NATURAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 279 



ideas; and dilates upon the unreasonableness of those persons who are 

 unwilling to listen to explanations of the natural phenomena mentioned 

 in the Scriptures, but prefer to accept them blindly. He declares that 

 since they themselves know nothing of the forces of nature, they are 

 unwilling that any one else should investigate these. "We, on the 

 contrary/' he says, " think that a reason should be sought in every case, 

 if one can be found." In another passage William's indignation is 

 aroused by those who say, " We don't know how this is, but we know that 

 God can do it." " You poor fools," he retorts, " God can make a cow 

 out of a tree but has he ever done so ? " 



This theological opposition, of which Adelard and William are con- 

 scious, brings before us the important problem of the attitude of the 

 medieval church to science. There is not time to-day to argue it at length ; 

 I can only give you my conclusions. We see science establishing its own 

 standpoint and marking out the boundaries of its realm. The first 

 surveyors, like Adelard and William, naturally meet with opposition and 

 encounter a jealous attitude which fears lest study of science and nature 

 will be at the expense of religion and God. But in the end it turns out 

 that so long as they do not trespass upon the particular preserves of 

 theology their stakes are not pulled up. In the course of two centuries 

 the church gradually gets used to science, just as the University of 

 Paris finally accepts the new Aristotle. By the middle of the thirteenth 

 century Thomas Aquinas, from whom we expect an authoritative pres- 

 entation of the position of the church, holds that to a large extent the 

 fields of theology and natural science are distinct; that theologians 

 should not try to settle purely philosophical or scientific problems, and, 

 conversely, that every theory of ancient philosophy or scientific hypoth- 

 esis is not to be regarded as a religious dogma. 



Men of science, who were often clergymen themselves, seldom 

 attacked Christianity in the middle ages, and as a rule maintain the 

 usual medieval tone of respectful and devout feeling toward theology 

 and religion. Conversely, there seems no adequate proof for a single 

 specific instance of persecution- of men of science by the church for 

 purely scientific views in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The 

 occasions when such men got into trouble and when we know the reason 

 why, are just those occasions when they left science to dabble in theo- 

 logical or ecclesiastical concerns. Eoger Bacon has often been pictured 

 as a long-suffering martyr to the cause of science, but this is a legend 

 constructed from historians' imaginations and added to by successive 

 writers; the sources indicate that he was imprisoned only once, and 

 then we do not know for how long nor whether his scientific work had 

 anything to do with it. On the other hand, many cases might be men- 

 tioned where popes and prelates patronized and protected medieval men 

 of science, while Peter of Spain became pope himself. 



