BLESSED ROGER BACON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 393, 22 October 1880, Page 9

BLESSED ROGER BACON.

(From the Annals of Our Lady of Angels.) And now we come to one who not only oat-stripped his contemporaries in the race of learning, but after having with marvellous swiftness and grasp of intellect acquired the highest proficiency in philosophy, theology and canon law, which subjects formed the usual course of study at that time, proceeded to hitherto unexplored paths of knowledge, and may be regarded as first and foremost in the field of science, and the founder of a new era of intellectual progress. Koger Bacon, whom the world still reveres for the marvellous expanse and prevision of his genius, the depth and breadth of his knowledge, and the wide sweep of his intellectual vision found the goal of his aspirations, theelakmg of his fervent thirst for wisdom in the lowly shelter of the Franciscan cloister, in the offering up of his brilliant gifts on the altar of humility. He was born in 1214, at Ilchester, in Bomersetshire, of an ancient family long settled there. As a mere child he gave indication of extraordinary talent and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. He devoted his early years to study with a passionate eagerness that knew no fatigue or satiety, and when he went up to Oxford and entered at Merton College, he was already Jooked upon as a prodigy of learning, and was soon elected Fellow of his College. The saintly Edmund Bich, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, was his guide ond teacher, and from him he drew not only new itores of learning, but that element in his character and those spintual aspirations which led him, whilst the world gazed at mm in wonder and admiration, to pass quietly ont of the sunshine of Ite favour ana the sound of its applause, and to shrine his lustrous girts in the holy recesses of the cloister. The acquirements and learning of Roger Bacon were so far in advance of bis age that he might perhaps have looked with contempt on the narrow circle in which other learned men of his day were content to revolve, had he not been safely anchored in the humility of a Franciscan, and his mind duly exercised in the closest contemplation of the religious life. After he had spent some years at Oxford, he was sent, as was the custom of the time, to complete his studies in Pans, and there his progress was bo rapid that in a short time he is said lo have possessed an intimate acquaintance with all the science of the age which could be acquired from books, and also to have made many new discoveries. He studied the Hebrew and Greek languages and was well acquainted with Arabic. His works, which have existed in manuscripts over six hundred years in many of the libraries of Europe, treat of the whole range of science and philosophy, mathematics and mechanics, optics, astronomy, geography, ckronology, chemistry, magic, music, medicine, grammar, logic, metaphysics, ethics and theology. He foresaw, if he did not actually discover, some of the most remarkable inventions which were not generally known for sometime later. Having renounced all desire of honor, fame, and riches in this world, the full vigor of his powerful intellect was bent on opening out new paths of knowledge, preparing the way for the growth and progress of science, and promoting the glory of God by an intimate study of the hidden marvels of creation, which should unfold ever fresh and greater cause for wonder and for worship. Roger Bacon's great treatise, the "Opus Majus," was published about a century ago by Dr. S. Jebb, principally from a manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Its chief object is to lay down methods for the better acquirement of existing knowledge, and for its further progress. In developing his plan he expounds all the leading portions of science in tue shape they had then assumed, and proposes wide and striking improvements in many departments. The most solid knowledge and soundest speculations of the time are here gathered together, and mapped out in detail, with illustrations how to extend the area of each science by systematic experiment For some years B. Roger's rapid advance in knowiedge'knew' no check beyond the difficulty of making his hands keep pace with the teeming fertility of his brain, his constant lectures and instructions imparting at the same time to his pupils as much of his vast learning as they were capable of receiving. He had grasped the idea that, by the discoveries of science and their future application to supply the needs and minister to the use of the human race, it was destined for man, by much pains and labonr, to recover the dominion over the material world, which he had lost by sin, and no task was too arduous, no toil too severe, by which he should fulfil his appointed part m this great mission of mankind, and help to work out the problem which it would take centuries fully to solve. The great <fnemy, ever on the watch to perpetuate his work of de&truction and ii n i~i rr * nce ' would not » however, allow this man of gigantic brain and childlike heart, to conquer and advance without hard strife and struggle and seeming failure. In every age, narrow-minded obliqueeyed men are to be found who, under the plea of conscience, desire to extinguish every light that dazzles their defective vision, and to hinder all progress that does not run in their own groove. Amid the crowd who pressed to hear the great lecturer in the halls of Oxford were men of this stamp, as well as others who, desirous to be famous teachers themselves, were filled with envy toward* one who left them co fsr behind. Outside there waß the ignorant and credulous multitude, hearing vague rumour of marvels hitherto undreamed of, whope very zeal for religion and belief in the Unseen made them easy tools in the hands of the former classes, to create distrust and disturbance against the learned Friar. For awhile these dangerous elements went on seething in eccret, but at last the explosion came. B. Koger was denounced as a magician and sorcerer, his discoveries and his knowledge of the mysteries of nature were attributed to an intimacy with the devil. The Tabble raved against him, while narrow-minded pietists and envious scholars denounced him who soared so far above their reach as a heretic and deceiver. In the midst of his success, at the height of his fame, just as the way to further and clearer heights of knowledge was opening before his eager ga«e, and hi« chosen pupui were being trained to follow in bis footsteoa, his voice was silenced, he was forbidden to teach, and was not even allowed to 1«t« his cell in the grey towei until some dectnon shonld be given

