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destitute os positive linowledge. They knew no langu age but Latin. Beyonii the sit recis os arithmetic, mensuration, and astronomy taught in the manu ais os the Quadrivium theywere ignorant of mathematics. of the possibili ty os applying mathematical knowledge to the facts of nature they hausor med no conception Whatever. Their Philosophy WaS a tangle os barren controUerstes reducit, te, sor the most Part. to Verbal disputes. It bore no relation to the facts of real life .
It held o ut no hope of rai sing the Catholic Church to the position os intellectual domination nee led sor establishing hera ut hori ty over the Asiatic worid, frona whicli clangers wereloo ming os appalling magnitude.
h There is some dotibi as to the orthography of the name, though non e Cannow be lest aes to the identity of the person indicate d. Emile CharteS pp. 1617 mentions a MS. in the Paris library Bibliotheque Nationale . Manus riis Latin S, 7358 in whicli the only known work of Peter Peregrinus is Spolien of ag EpiStola Petri Peregrini de Marico iri ad Sygerium de Fontaneotari de Magnete.'Chartes adiis that there is a village called Meharisco uri in Picardy nctar theabbey of Corbie. The Latin forna of the word in one M S. of the opus Tertia miS writ ten Maharn curia. but in others Mahariscuria. Cf. Vol. ii P. GO3 of the PreSent work ; see also Bertelli s Declinaaione Magnetica Rome. Ι 89a).
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INTRODUCTION. kin Js; he knows everything relating to the ari os War, themat ing of wea pons, and the chase ; he has looked clos ely into
agri culturo, menSuration, and far ming work : he has even taliennote of the remedi es, lot-Casting and Charms used by old vomen and by wi Zardes and magi Cians, and of the deceptions and devices os conjurors, So that nothing whicli deserves
inquiry should eScape him, and that he may be able to eX posethe falsehoods os magici an s. Is philosophy is to be carriectio iis persection and is to be handi ed with utili ty and certain ty
his a id is in dispensabie. As for reward , he net ther receives nor seelis it. I f he frequented hings and princes, he would ea si ly find those who would best OK on him honours and wealth. r, is in Paris he would display the resulis of his res earChOS, the whole world would follo him. But since et ther of theseco urses Nould hinder hi in from purSuing the great eXperimentsin which he deligitis, he puis honour and wealth aside, knowing veli that his wisdom would secure him wealth wheneVer hechose. For the last three years he has been working at the production of a mirror that Ahali produce combustion at a fi Xed distance ; a problem whicli the Latins haUe netther solVed norattempted though books have been writ ten iapon the subjeci.' of this remari able man litile is known but what Bacontelis his in the foregoing and other passages of the opus entium, and the Ostis Ma s. But what we know is notin consistent with Bacon 's eulogy. Libri, in a note Conta inedin the second volume of his History of Mathesmatio, transcribes
a letter writ tela by Peter Peregrinus of Mari Cotiri to a certa in Sigermus of Fontanco uri, whicli is a treati se On the properties of the magic Stone ora the relations of iis potes to those of the heavens and earth, on the way to find these potes; on therepulsion in two magneis of potes of the fame name, and theat traction Os tho se of different nam es ; and on the con Structionos a globe which should revolve with the revolution of the heaven S, and thus Supply the place of the ordinary observationby the astro labe. This is, no do ubi, the invention of whicli Bacon spealis in the si X th part of the opus Majus. Gilbert
in his great work On Magnetis mi mal es frequent mention Ofthis treati se of Peter Peregrinus ; and a Caresul Compari Son
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of the two works, separa ted as they a re by an intervat os more than three centuri es, Ahows undoubted and weightyobligations of Gilbert to his predecessor. In the constructionos globular magneis the terrella ' or modet of the earth); in the mode os finding their potes; the procedure, and incleed the Uery langu age of Peter, i S closely followed by the later
To a minci so Original as Bacon's, tra ined in scienti sic methodby Grosset eSte and other members of the Englisti mathematical school, the influen Ce os an e X perimentat thini erlike Peter of Marico uri must have been stimulat ing in the CX treme. Bacon was thirsting for reali ty in a barren landini sted with metaphysical mirage. Frona the horse-load os Verbal controversi es Contained in the Srumma os AleXanderos Hales, frona the interminabie series of tedio us Commentarieson Aristolle, of which so great a master as Albert was set tingthe fit si fatal ex ample, he took refuge in the visiones of the harvest os new truth that was to be reaped by patient obserUation os Nature, by submission of her processes to eXPerimentalqueStion in g, by solio ing the lowly paths used by pla in men
