THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT LEARNING 63 



could not sustain new truths which were in opposition to the 

 Bible and dogmatic theology. They cried " Atheist!", 

 "Infidel!" and "Magician!"; and thus won the day. To his 

 critics Bacon replied that "because these things are beyond 

 your comprehension, you call them the works of the Devil, 

 your theologians and canonists abhor them as the produc- 

 tion of magic, regarding them as unworthy of a Christian." 



Bacon's attempt to show that much which was ascribed 

 to demons resulted from natural means merely added to the 

 flame; for to limit the power of Satan was deemed hardly 

 less impious than to limit the power of God. When he 

 attempted to perform a few simple experiments before a 

 select audience at Oxford the whole city arose in horror and 

 alarm. A riot was precipitated; for all believed that Satan 

 was to be summoned to appear. The news spread like wild- 

 fire and from every house rushed priests, lecturers, students, 

 and townspeople crying "Down with the magician. " When 

 Clement IV, Bacon's friend and protector, died, Bacon was 

 persecuted by the Church for his free views and finally 

 thrown into prison where he spent over ten years, being 

 released shortly before his death in 1294. Tradition has it 

 that almost his last words were "would that I had not given 

 myself so much trouble for the love of science." Europe 

 was not to see such a true man of science for two centuries, 

 at least, and no better criticism of the narrowness of medieval 

 theology and the domination of irrational superstition 

 can be cited than the treatment he received in his own life 

 and by posterity which long failed to recognize his greatness 

 in the intellectual history of Europe. 22 



The recovery of the complete works of Aristotle occurred 

 during the second decade of the thirteenth century, first in 

 Arabic translations and later in the original Greek. Dur- 

 ing the Middle Ages these writings had been known only in a 



22 Taylor, H. O., "The Medieval Mind," I, Chapter on Roger Bacon. White, 

 A. D., loc. tit., I, pp. 387-391. Draper, J. W., "The Intellectual Develop- 

 ment of Europe," II, pp. 153-55. 



