Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/568

 552 INTELLECT AND FAITH. bruised itself perpetually against the narrow bars erected around it by an age presumptuous in its learned ignorance. Once a tran- sient gleam of light broke in upon the darkness of its environ- ment, when Gui Foucoix was elevated to the papacy, and, as Clement IV., commanded the Englishman to communicate to him the discoveries of which he had vaguely heard. It is touch- ing to see the eagerness with which the unappreciated scholar labored to make the most of this unexpected opportunity ; how he impoverished his friends to raise the money requisite to pay the scribes who should set forth in a fair copy the tumultuous train of thought in which he sought to embody the whole store of human knowledge, and how, within the compass of little more than a single year, he thus accomplished the enormous task of writing the Opus Majus, the Opus 3fi?ius, and the Opus Ter- tium. Unfortunately, Clement was more concerned at the mo- ment with the fortunes of Charles of Anjou than with the pass- ing fancy which had led him to call upon the scholar; in little more than two years he was dead, and it is doubtful whether he even repaid the sums expended in gratifying his wishes.* It was inevitable that Bacon should succumb in the unequal struggle at once with the ignorance and the learning of his age. His labors and his utterances were a protest against the whole existing system of thought and teaching. The schoolmen evolved the universe from their internal consciousness, and then wrangled incessantly over subtleties suggested by the barbarous jargon of their dialectics. It was the same with theology, which had usurped the place of religion. Peter Lombard was greater than all the prophets and evangelists taken together. As Bacon tells us, the study of Scripture was neglected for that of the Sentences, in which lay the whole glory of the theologian. He who taught the Sentences could select his own hour for teaching, and had accom- modations provided for him. He who taught the Scriptures had to beg for a time in which to be heard, and had no assistance. The former could dispute, and was held to be a master; the latter was condemned to silence in the debates of the schools. It is impossible, he adds, that the "Word of God can be understood, on account of the abuse of the Sentences ; and whoso seeks in Script- R. Bacon Opp., M. R. Series, J. S. Brewer's Preface, p. xlv.