Friar Bacon His Discovery

About the Book

Friar Bacon His Discovery of the Miracles of Art, Nature, and Magick

John Gerhard Vossius in his Book of the four Popular Arts, printed at Amsterdam, 1650 is every where full of the praises of Bacon, as in the year 1252. About these mens time Roger Bacon also flourished, an Englishman, and a Monk of the Order of St. Francis; who as he had div'd into all Arts and Sciences: so also he writ many things of them, he was a man both learned and subtil unto a Miracle, and did such wonderfull things by the help of Mathematicks,that by such as were envious and ignorant, he was accused of Diabolical Magick, before Pope Clement the 4th, and for that cause was detained in prison by him for some time. Jo. Pecus Earl of Mirandula, the Phenix of all the wits of his Age, cals him likewise, very ingenious. Moranlicus also commends highly his Opticks. He was buried at Oxfordin the Monastery of the Monks of his own Order, anno 1284. So Chap.35. §.32. anno 1255. So Chap. 60. §. 13. Of Musick, anno 1270. So Chap.70§.7. 1270. Roger Bacon flourisht in England,a man wonderfully learned. And Chap. 71.§.8. anno 1270. Roger Bacon a Franciscan Monk, and a Divine of Oxford, was famous amongst the English in all sorts of Sciences; a man of so vast learning, that neither England, no nor the world beside, had almost any thing like or equal to him. And either by envy or ignorance of the Age, wherein he lived, was accused of Magick. He in the mean time did write and recommend to the Memory of Posterity, a Book of Weights, of the Centers of heavy things, of the Practicks of Natural Magick, &c. For he was a man well vers'd in all sorts of study, very learned in the Latine, Greek and Hebrew Tongues, a Mathematician every way accomplisht, and very skilfull both in Philosophy, Physick, Law and Divinity.

About the Author
Roger Bacon

Philosopher, studied at Oxford and Paris. His scientific acquirements, regarded in that age as savouring of witchcraft, and doubtless also his protests against the ignorance and immorality of the clergy, excited the jealousy and hatred of the Franciscans, and he was in consequence imprisoned at Paris for ten years. Clement IV., who had been a sympathiser, desired on his accession to see his works, and in response Bacon sent him Opus Majus, a treatise on the sciences (grammar, logic, mathematics, physics, and philosophy), followed by Opus Secundum and Opus Tertium. Clement, however, was near death when they arrived. Bacon was comparatively free from persecution for the next ten years. But in 1278 he was again imprisoned for upwards of ten years. At the intercession of some English noblemen he was at last released, and spent his remaining years at Oxford. He possessed one of the most commanding intellects of his own, or perhaps of any, age, and, notwithstanding all the disadvantages and discouragements to which he was subjected, made many discoveries, and came near to many more. There is still preserved at Oxford a rectified calendar in which he approximates closely to the truth. He received the sobriquet of the “Doctor Mirabilis.”