ii THE ARREST OF ENQUIRY 77 



laid stress on the application of this ' first of all the 

 sciences ' ; indeed, as ' preceding all others, and as 

 disposing us to them/ His experiments, both from 

 theirnature and the seclusion in which they were made, 

 laid him open to the charge of black magic, in other 

 words, of being in league with the devil. This, in 

 the hands of a theology thus * possessed,' became an 

 instrument of awful torture to mankind. Roger 

 Bacon's denial of magic only aggravated his crime, 

 since in ecclesiastical ears this was tantamount to 

 a denial of the activity, nay more, of the very exist- 

 ence, of Satan. So, despite certain encouragement 

 in his scientific work from an old friend, who after- 

 wards became Pope Clement IV., for whose informa- 

 tion he wrote his Opus Majus, he was, on the death 

 of that potentate, thrown into prison, whence tradition 

 says he emerged, after ten years, only to die. 



The theories of mediaeval schoolmen a mono- 

 tonous record of unprogressive ideas, need not be 

 scheduled here, the more so as we approach the 

 period of discoveries momentous in their ultimate 

 effect upon opinions which now possess only the 

 value attaching to the history of discredited concep- 

 tions of the universe. Commerce, more than scientific 

 curiosity, gave the impetus to the discovery that the 

 earth is a globe. Trade with the East was divided 

 between Genoa and Venice. These cities were 

 rivals, and the Genoese, alarmed at the growing 

 success of the Venetians, resolved to try to reach 

 India from the west. Their schemes were justified 

 by reports of land indications brought by seamen 

 who had passed through the ' Pillars of Hercules ' to 

 the Atlantic. The sequel is well known. Columbus, 



