What the Pope then expressly
forbade was, in the words of the papal bull, "the study of
physics or the laws of the world," and it was added that any
person violating this rule "shall be avoided by all and
excommunicated."[386]
The first great thinker who, in spite of some stumbling into
theologic pitfalls, persevered in a truly scientific path, was
Roger Bacon. His life and works seem until recently to have been
generally misunderstood: he was formerly ranked as a
superstitious alchemist who happened upon some inventions, but
more recent investigation has shown him to be one of the great
masters in the evolution of human thought. The advance of sound
historical judgment seems likely to bring the fame of the two
who bear the name of Bacon nearly to equality. Bacon of the
chancellorship and of the _Novum Organum_ may not wane, but Bacon
of the prison cell and the _Opus Majus_ steadily approaches him in
brightness.
More than three centuries before Francis Bacon advocated the
experimental method, Roger Bacon practised it, and the results
as now revealed are wonderful.
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