Why did people begin to challenge Galen in the Medical Renaissance?

• A. The Church's authority
• B. Lack of copies of Galen
• C. Growth in scientific enquiry
• D. The invention of printing

Answer: (C)

The change being tested is the move toward empirical evidence and questioning accepted authorities. In the Medical Renaissance, people began to test medical ideas against careful observation rather than simply trusting ancient texts. Galen’s authority rested on his writings and animal-based anatomy, but scholars wanted knowledge grounded in the human body. When anatomists like Vesalius performed human dissections and compared their findings with Galen’s descriptions, they uncovered errors and started correcting them in print. This shift—from relying on authority to verifying ideas through observation and experimentation—driving the challenge to Galen. Printing helped spread these new findings, but the core driver was the growing culture of scientific enquiry.