is no schoolman, but a modern thinker, whose conceptions of science are more just and clear than are even those of his more celebrated namesake.[1] In this view there is certainly a considerable share of truth, but it is much exaggerated. As a general rule, no man can be completely dissevered from his national antecedents and surroundings, and Bacon is not an exception. Those who take up such an extreme position regarding his merits have known too little of the state of contemporary science, and have limited their comparison to the works of the scholastic theologians. We never find in Bacon himself any consciousness of originality; he has no fresh creative thought or method to introduce whereby the face of science may be changed; he is rather a keen and systematic thinker, who is working in a well-beaten track, from which his contemporaries were being drawn by the superior attractions of theology and metaphysics.
Roger Bacon was born in 1214, near Ilchester, in Somersetshire. His family appears to have been in good circumstances, for he speaks of his brother as wealthy, and he himself expended considerable sums on books and instruments; but in the stormy reign of Henry III. they suffered severely, their property was despoiled, and several members of the family were driven into exile. Roger completed his studies at Oxford, though not, as current traditions assert, at Merton or at Brazenose, neither of those colleges having then been founded. His great abilities were speedily recognised by his contemporaries, and he came to be on terms of close intimacy with some of the most independent thinkers of the time. Of these the most prominent were Adam de Marisco and Robert Grosseteste (Capito), afterwards bishop of Lincoln, a man of liberal mind and wide attainments, who had especially devoted himself to mathematics and experimental science.
Very little is known of Bacon's life at Oxford; it is said he took orders in 1233, and this is not improbable. In the following year, or perhaps later, he crossed over to France, and studied for a considerable length of time at the university of Paris, then the centre of intellectual life in Europe. The years Bacon spent there were unusually stirring. The two great orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans, were in the vigour of youth, and had already begun to take the lead in theological discussion. Alexander of Hales, the author of the great Summa, was the oracle of the Franciscans, while the rival order rejoiced in Albertus Magnus, and in the rising genius of the angelic doctor, Thomas Aquinas.
The scientific training which Bacon had received, partly by instruction, but more from the study of the Arab writers, made patent to his eyes the manifold defects in the imposing systems reared by these doctors. It disgusted him to hear from all around him that philosophy was now at length complete, that it had been reduced into compact order, and was being set forth by a certain professor at Paris. Even the great authority on which they reposed, Aristotle, was known but in part, and that part was rendered well-nigh unintelligible through the vileness of the translations; yet not one of those professors would learn Greek so that they might arrive at a real knowledge of their philosopher. The Scriptures, if read at all in the schools, were read in the erroneous versions; but even these were being deserted for the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Physical science, if there was anything deserving that name, was cultivated, not by experiment in the true Aristotelian way, but by discussion and by arguments deduced from premises resting on authority or custom. Everywhere there was a show of knowledge covering and concealing fundamental ignorance. Bacon, accordingly, who knew what true science was, and who had glimpses of a scientific organon or method, withdrew from the usual scholastic routine, and devoted himself to languages and experimental researches. Among all the instructors with whom he came in contact in Paris, only one gained his esteem and respect; this was an unknown individual, Petrus de Maharncuria Picardus, or of Picardy, probably identical with a certain mathematician, Petrus Peregrinus of Picardy, who is perhaps the author of a MS. treatise, De Magnete, contained in the Bibliothèque Imperiale at Paris. The contrast between the obscurity of such a man and the fame enjoyed by the fluent young doctors of the schools seems to have roused Bacon's indignation. In the Opus Minus and Opus Tertium he pours forth a violent tirade against Alexander of Hales, and against another professor, not mentioned by name, but spoken of as alive, and blamed even more severely than Alexander. This anonymous writer, he says, who entered the order when young (puerulus), who had received no proper or systematic instruction in science or philosophy, for he was the first in his order to teach such subjects, acquired his learning by teaching others, and adopted a dogmatic tone, which has caused him to be received at Paris with applause as the equal of Aristotle, Avicenna, or Averroes. He has corrupted philosophy more than any other; he knows nothing of optics or perspective, and yet has presumed to write de naturalibus; he is ignorant of speculative alchemy, which treats of the origin and generation of things; he, indeed, is a man of infinite industry, who has read and observed much, but all his study is wasted because he is ignorant of the true foundation and method of science.[2]
It is probable that Bacon, during his stay in Paris, acquired considerable renown. He took the degree of doctor of theology, and seems to have received from his contemporaries the complimentary title of doctor mirabilis. In 1250 he was again at Oxford, and probably about this time, though the exact date cannot be fixed, he entered the Franciscan order. His fame spread very rapidly at Oxford, though it was mingled with suspicions of his dealings in magic and the black arts, and with some doubts of his orthodoxy. About 1257, Bonaventura, general of the order, interdicted his lectures at Oxford, and commanded him to leave that town and place himself under the superintendence of the body at Paris. Here for ten years he remained under constant supervision, suffering great privations, and strictly prohibited from writing anything which might be published. But during the time he had been at Oxford his fame had reached the ears of the Papal legate in England, Guy de Foulques, a man of culture and scientific tastes, who in 1265 was raised to the papal chair as Clement IV. In the following year he wrote to Bacon, who had been already in communication with him, ordering him, notwithstanding
- ↑ See Dühring, Kritische Ges. d. Phil., 192, 249 51.
- ↑ It is difficult to identify this unknown professor. Brewer thinks the reference is to Richard of Cornwall; but the little we know of Richard is not in harmony with what is said here, nor with the terms in which he is elsewhere spoken of by Bacon. Erdmann conjectures Thomas Aquinas, which is extremely improbable, as Thomas was unquestionably not the first of his order to study philosophy. Cousin and Charles think that Albertus Magnus is aimed at, and certainly much of what is said applies with peculiar force to him. But some things do not at all cohere with what is otherwise known of Albert. The unknown is said to have received no regular philosophic training; we know that Albert did. The unknown entered the order when very young; unless the received date of Albert's birth be false, he did not enter till nearly twenty-eight years of age. Albert, too, could not be said with justice to be utterly ignorant of alchemy, and his mechanical inventions are well known. It is worth pointing out that Brewer, in transcribing the passage bearing on this (Op. Ined. p. 327), has the words Fratrum puerulus, which in his marginal note he interprets as applying to the Franciscan order. In this case, of course, Albert could not be the person referred to, as he was a Dominican. But Charles, in his transcription, entirely omits the important word Fratrum. There are other instances in which Brewer and Charles do not agree, e.g., according to Brewer, Bacon speaks of Thomas and Albert as pueri duorum ordinum; according to Charles, he says, primi duorum ordinum; a discrepancy not unimportant.
