Modern students who are accustomed to the idea that the physical world can be analyzed and understood sometimes have difficulty seeing the mysteries of nature at they appeared to our forefathers. Ideas that seemed reasonable and consistent to medieval scientists, — such as Aristotle's theory that all matter was composed of "Earth, Water, Air, and Fire", — strike modern thinkers as naive. Many theories about nature held by medieval scholars were simply untrue, but they were widely accepted because they were logically consistent and men of their age had no way of proving or disproving them.
Robert Grosseteste, Albert the Great, and Roger Bacon, are the scholars most associated with formulating the 'Scientific Method' during the 12th and 13th centuries. All three wrote on the importance of observation and methodical study but they did not consider these things particularly novel or revolutionary. Experimentation was not unknown to the medieval world, and in fact Alchemy, an entirely experimental occupation, was widely practiced both by respected scholars such as themselves, and by magicians and charlatans.
In situations where Ancient scientists were able to verify their theories, they did not shrink from experimentation. Archimedes, for example, performed many experiments to test his laws of displacement, and Eratosthenes masterminded a brilliant means of estimating the size of the earth, involving advanced knowledge of geography, surveying methods, trigonometry, and astronomy.
The problem with ancient science was not so much that scholars scorned experimentation, but that many speculations regarding the natural world were untestable. For example, the atomic theory of matter was discussed by Democritus as early as 400 B.C., but he had no way of verifying his hypothesis. And the fact that many interestings theories of nature were untestable led to a situation where there was little pressure to verify even those ideas which could be proven.
The scholars who established the 'Scientific Method' in Western science understood that whenever possible, experiments and systematic observations were necessary to determine the truth of scientific theories. Their work helped encourage future scientists to think clearly about what could and could not be proven, and wherever possible, to distinguish between proven fact, and speculation.
Virtually all the early Natural Philosophers were Monks or Clerics. Laymen did not take a predominant role in the study of Natural Science until Schools and University systems were well established. During the 13th century, Dominicans and Franciscans were active in Scholarly and Teaching pursuits.
The rise of scientific thinking and scholarly thinking and research in general arose in the 12th and 13th centuries. Three factors that contributed to this was the reform of the monasteries recently begun by the Cluniacs and Cistercians, the rise of the Universities and scholarly communities, and the availability of Latin translations of Aristotle on scientific topics. This led to a rebirth of interest in science and philosophy in the 12th century, particularly in Western Europe.