Philosopher and scientist, probably born in Ilchester, Somerset, SW England, UK. He studied at Oxford and Paris, and gained a reputation for diverse and unconventional learning in philosophy, magic, and alchemy. He seems to have returned to Oxford in 1247 to develop his interests in experimental science and, more surprisingly, to become a Franciscan. But he suffered censorship and eventually imprisonment from the Order for the heresy of his suspected novelties, and he died in Oxford soon after his eventual release from prison. He has been associated with scientific inventions such as the magnifying glass and gunpowder, and with speculations about lighter-than-air flying machines, microscopes, and telescopes. His views on experimentalism have often seemed strikingly modern, and despite surveillance and censorship from the Franciscans he published many works on mathematics, philosophy, and logic whose importance was recognized only in later centuries.
Roger Bacon (c.1214 – 1294), also known as Doctor Mirabilis (Latin: "astounding teacher"), was one of the most famous Franciscan friars of his time.
Early life
Bacon is thought to have been and born near Ilchester in Somerset, though he has also been claimed by Bisley in Gloucestershire.
Bacon studied and later became a Master at Oxford, lecturing on Aristotle. As an Oxford Master, Bacon was a natural choice for the post.
The two great orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, were not long-established, and had begun to take the lead in theological discussion. Bacon's abilities were soon recognised, and he enjoyed the friendship of such eminent men as Adam de Marisco and Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln.
Life and works
The scientific training Bacon had received showed him the defects in existing academic debate. Bacon withdrew from the scholastic routine and devoted himself to languages and experimental research. The contrast between the obscurity of such a man and the fame enjoyed by the fluent young doctors roused Bacon's indignation. In the Opus Minus and Opus Tertium he pours forth a violent tirade against Alexander of Hales, and another professor, who, he says, acquired his learning by teaching others, and adopted a dogmatic tone, which caused him to be received at Paris with applause as the equal of Aristotle, Avicenna, or Averroes. Bacon was always an outspoken man who stated what he believed to be true and attacked those with whom he disagreed, which repeatedly caused him great trouble. In 1256 a new head of the scientific branch of the Franciscan order in England was appointed: Richard of Cornwall, with whom Bacon had strongly disagreed in the past. Before long, Bacon was transferred to a monastery in France, where for about 10 years he could communicate with his intellectual peers only in writing.
Bacon wrote to the Cardinal Guy le Gros de Foulques, who became interested in his ideas and asked him to produce a comprehensive treatise. Bacon, being constrained by a rule of the Franciscan order against publishing works out of the order without special permission, initially hesitated. The cardinal became Pope Clement IV and urged Bacon to ignore the prohibition and write the book in secret. Bacon complied and sent his work, the Opus Majus, a treatise on the sciences (grammar, logic, mathematics, physics, and philosophy), to the pope in 1267. In 1268, he sent a third work, the Opus Tertium to the pope, who died the same year, apparently before even seeing the Opus Majus although it is known that the work reached Rome.
Some claim that Bacon fell out of favor, and was later imprisoned by the Franciscan order in 1278 in Ancona as his dissemination of Arab alchemy, and his protests against the ignorance and immorality of the clergy, roused accusations of witchcraft. Bacon died without important followers, was quickly forgotten, and remained so for a long time.
In his writings, Bacon calls for a reform of theological study.
He possessed one of the most commanding intellects of his age, or perhaps of any, and, notwithstanding all the disadvantages and discouragements to which he was subjected, made many discoveries, and came near to many others. Bacon studied astrology and believed that the celestial bodies had an influence on the fate and mind of humans.
Roger Bacon is considered by some to be the author of the Voynich Manuscript, because of his studies in the fields of alchemy, astrology, and languages. Bacon is also the ascribed author of the alchemical manual Speculum Alchemiae, which was translated into English as The Mirror of Alchimy in 1597.
He was an enthusiastic proponent and practitioner of the experimental method of acquiring knowledge about the world. The American pragmatist philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce said of him that "To Roger Bacon, that remarkable mind who in the middle of the thirteenth century was almost a scientific man, the schoolmen's conception of reasoning appeared only an obstacle to truth.
In fiction
Many writers of earlier times have been attracted to Roger Bacon as the epitome of a wise and subtle possessor of forbidden knowledge, similar to Faustus. This has a central role in the play Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay written by Robert Greene in about 1589.
This more legendary view of Roger Bacon shows up as a major character in John Bellairs' book The Face in the Frost. In particular, quoting this fictional Bacon:
"...and so I went to work on a brazen head that was going to tell me how to encircle England with a wall of brass, to keep out marauding Danes and other riffraff."
In his children's books, Bellairs also had characters refer to Roger Bacon when quoting esoteric knowledge.
Many references to Roger Bacon occur in the novel The Name of the Rose by Italian author and professor of semiotics, Umberto Eco. In the text the main protagonist, the fictional monk William of Baskerville, refers to Bacon as his 'master'.
Probably the most comprehensive and accessible description of Roger Bacon's life and times is contained in the book Doctor Mirabilis, written in 1964 by the science fiction writer James Blish. This is the second book in Blish's quasi-religious trilogy After Such Knowledge, and is a complete, at times biographical recounting of Bacon's life and struggle to develop a 'Universal Science'. Though thoroughly academically researched, with a host of accurate references, including extensive use of Bacon's own writings, the book is written in the style of a novel, and Blish himself referred to it as 'fiction' or 'a vision'.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.A greatly fictionalised version of Roger Bacon appears in the role-playing video game series Shadow Hearts, wherein Bacon is portrayed as an insane (but harmless, and well-meaning) thousand-year-old hermit living in pre-World War I Europe. A villainous character claiming to be Roger Bacon appears earlier in the story but proves to be an imposter, and eventually the "real" Bacon assists the game's protagonists in disposing of the pretender. Roger Bacon has also appeared in the game's sequels and prequel, Koudelka.
Spoilers end here.Bacon also features in Staton Rabin's children's adventure Black Powder.
Quotes
"If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics."
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