180 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



Way as an accumulation of small stars, and ridiculed the current 

 objections to antipodes, striving, however, always to harmonize 

 the ancient science with the theology of his church. 



Two Oxford scholars, John of Holywood (Sacrobosco) and Roger 

 Bacon, have next to be mentioned. Sacrobosco lectured at Paris 

 on arithmetic and algebra, and wrote standard books on the former 

 with rules but no proofs, and an astronomy of which more than 

 sixty editions were afterwards printed. 



ROGER BACON (1214-1294?). In the history of natural science 

 one thirteenth century name stands out before all others, viz. : 

 that of Roger or "Friar" Bacon, a member of the Franciscan 

 order, born at Ilchester, England, in 1214. He was a pupil of 

 Robert Grosseteste "who had especially devoted himself to 

 mathematics and experimental science," and had studied the 

 works of the Arabian authors. Bacon also travelled abroad and 

 studied at the University of Paris, at that time the centre 

 of European learning. Here he took the degree of Doctor of 

 Theology and probably also here became a Franciscan friar. He 

 taught at Oxford, where he had a kind of laboratory for alchemical 

 experiments. Doubtless it was for this that he became reputed 

 as a worker in "magic" and the "black arts," for in 1257 he was 

 forbidden by the head of his order to teach, and was sent to Paris, 

 where he underwent great privations. In 1266 he was invited 

 by Pope Clement IV to prepare and send to him a treatise on the 

 sciences, and within 18 months he had written and sent three 

 important works his Opus Majus, Opus Minus, and Opus 

 Tertium. In 1268 he returned to Oxford and there composed 

 several more works, but under a later Pope his books were con- 

 demned and he was thrown into prison where he remained until 

 about a year before his death. 



In Paris, Bacon devoted himself particularly to physical science 

 and mathematics. His Opus Majus (1267) contains both a 

 summary of ancient and current physical science, and a philosophy 

 of learning based on Greek, Roman, and Arabic authorities. He 

 insisted that natural science must have an experimental basis, 

 and that astronomy and the physical sciences must be founded on 



