问道英语题，求解

相当challange的一句话，看了3遍……

说说我的理解，fed by可理解为“依靠”或者“凭借”。
整句话：欧洲的哲学家和思想家凭借知识自由的新趋势，不在受区域政治的限制，开始自由的探索，不再害怕教会的谴责，embracing这句话的理解我不是很确定，是接受了后复兴成就的果实，还是说孕育了后复兴成就的果实？（前后文我没有看了）

Stimulated by new trends in intellectual freedom and with the encouragement of parochial political leaders, philosophers and thinkers across Europe began to freely explore ideas and topics without fear because the Church had transformed itself and begun to accept the products of post-renaissance scholarship.
说说我觉得有点偏差的地方：
1.the encouragement of …此处谈不上encouragement，原句只是讲不再constrain，不等于鼓励。
2.because the Church had transformed itself…原句的主语为哲学家和思想家，对教会是否变化没有描述。从语法上，begun to accept的主语是教会，原句的embracing的主语是哲学家，所以这句话讲到因为教会怎么怎么地，未免有点瞎编乱造之嫌。

Supported by a new acceptance of intellectual freedom on the part of local political leadership and free of interference from the Church, post-renaissance scholars took full advantage of the more open intellectual environment to investigate