<P> Another important development was in the process for discovery, the scientific method, focusing on empirical evidence and the importance of mathematics, while discarding Aristotelian science . Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus, Galileo, and Francis Bacon . The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy . </P> <P> Applied innovation extended to commerce . At the end of the 15th century Luca Pacioli published the first work on bookkeeping, making him the founder of accounting . </P> <P> From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, in particular the polyphonic style of the Franco - Flemish school . The development of printing made distribution of music possible on a wide scale . Demand for music as entertainment and as an activity for educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class . Dissemination of chansons, motets, and masses throughout Europe coincided with the unification of polyphonic practice into the fluid style that culminated in the second half of the sixteenth century in the work of composers such as Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria and William Byrd . </P> <P> The new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance . Much, if not most, of the new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the Church . However, the Renaissance had a profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people perceived the relationship between man and God . Many of the period's foremost theologians were followers of the humanist method, including Erasmus, Zwingli, Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John Calvin . </P>

The sixteenth century has come to be regarded as the golden age for what vocal style