[ I guess you don’t count Galileo who was imprisioned by the Inquisition or Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake. Nor the fact that both their writings and those of many others were forbidden reading by the Catholic church. Pray tell, what were all these roads that were built? ]
That was a roadblock for sure, but one road was Gregor Mendel who studied plant genetics.
Here is a List of more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Roman_Catholic_cleric%E2%80%93scientists
There are Bad things the Church has done, but they also fostered science as well.
Don’t throw out the scientific baby with the church bathwater.
Not to mention all the schools that Church supported over the centuries that helped educate scientists some persecuted some not to become men of science!
I suspect that Gregor Mendel was creating his own project, not working on something the church asked him to do. Granted, providing room, board and a place to work is helpful, but how many good results were an actual part of church planning. I will read your link.
OK, I have looked at your list of more than 200 names. I recognized 4: Roger Bacon, the lamented burned Bruno, Mendel (genetics) and Mercalli (earthquakes). A few other names caught my attention, but I would have had to look them up to determine what there expertise had been. I had a major in General Science with a minor in education. Thus my conclusion is that either my education was seriously lacking, or most of these men played only a very, very minor role in science.