394 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 25. 
Bacon and his writings.* The following is a sum- 
mary of part of M. Cousin’s observations. 
The Opus Tertium contains the author's last 
revision, in the form of an abridgement and im- 
provement, of the Opus Majus; and was drawn up at 
the command of Pope Clement IV., and so called 
from being the third of three copies forwarded to 
his holiness ; the third copy being not a fac-simile 
of the others, but containing many most important 
additions, particularly with regard to the reforma- 
tion of the calendar. It also throws much light 
on Bacon’s own literary history and studies, and 
the difficulties and persecutions he had to sur- 
mount from the jealousies and suspicions of his 
less-enlightened contemporaries and rivals. The 
Opus Tertium, according to the sketch given of its 
contents by Bacon himself, is not complete either 
in the Douay MS. or in that in the British Mu- 
seum, several subjects being left out; and, among 
others, that of Moral Philosophy. This deficiency 
‘may arise, either from Bacon not having com- 
pleted his original design, or from no comp!ete 
-MS. of this portion of his writings having yet been 
discovered. M. Cousin says, that the Opus Ter- 
tium, as well as the Opus Minus, is still inedited ; 
and is only known by what Jebb has said of it in 
his preface to the Opus Majus. Jebb quotes it 
from the copy in the Cottonian Library, now in 
the British Museum; and it was not known that 
there was a copy in France, till M. Cousin was 
led to the discovery of one, by observing in the 
Catalogue of the public library of Douay, a small 
MS. in 4to. with the following title, Rog. Baconis 
Grammatica Greca. Accustomed to suspect the 
accuracy of such titles to MSS., M. Cousin caused 
a strict examination of the MS. to be made, when 
the discovery was communicated to him that only 
the first part of the MS. consisted of a Greek 
grammar, and that the remaining portion, which 
the compiler of the Catalogue had not taken the 
trouble to examine, consisted of many fragments 
of other works of Bacon, and a copy of the Opus 
Tertium. This copy of the Opus Tertium is im- 
perfect, but fortunately the deficiencies are made 
up by the British Museum copy ; which M. Cousin 
examined, and which also contains a valuable 
addition to Chapter I, and a number of good 
readings. 
The Opus Majus, as published by Jebb, contains 
but six parts; but the work in its complete state 
had originally a seventh part, containing Moral 
Philosophy, which was reproduced, in an abridged 
and improved state, by the renowned author, in 
the Opus Tertium. ‘This is now ascertained, says 
M. Cousin, with unquestionable certainty, and for 
the first time, from the examination of the Douay 
MS.; which alludes, in the most precise terms, to 
* See Journal des Savants, Mars, Avril, Mai, Juin, 
1848. 
the treatise on that subject. Hence the import- 
ance of endeavouring to discover what has become 
of the MS. Treatise of Moral Philosophy men- 
tioned by Jebb, on the authority of Bale and Pits, 
as it is very likely to have been the seventh part of 
the Opus Majus. Jebb published the Opus Majus 
from a Dublin MS., collated with other MSS. ; 
but he gives no description of that MS., only say- 
ing that it contained many other works attributed 
to Bacon, and in such an order that they seemed 
to form but one and the same work. It becomes 
necessary, therefore, to ascertain what were the 
different works of Bacon included in the Dublin 
MS. ; which is, in all probability, the same men- 
tioned as being in Trinity College, in the Catalogi 
Codicum Manuscriptorum Anglia et Hibernie in 
unum Collecti : Folio. Oxon., 1697. 
According to this Catalogue, a Treatise on Moral 
Philosophy forms part of Roger Bacon’s MSS. 
there enumerated ; and if so, why did Jebb sup- 
press it in his edition of the Opus Majus ? Perhaps 
some of your correspondents in Dublin may think 
it worth the trouble to endeavour to clear up this 
difficulty, on which M. Cousin lays great stress ; 
and recommends, at the same time, a new and 
complete edition of the Opus Majus to the patriot- 
ism of some Oxford or Cambridge savant. He 
might well have included Dublin in his appeal for 
help in this undertaking ; which, he says, would 
throw a better light on that vast, and not very 
intelligible, monument of one of the most inde- 
pendent and greatest minds of the Middle Ages. 
Oxford, April 9th. 
CRAIK’S ROMANCE OF THE PEERAGE, 
If I knew where to address Mr. G. L. Craik, 
T should send him the following “‘ Note:” if you 
think it deserves a place in your columns, it may 
probably meet his eye. 
In the article on the Lady Arbaella Stuart 
(Romance of the Peerage, vol. ii. p. 370.), a letter 
of Sir Ralph Winwood, dated 1610, is quoted, in 
which he states, that she is “not altogether free 
from suspicion of being collapsed.” On this Mr, 
Craik observes, “It is difficult to conjecture what 
can be here meant by collapsed, unless it be fallen 
off to Romanism.” Now it is not a little curious, 
and it proves Mr. Craik’s capability for the task of 
illustrating family history from the obscure allu- 
sions in letters and documents, that there exists 
cotemporary authority for fixing the meaning Mr. 
Craik has conjectured to be the true one, to the 
word collapsed. A pamphlet, with the title A Let- 
ter to Mr. T. H., late Minister, now Fugitive, was 
published in 1609, with a dedication to all Romish 
collapsed “ladies of Great Britain ;” which bears 
internal evidence of being addressed to those who 
were converts from the Church of England to 
Romanism. 
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