probab ly received ab Out the fame time. He telis us Opus Tertium, cap. 23 that he heard William of Au Vergne lecturingto the Universi ty on the ' active intelleci.' This must have been
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INTRODUCTION XXviiities ore 1248, the date os William's death. We know that hemiast haVe been stili in France in Iaso, sor in that year the
of the Order. When Pope Clement's message reached hi mrequiring him to transmit his works with the least possibie
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catione Specierum, which waS sent to the Pope by the samem esSenger Who conveyed the oras notis, though it cloes not, strict ly speat in g, sortia a part of that work. Caresul eXamina tion shows it to be a portion of the more complete philosophica lireati se to the completion of whicli Bacon always aspired. t illthe time came, ten yearS aster arcis, when his philosophi calcareer was fatally arres ted. Iis style is different frona that os the other three treatifeS, MajnS, MAIIS, and LP Iin m. It is not like these a FerSnasio, that is a more or leSS Populardisco ui se ad dressed to a reader like Clement IV ; a re aderof keen understanding doubiless, but at the sanae time thebusi est man in Christe nilom. The Multiplicatio Spesciertim is a fragment os a systematic Work writ ten with fuit observariceos philosophic langu ago and of the dialectic os the schools. hatever the discipline imposed during this period of his
lise, one important Sphere os acti Vlty undo ubi ed ly rema inedopen to him. Eor many years he had been Striving to forma School Os yo Ung men, who Ahould Carry on the work whicli heli ad begia n. we have se en in the treatis e whi Ch throws so
men in langu ages, in geometry, in arithmetic, in the construction os tables, and in the use of Scienti sic instruments. Fronathis part os hi S work he was evident ly not cui off during histi se in Paris frona I 257 to 1267. The meSSenger Whom heselected to convey his manuscripis to Pope Clement was a poorla d whom he had been training in this way for sive or si Xyears. On the whOle it Seems probable that the restrictions
placed on his liberi y at this period of his life were not of
of the reception given to Bacon's manu script S in Rome wel now absolutely nothing. A se monilis after their arrival
Clement IV died ; and the papal See rema ined vacant for
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a Franciscan. O ing his elevation to est. BonaUentura, hewas not likely to fhow fa Uour to a suspected member of his Ordor. Vet it was in this year Or shortly aster arcis that Bacon wrote the work known as Compondium 1 Iudii Philosophiae', an introductory disco ui Se, PerhapS, for the encyclopaedic Scriptum Principale, at the Completion of which he was always atming. In this treati se Bacon plunged into stronger invective against the intellectual and morat vices of his time than he had everu sed bes ore. In no previ ous writ ing had the morat Corruption of the Church, frona the Court of Rome clownward S been
and their Vices a re a scandal to laymen. ' Unbri led violen ceamong kings and nobi es, fraud and falsehood am Ong trades-men and artificers were the inevitabie result. Progress inwisdom was ho petess when the morat condition os those whoshould pro mole it was so far below that of the te chers of the pagan world UnleSS Swe eping remedies were applied bya reforming POpe, there Was no prospect but the advent of Antichrist in the near future Bre er, Pp. 399 4O J. Perhaps even these denunciations rouSed tess antagonismthan the gweeping attackS on the scholastic pedant ry of his Contemporaries, their false Conceit Os wisdom, and their preferen ce of metaphysical subiteties and Verbal stris es to thepursuit of real knowledge. Os these charges his preUious writ ings h ad been fuit, but they were now rene veci andem phasiged. Aristotelian stucly, whicli at the bestinia ing of the Centvry hau been the great stimulant of thoughi, waSal ready becoming the great ObStruction, and was Preparin for the neXt Centvry a re igia os dari ness. BaSed on false an dignorant translatioris, it were betier, Bacon Sa id, to do awaywith it altogether than that it should be carried on by menignorant of the langu age in xviii Ch Aristolle wro te, and
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before had succeeded Bonaventura as Generat of the Franciscanor ter, held a chapter in Paris. Bacon was Summoned Onaccount of certain Suspecte i nOVetties. ' HO WaS condemned, and thrown into prison. What were the novellies ' that constituted his crime we do not know. His works abounde lin them. It was not perhaps dissiculi to fhow that he had gone too far in connecting changes in religiolis salth ivitii Conjunctions of Jupiter and Mercury; and in hinting that underneath the jugglery of the magicians, Valuabie trullis mi hi somelimes lie Concealed. The real motives for stistingliis voice lay sar de Oper.
