§ 111. Roger Bacon.
LITERATURE : WORKS. — Among the early publications were Speculum alchymia, Numb., 1541, Engl. trans. London, 1597; De mirabili potestate artis et natures, Paris, 1542, Engl. trans. 1659 ; De retardandis senectutis accidentibus, Oxford, 1590, Engl. trans. ; The Cure of Old Age and Preservation of Youth, by the great mathematician and physician, Roger
1 In spite of this, Seeberg, pp. 683-685, tries to make out that in his concep tion of God, Luther, howbeit " negatively," was influenced by Duns' view of the divine will. Luther certainly did not acknowledge any such indebted ness.
2 MSS. of other works are given by Ehrle, Zur Biogr. Heinrichs von Ghent, in Archiv fur Lit. u. K. gesch., 1885, pp. 400 sq. See Schwane, pp. 71-76, etc., and Wetzer-Welte, V. 1704 sqq.
8Publ. at Venice, 1489-1509, Brescia, 1591, etc. MSS. exist in Oxford and elsewhere. See Little, Grey Friars of Oxford ; Kingsford, in Diet, of Nat. Biog., XXXVII. 356 sq. ; Seeberg, pp. 16-33.
§ 111. ROGER BACON. 693
Bacon, ed. by R. BROWNE, London, 1683 ; Opus majus (six books only), by SAMUEL JEBB, London, 1733, reprinted Venice, 1750 ; Opus minus and Opus tertium, with valuable Preface by J. S. BREWER, London, 1859, Rolls Series ; Opus majus, with valuable Preface, by J. H. BRIDGES, all the seven books, 3 vols., London, 1900.
BIOGRAPHICAL : EMILE CHARLES : R. Bacon, sa vie, ses ouvrages, ses doc trines, Paris, 1861. — L. SCHNEIDER : E. Bacon, etc. , Augsb. , 1873 — the Prefaces of BREWER and BRIDGES as above. — PROFESSOR R. ADAMSON, in " Ency. Britt." III. 218-222, and Diet, of Natl. Biog., II. 374-378.— WHITE : Warfare of Science and TheoL I. 386-393.
Duns Scotus was a Schoolman and nothing more. Roger Bacon, his contemporary, belongs to a different order of men, though one of the greatest theological thinkers of his age. He did not take up the great questions of theology and seek to justify them by dialectical processes. The most he did was to lay down principles for the study of theology; but it is as the pioneer of modern science and the scientific method of experiment that he has his distinguished place in the mediaeval galaxy of great minds. The fact that he had to suffer for his boldness of speech by imprisonment and en forced silence increases the interest felt in his teachings. His method of thought was out of accord with the prevail ing method of his times. He was far ahead of his age, a seer of another era when the study of nature was to be assigned its proper place of dignity, and theology cease to be treated as a field for dialectical ingenuity.
Born in Somersetshire, England, Roger Bacon, called the Wonderful doctor, mirabilis doctor, 1214(?)-1294, studied in Oxford, where he came into close contact with Robert Grosseteste and Adam Marsh, whom he often mentions with admiration. He went to Paris about 1240, continued his studies, and entered the Franciscan order. He speaks in his Opus tertium of having been engaged more than twenty years in the study of the languages and science, and spend ing <£2000 in these studies and the purchase of books and instruments, or £600 or <£700 present value.1 He went back to Oxford, but was recalled to Paris by his order, at the head of which Bonaventura then stood, and placed in
1 Bridges' ed., p. xxiii.
694 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
more or less strict confinement, 1257. At first lie was denied the privilege of writing, but was allowed to give instruction to young students in the languages.
Clement IV. who, before his elevation to the papal chair and as legate in England, had been his friend, requested copies of his writings. In about eighteen months, 1264-1266, Bacon prepared the Opus majus and then its two appen dages, the Opus minus and the Opus tertium, and sent them to the pope. In 1268, he was again in Oxford. In 1278, he was relegated to closer confinement on account of " certain sus pected novelties " about which we are not more particularly informed, adduced by the Franciscan general, Jerome of Ascoli, afterwards Nicolas IV. He was set free again in 1292, as we know. His body lies buried in the Franciscan church of Oxford. It was said that his books were nailed to the walls of the library at Oxford and left to perish. The story may be dismissed as untrue, but it indicates the esti mate put upon the scholar's writings.
If we were to depend upon the influence he had upon his age, Roger Bacon would have no place here. At best he was thought of as a dabbler in the dark arts and a necro mancer. He had no place of authority among his contem poraries, and the rarest notice of him is found for several centuries. D'Ailly, without quoting his name, copied a large paragraph from him about the propinquity of Spain and India which Columbus used in his letter to Ferdinand, 1498. It was not till the Renaissance that his name began to be used. Since the publication of his writings by Samuel Jebb, 1733, he has risen more and more into repute as one who set aside the fantastical subtleties of scholasticism for a rational treatment of the things we see and know, and as the scientific precursor of the modern laboratory and modern invention. Prophetic foresight of certain modern inventions is ascribed to him, but unjustly. He, however, expounded the theory of the rays of light, proved the universe to be spher ical, and pronounced the smallest stars larger than the earth.1
1 Opus majus, Bridges' ed., I. 152, 175.