1970 |publisher=Ayer Publishing |isbn=978-0-8369-1471-9 |pages=117–128 |chapter=XIV. The History of the Barnacle and the Goose |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/diversionsofnatu0000lank_e1a6/page/n7/mode/2up }}</ref>

After Aristotle’s works were reintroduced to Western Europe, they were translated into Latin from the original Greek or Arabic. They reached their greatest level of acceptance during the 13th century. With the availability of Latin translations, the German philosopher [[Albertus Magnus]] and his student [[Thomas Aquinas]] raised Aristotelianism to its greatest prominence. Albert wrote a paraphrase of Aristotle, ''De causis et processu universitatis'', in which he removed some commentaries by Arabic scholars and incorporated others.<ref>{{Cite book |date=March 20, 2006 |contribution=Albert the Great |contribution-url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/albert-great/ |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-link=Edward N. Zalta |title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |edition=Winter 2009 |location=Stanford, California |publisher=The Metaphysics Research Lab |oclc=179833493 |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/ |access-date=2009-01-23 |isbn=1-158-37777-0 |archive-date=27 December 1996 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961227155812/http://plato.stanford.edu/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The influential writings of Aquinas, on both the physical and metaphysical, are predominantly Aristotelian, but show numerous other influences.<ref>{{Cite book |date=July 12, 1999 |publication-date=January 9, 2005 |contribution=Saint Thomas Aquinas |contribution-url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/ |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-link=Edward N. Zalta |title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |edition=Winter 2009 |location=Stanford, CA |publisher=The Metaphysics Research Lab |oclc=179833493 |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/ |access-date=2009-01-23 |isbn=1-158-37777-0 |archive-date=27 December 1996 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961227155812/http://plato.stanford.edu/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Trees that generate both fishes and birds. Wellcome M0005642.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Claude Duret]]'s 1605 ''Histoire admirable des plantes et herbes esmerueillables et miraculeuses en nature...'' illustrated numerous supposed examples of spontaneous generation,<ref name="Bondeson 2018"/> such as this tree generating both fishes and birds]]
Spontaneous generation is described in literature as if it were a fact well into the [[Renaissance]]. [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] wrote of snakes and crocodiles forming from the mud of the [[Nile]]:<ref>{{Folger inline|Ant|2|7|24–28|bare=true}}</ref> 

{{quote|<poem>[[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)|Lepidus]]: You’ve strange serpents there?
[[Mark Antony|Antony]]: Ay, Lepidus.
Lepidus: Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile.
Antony: They are so.
</poem> Shakespeare: ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'': Act 2, scene 7}}

The author of ''[[The Compleat Angler]]'', [[Izaak Walton]] repeats the question of the origin of eels "as rats and mice, and many other living creatures, are bred in Egypt, by the sun's heat when it shines upon the overflowing of the river...". While the ancient question of the origin of eels remained unanswered and the additional idea that eels reproduced from corruption of age was mentioned, the spontaneous generation of rats and mice stirred up no debate.<ref>{{cite book |last=Walton |first=Izaak |author-link=Izaak Walton |title=The Compleat Angler or the Contemplative Man's Recreation |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_complete_angler,_or,_The_contemplative_man%27s_recreation_(IA_anglerorcomplete00waltrich).pdf |orig-year=1653 |year=1903 |publisher=George Bell & Sons |chapter=XIII. Observations of the eel, and other fish that want for scales, and how to fish for them |isbn=0-929309-00-6 |access-date=4 January 2023 |archive-date=14 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314014948/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_complete_angler%2C_or%2C_The_contemplative_man%27s_recreation_%28IA_anglerorcomplete00waltrich%29.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Dutch biologist and microscopist [[Jan Swammerdam]] rejected the concept that one animal could arise from another or from putrification by chance because it was [[Impiety|impious]]; he found the concept of spontaneous generation irreligious, and he associated it with [[atheism]].<ref name="OslerFarber2002">{{cite book |last1=Osler |first1=Margaret J. |last2=Farber |first2=Paul Lawrence |title=Religion, Science, and Worldview: Essays in Honor of Richard S. Westfall|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbLWJPca_zoC&pg=PA236 |date=22 August 2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52493-3 |pages=230–}}</ref>