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Bacon outlines of which can be drawn with some accuracy. It is in the preliminary portion of this work, printed in the 'Opera Inedita' (pp. 393-511), that Bacon makes his most vehement onslaught on the clergy and the orders as withstanding the progress of true knowledge. In 1278 the general of the Franciscan order, Jerome of Ascoli, afterwards Nicholas IV, held a chapter at Paris for the consideration of the heretical propositions that were troubling the peace of the church. Amongst others who appeared was Roger Bacon, who, condemned 'propter quasdam novitates suspectas,' and prevented from writing to the pope (Gregory X) for defence and aid, passed into a prolonged confinement. Tradition at this point of his career becomes most confused; there exists, however, the manuscript of part of a work in which a date is explicitly recorded. The work is entitled 'Compendium Studii Theologiæ;' the date is 1292. In 1292, then, Bacon was alive, and moreover in freedom. Perhaps he owed his release to the liberality of Raymond Gaufredi, general of the order from 1289 to 1294, with whom tradition has certainly associated his name, and to the fortunate death of Nicholas IV in 1292 (see, pp. 40-1). How long he survived is unknown; the old biographers mention 1294 among other dates, as 1284, 1290, 1292; and as the latter must all be rejected, 1294 remains in possession of the field. He is said to have died and to have been buried at Oxford.

Bacon's writings fall into the two groups of printed and manuscript. Of the printed works an extremely accurate list is given by M. Le Clerc in the 'Histoire Litt. de la France;' with some supplement and correction it is here followed: 1. 'Opera Chemica Rogeri Bacconis,' 1485, fo.; the same under the titles 'Sanioris medicinæ magistri D. Rogeri Baconis Angli de Arte Chymiæ scripta,' Frankfort, 1603, 12mo; and 'R. B. Thesaurus Chemicus,' ib. 1020. 2. 'Speculum Alchymise,' Nürnberg, 1541, 4to, repeated in many collections of writings on alchemy published from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. A French translation appeared in 1557, and has been twice reprinted, in 1612 and in 1027, under the false title 'Le Miroir de Maistre Jean Mehun.' English translation, 'The Mirror of Alchymy, composed by the thrice famous and learned fryer Bacon,' in 1597, 4to, London; in the same volume is translated part of the 'De mirabili potestate Artis et Naturæ.' 3. 'De mirabili potestate Art is et Naturæ et de nullitate Magiæ,' Paris, 1542, 4to; and frequently either apart or in collections of alchemist writings. French translation, 1557, in the 'Miroir 'above noted, and later in 1612 and 1629; English translations, 1597 and 1659, entitled 'Discovery of the Miracles of Art, Nature, and Magick.' The tract is reprinted in Brewer's ' Opera Inedita,' pp. 523-51. 4. 'Libellus Rogerii Baconi Angli, doctissimi mathematici et medici, de retardandis senectutis accidentibus et de sensibus conservandis,' Oxford, 1590. English translation, 'The Cure of Old Age and Preservation of Youth, by the great mathematician and physician, Roger Bacon, a Franciscan Friar. By Richard Browne,' London, 1683, 12mo. 5. 'Rogerii Baconis Angli viri eminentissimi Perspectiva, opera et studio Johannis Combachii, phil. prof, in acad. Marpurgensi,' Frankfurt, 1614, 4to ( = Pt. V. of 'Opus Majus'). 6. 'Specula Mathematica in quibus de specierum multiplicatione earundemque in inferioribus virtute agitur, Combachii st. et op.,' ibid. 1614 ( = Pt. IV. of 'Opus Majus'). 7. 'Opus Majus ad Clementem Papam,' ed. S. Jebb, London, fo., 1733: reprint, Venice, 1750. 8. 'Fr. Rogeri Bacon Opera quaedam hactenus inedita, Vol. I. containing: 1. Opus Tertium; 2. Opus Minus; 3. Compendium Philosophiæ,' ed. J. S. Brewer, London, Rolls Series, 1859. 9. 'R. B. de Morali Philosophia,' Dublin, 1860 ( = Pt. VII. of the 'Opus Majus,' not contained in Jebb's edition).

A glance at the number and dates of these published works suffices to explain how it has come about that the historical reputation of Roger Bacon inadequately represents, and in many ways misrepresents, his real work and merit. Not till the eighteenth century was it known, nor from the scanty references in the older authorities could it have been gathered, that Bacon was more than an ingenious alchemist, a skilled mechanician, and perhaps a dabbler in the black arts. In this light tradition viewed him, and it is his legendary history only that has established itself in English literature. The famous necromancer. Friar Bacon, with his brazen head, is no unfamiliar figure in popular English writing (see Professor book below cited). The publication of the 'Opus Majus,' however, rendered possible a more accurate conception of his aims and labours, and made it evident that the main interest of his life had been a struggle towards reform in the existing methods of philosophical or scientific thinking — a reform which in spirit and aim strikingly resembled that more successfully attempted by his more famous namesake in the seventeenth century. The 'Opus Majus,' in vigorous style and with great freedom of expression, discussed the obstacles in the way of true science, rejected authority and verbal subtleties, and sketched in broad outlines the