Temple
of Roger Bacon
Bacon, Roger (1214?-1294), English Scholastic philosopher and scientist,
one of the most influential teachers of the 13th century.
Born in Ilchester, Somersetshire, Bacon was educated at the universities
of Oxford and Paris. He remained in Paris after completing his studies
and taught for a time at the University of Paris. Soon after his return
to England in about 1251, he entered the religious order of the Franciscans
and settled at Oxford. He carried on active studies and did experimental
research, mainly in alchemy, optics, and astronomy.
Bacon was critical of the methods of learning of the times, and in
the late 1260s, at the request of Pope Clement IV, he wrote his Opus Majus
(Major Work). In this work he represented the necessity of a reformation
in the sciences through different methods of studying languages and nature.
The Opus Majus was an encyclopedia of all science, embracing grammar and
logic, mathematics, physics, experimental research, and moral philosophy.
The response of the pope to Bacon's masterpiece is not known, but the work
could not in any circumstances have had much effect in Bacon's time, because
it reached Clement during the period of his fatal illness.
Bacon's revolutionary ideas about the study of science caused his condemnation
by the Franciscans for his heretical views. In 1278 the general of the
Franciscan order, Girolamo Masci, later Pope Nicholas IV, forbade the reading
of Bacon's books and had Bacon arrested. After ten years in prison, Bacon
returned to Oxford. He wrote Compendium Studii Theologiae (A Compendium
of the Study of Theology, 1292) shortly before his death.
Despite his advanced knowledge, Bacon accepted some of the popular
but later disproved beliefs of his time, such as the existence of a philosopher's
stone and the efficacy of astrology. Although many inventions have been
credited to him, some of them undoubtedly were derived from the study of
Arab scientists. His writings brought new and ingenious views on optics,
particularly on refraction; on the apparent magnitude of objects; and on
the apparent increase in the size of the sun and moon at the horizon. He
found that with sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal, a substance (now known
as gunpowder) could be produced that would imitate lightning and cause
explosions. The previous use of gunpowder by the Arabs, however, has since
been shown. Bacon considered mathematics, together with experimentation,
the only means of arriving at a knowledge of nature. He studied several
languages and wrote Latin with great elegance and clarity. Because of his
extensive knowledge he was known as Doctor Admirabilis. Six of his works
were printed between 1485 and 1614, and in 1733 the Opus Majus was edited
and published.
"Bacon, Roger," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