?£ W er v au £ orit y ™ the Bu *iect cf his studies. The popular idea that his brethren of St. Francis were the first 'to inaugurate this !w em | /f a^ 8t him iS eI1(?te I1( ? t borne out by fact > f °r "is certain that they afforded him every facility for laying his case before the Pope, ff«i T£ P rob , able that lfc wa3 for B - Roger's own safety, and for the sake of his good repute, that they withdrew him from bis office of teaching. Clement IV was then Pope, and to him the friar appealed, collecting together all his manuscripts and the instruments he had invented, which had cost him so many years of patient labour. He committed them to the charge of hia well beloved disciple, John of liOndoD, who some time previously had, like his master, taken the habit of a Friar Minor, and despatched him to Rome ; for whom but tnis young brother, knowing as he did the inmost secrets of his master s mind, should he choose to undertake his defence and plead his cause ? In the letter addressed to the Pope, and sent by B. John, Friar Bacon writes : " I have made choice of a young man, whom I have instructed these five or Bix years and have freely taught him with my own mouth, perceiving I could not have any other person to my liking. I resolved to send him that he mipht present my writings to your Glory, for without doubt there is no one amongst the Latins who is able to answer so many things according to the method I use, in which I have well instructed him. No one unacquainted with my method can so well explain my meaning as he that has learnt it from my own mouth, and b*en instructed in my design. "To this man I have no obligation by the tie of blood or on account of favour received, because when he came to me, a boy, I promised him sustenance, and instructed him for God's sake, chiefly because I never yet found any youth so docile in study and manners ; and he is so far advanced, that, although he is but a young man of twenty, or thereabouts, there is no student in all Taris that knows more of the roots of philosophy, although, because of his youthful age. he has not yet brought forth the flowers and fruit thereof, bnt he has a fund °*^knowledge large enough to excel all the Latins, provided he lives to old age and goes on improving according to the groundwork he alreaay has And because it is not fitting that any on© addicted to sin should approach your Holiness, therefore I will declare the fitness of this messenger as to his state of life. Certainly he is not conscious to him elf of any mortal sin, but has lived in gieat purity, not having his conscience burdened with the guilt of any deadly sin from his very birth. . . ." Having sent off his messenger, to vindicate more the cause of learning than his ova innocence, B. Roger withdrew iuto tbe seclusion of his cell, and whilst his name became a byword of reproach to the ignorant and malicious, and the ballad-singers made merry at tbe corners of the Oxford streets with long ditties about " The friar and the devil," he waited calmly in prayer and meditation through the weary months that elapsed ere the decision of Rome could arrive. When at last it came, the aged monk was too near the confines of the world where all hidden things are made manifest, and all mysteries are solved, to heed greatly the result. A faint smile of contentment lit up the worn lips and fading eyes when the news reached him that the Holy Father not only exonerated him, but approved and blessed him and his work, and in token thereof had promoted his beloved pupil to a post of honor and confidence ; but the day of earthly triumph wa« past for him, no more should the eager crowd hang upon his lips in the lecture hall, nor the students in the schools catch the glowing enthusiasm of their marvellous teacher. On the Feast of St. Barnabas*, 1292, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, B. Roger Bacon closed his eyes on this eartb, whose marvels and mysteries he had loved to solve, and was laid to rest amongst hig brethren in the Franciscan church at Oxford. It needed three centuries for the seeds of knowledge to fructify which the poor Franciscan had sowed, and even now, in the din and blaze and intellectual strife of the nineteenth, century, Friar Roger Bacon still holds his own, and men find they have made but little advance on his philosophy or hia teaching.