Condemnations of Paris denounce Aristotelianism

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Bishop Etienne Tempier of Paris condemned 219 theological propositions derived from Aristotle and Averroes. The list tangled theologians in knots for decades but ironically opened space for new kinds of natural philosophy by breaking slavish obedience to Aristotle. Among the condemned propositions was the denial of God's power to create a void, a prohibition that paradoxically encouraged later speculation about vacuums and infinite space.