THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 407 



Foulkes having been made pope, Bacon was for a time shielded, but 

 the fury of the enemy was too strong. In an unpublished letter, Black- 

 stone declares that when, on one occasion. Bacon was about to per- 

 form a few experiments for some friends, all Oxford was in an uproar. 

 It was believed that Satan was let loose. Everywhere were priests, 

 fellows, and students rushing about, their garments streaming in the 

 wind, and everywhere resounded the cry, "Down with the conjurer!" 

 and this cry "Down with the conjurer" resounded from cell to cell 

 and hall to hall.' 



But the attack took a shape far more terrible. The two great 

 religious orders, Franciscan and Dominican, vied with each other in 

 fighting the new thought in chemistry and philosophy. St. Domi- 

 nic, smcere as he was, solemnly condemned research by experiment 

 and observation. The general of the Fi-anciscan order took similar 

 grounds. 



In 1243 the Dominicans solemnly interdicted every member of 

 their order from the study of medicine and natural jihilosophy; and, 

 in 1287, this interdiction was extended to the study of chemistry." 



Another weapon began to be used upon the battle-fields of that 

 time with much efiect. The Arabs had made noble discoveries in 

 science. Averroes had, among many, divided the honors with St. 

 Thomas Aquinas. Tliese facts gave the new missile. It was the epi- 

 thet " Mahometan," This, too, was flung with eflect at Bacon.' 



Bacon was at last conquered. He was imprisoned for fourteen 

 years. At the age of eighty years he was released from prison, but 

 death alone took him beyond the reach of his enemies. How deeply 

 the struggle had racked his mind may be gathered from that last 

 afflicting declaration of his : " Would that I had not given myself so 

 much trouble for the love of science ! " 



Sad is it to think of what this great man might have given to the 

 world had the world not refused the gift. He held the key of treas- 

 ures which would have freed mankind from ages of error and misery. 

 With his discoveries as a basis, with his method as a guide, what 

 might not the world have gained ! Nor was the wrong done to that 

 age alone. It was done to this age also. The nineteenth century 

 was robbed at the same time with the thirteenth. But for that inter- 



1 Whewell, vol. i., pp. 367, 368. Draper, p. 438. Saisset, " Descartes et ses Precur- 

 seurs," deuxieme edition, pp. 897, et seq. Nourrisson, " Progres de la pensee humaine," pp. 

 271, 272. Sprengel, " Histoire de la Medecine," Paris, 1865, vol. ii., p. 397. Cuvier, " His- 

 toire des Seieuces Naturelles," vol. i., p. 417. As to Bacou'.s orthodoxy, see Saisset, pp. 

 53, 55. For special examination of causes of Bacon's condemnation, see Waddington, 

 cited by Saisset, p. 14. On Bacon as a sorcerer, see Featherstonaugh's article in North 

 American Review. For a good example of the danger of denying full power of Satan, 

 even in much more recent times, and in a Protestant country, see account of treatment 

 of Bekker's " Monde Enchante " by the theologians of Holland, in Nisard, " Histoire 

 des Livres Populaires," vol. i., pp. 172, 173. 



2 Henri Martin, " Hist, de France," vol. iv., p. 283. 



3 On Bacon as a "Mahometan," see Saisset, p. 17 