That he should have held the history os Greeli philosophyto have been under the keeping and gui clance of Providen eno tess than the history of Judaea; that he should have regarded the teaching of the Stoics on perSOnal morali ty assuperior to that of any Christian teacher; that he should
have clwLlt with such frequent emphasis on the ethical valueos Moliam medan writers like Alsarabius, AUicenna, and Algaret these were things likely to starile even the most tolerant and thoughti ut of his Contemporaries, much morothe common RVerage of hi S Order, who had suspected hi mos ungo und Views for twenty years. Not in deed that his
career xvould have been impe led by the faci that the foui deros the Franciscans had shown disregarit, is not disti he ofworid ly knowledge. AleXander of Hales had joined thebrothei hood besore the death of St. Francis, and had dominated the schoois os Paris long bes ore the voice of Alberi had been heard there, and while Aquinas was a Child.
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and diffusion os science, no less than sor the reform os the Church. He soland the great universi ty immersed in dialectical contro Versy. Many of the Controveri ed questions were of momentotas importa iace, and Bacon was prepared to tali eliis part in them. But they were prosecuted by men cleVoidos scientific training, ut prepared there re to distinguisti truth frona error, verbal subiteties frona fundamental realities ;ianwilling even to talae the tro ubi e to stud y Aristolle and the Bible in their original langu age. He saw that philoSophywithout science Could not fati to degenerate fas history, an Cientand modern, Shows that it always has degeneraled in intoacademic pedant ry, and would Confirm that one of the aberrations os intellect which he looked on as the worsi and themost fatal the false Conceit of knowledge. Against ignorance under the cloak of wisdom he urged, like Socrates, a li longwar; and , like Galileo, he niet with a worse sate than that of
fabric of Catholic discipline, achi eved resultS whicli, jud ged atthe distance of si x centurios, Bacon ne i ther equali ed noras proached. Jea lota Sy of the rival Dominican Order, of
for Bacon's fallure to recognige their Value ; for the Irrefragable Doctor, Alexander of Hales, was a Franci SCan, and was Critici Zed more harshly than et ther. In their Hilure toappreciate dialy the importance of scientifiC Culture as a basis of Catholic action on a clo ubi ing and unbelleVing worid, the doctors of the Paris schools were ali alii e involved in his ura meas ured strictu res we may undet Stanci, though we
cannot justis , his impaticiace. He has bitterly expiated it by
It can hard ly be do ubi ed that the seclusion consequent
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on his condemnation in 1277 was effective and rigo rotas.
Appeals to the Pope had been anticipaled by Jerome, whotook care to impress on the Cotiri Os Rome the expediencyos confirming his decision. All hopes os completing the
paralyging mistS of Scottan dialectic. Neverthel ess it wouldbe an error to suppose that his life-work was a falliare. Here and there throughout Europe the tradition of the Doctor Mirabilis furvi Ved as a stimulati nil force, and kept the emberSos scientific stud y alive illi the time os the Renascen ce. In proos of this, three instances may be giUen :- 1. Peter δ' Ailly, in his Imazo unudi, written early in the fifteenth century, discussing the relations of the eXtreme eastand west os the habitabie globe, haS a long PaSSage treat ingos the probabie proXimi ty of Spain and India. For ali that appears in the work this passage is his own. But in laci it is a Verbal quotation frona the solarili part of the opus Majus, Vol. i. p. 29O. And it has a history worth recording. For it is cited in 1498 in a letter from Columbus to Ferdinand and
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INTRODUCTION. I sabella, as one of the authorities that had put it into his min d
2. JOhn Dee. in a memorial ad dressed to Queen Eligabeth in II 82 On the reformation of the Calendar, speahing Osthose who had advocated this change, saysy: None hath done it more earnest ly, ne i ther with be iter reason and si ii l. than hath a subject of this Britisti Sceptre Royal done, nam ed a Ssonae thini. David Dee of Radit . but otherini se and most common ly upon his nam e altered at the alteration os state into friarly profession) called Roger Bacon: who at large wrote thereos diverS treati ses and disco urses to Pope Clement
he wrOte and sent also great Volumes exquisitely compiled Ofali sciences and singularities, philosophical and mathematical, as they might be avat labie to the state os Christ his Catholic Chiarch. ' Dee proceeds to give eXtracis frona Bacon's works in Proos of these assertions ; and rem artis that Paul of Middieburg, who was much occupied with the question os the Calendar, and had trea ted os it in his work Paulina des rescia Paschae celebratione, had ma de great use of Bacon. His great Volume
Dee's memorial is contained among the Bryan Twyno MSS. in Corpus Christi Colloge, Oxford The supposition that Roger Bacon changed hi S nam eon entrance in to the Franci SCan Order appears to rest on no authori ty but that of John Dee'S very erratie imagination.