That the Church banned or looked down upon autopsies is urban legend. The Church actually didn’t care that much and several popes during that era actually ordered autopsies on those with suspicious deaths. This urban legend has been propagated by those who insist that religion is anti-science.
Wrong on content, and in my case, wrong on motive.
Just because there was a prohibition on something in the the Renaissance didn’t mean that it did not take place, even in a Church-sanctioned context. The Church did in fact take the sanctity of the body very seriously and had a prohibition on autopsy through the Renaissance. Seeing as the Church was also the primary focus of research in the area of natural philosophy- it undertook such studies and contributed to the expansion of knowledge of anatomy. This is evidenced in many works for the period, not the least of which, Leonardo’s. There remains the fact however, that the Church and clergy in their role as mortician, did make available cadavers for study, and these were not drawn from the ranks of the aristocracy. This was in no way “public” knowledge at the time.
Being a faithful practicing Roman Catholic myself, my motivation in clarifying these facts has nothing to do with trying to paint the Church as anti-science. I will argue though, that the Church did, during the Renaissance and even in the intellectual and cultural capital of Florence, both project itself as the keeper and protector of divinely revealed truth while at the same time engaging in positivism. I say this not to disparage the effort of knowing God through His creation by the natural philosophy, but to acknowledge the realities of the time. A Florentine of the Renaissance did not see the Church as a bastion of Science.