This chapter presents several methodological precepts that are required for the success of the relationship between religion and the natural sciences during the Middle Ages. The person who most influentially defined the proper attitude of Christians toward pagan learning was Augustine. Augustine most copiously illustrated the exegetical utility of the natural sciences, while revealing his own command of pagan scientific literature, in his Literal Commentary on Genesis, where he brought it to bear on the interpretation of the biblical Creation story. The motivation for writing about the natural world was supplied by the handmaiden formula. The overwhelming majority of medieval scientific achievements were produced by scholars who subscribed to the Augustinian formula of science as the handmaiden of theology and the church. The church became the patron of the sciences through its support of schools and universities, many of which were under its authority and protection.