 The post-medieval period coincided with a gradual transition from theology to science as the predominant means of revealing the workings of nature. In many cases, espoused principles of parsimony continued to wear their theological origins on their sleeves, as with Leibniz’s thesis that God has created the best and most complete of all possible worlds, and his linking of this thesis to simplifying principles such as light always taking the (time-wise) shortest path. A similar attitude—and rhetoric—is shared by scientists through the early modern and modern period, including Kepler, Newton, and Maxwell.