Saints celebrated on the 11th of June
ROGER BACON, RELIGIOUS - 11 JUNE
²Roger Bacon was born at Ilchester, Somersetshire, about 1214; died at Oxford, perhaps June 11, 1294.
¹He is also known as Doctor Mirabilis.
In 1256 or 1257, he became a friar in the Order of Saint Francis of Assisi in either Paris or Oxford, following the example of scholarly English Franciscans such as Grosseteste and Marsh.
Pope Clement IV's patronage permitted Roger to engage in a wide-ranging consideration of the state of knowledge in his era.
In 1267 or 1268, Roger sent the Pope his Opus Majus, which presented his views on how to incorporate Aristotelian logic and science into a new theology, supporting Grosseteste's text-based approach against the "sentence method" then fashionable.
This Franciscan Friar also sent his Opus Minus, De Multiplicatione Specierum, De Speculis Comburentibus, an optical lens, and possibly other works. The entire process has been called "one of the most remarkable single efforts of literary productivity", with Roger composing referenced works of around a million words in about a year.
Pope Clement died in 1268 and Roger lost his protector. Sometime after 1278, Roger returned to the Franciscan House at Oxford, where he continued his studies and is presumed to have spent most of the remainder of his life. His last dateable writing - the Compendium Studii Theologiae - was completed in 1292. He is buried at Oxford.
² Far from being hostile to true philosophy, he bestows a lavish praise on it. None could delineate more clearly and convincingly than he, what ought to be the relation between theology and philosophy, what profit they yield and what services they render to each other, how true philosophy is the best apology of Christian faith (see especially "Opus Majus", II and VII; "Compend. studii philos.")...
There is no real error in matters of faith, and Roger Bacon repeatedly asks the reader not to confound his physics with divination, his chemistry with alchemy, his astronomy with astrology; and certainly he submitted with all willingness his writings to the judgment of the Church.
It is moving to note the reverence he displayed for the pope. Likewise he shows always the highest veneration towards the Fathers of the Church; and whilst his criticism often becomes violent when he blames the most eminent of his contemporaries, he never speaks or writes any word of disregard of the Fathers or ancient Doctors of the Church, even when not approving their opinion; he esteemed them highly and had acquired such a knowledge of their writings that he was no way surpassed by any of his great rivals.
Roger Bacon was a faithful scholar of open character who frankly uttered what he thought, who was not afraid to blame whatsoever and whomsoever he believed to deserve censure, a scholar who was in advance of his age by centuries. His iron will surmounted all difficulties and enabled him to acquire a knowledge so far surpassing the average science of his age, that he must be reckoned among the most eminent scholars of all times.
Sources: ¹https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon
²Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
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