a valid celebration of the Eucharist is not, in the full sense of the word, 'Catholic.' Both the Church of England and the Church of Rome appeal to Scripture and to History in support of the views which they severally take as to the Threefold Ministry and the necessity of a priest for the Eucharist. But the Church of England, in revising her Ordinal in 1552 and again in 1661, took to heart a lesson from experience. She realised the truth that universal statements are liable to revision from time to time as fresh evidence is accumulated. So she did not commit herself to the position that Episcopacy prevailed in the days of the Apostles and in the succeeding generations as the only lawful form of Church Government. Her statesmen-scholars had learnt how difficult it is to prove the existence of a universal custom and absolute rule. So, with English moderation and practical common-sense, the men of 1552 and of 1661 were content to assert that the Episcopal system which they had received was Apostolic and primitive. Every other 'particular or national church' (Art. 34) was left to read Scripture for itself and to establish the same conclusion for its own system, if it could. A crisis big with the future of East and Central Africa has overtaken religion in these opening years of the 20th century. If at such a time an unproved theory of Orders or of the efficacy of the Sacraments is allowed to prevent Christian federation and so to check the progress of Christian missions, East Africa in its present state of semi-awakening may fall back either into a revived heathenism (with Voodoo practices!) or into a superficial Mohammedanism. The Issues of Kikuyu' might well be submitted to the Lambeth Conference' of the Bishops of the whole Anglican communion. But, as the Conference does not meet this year, the business will come, on July 27, before the Central Consultative Committee (18 members-six from Great Britain and Ireland), which might be described as the quintessence of it. The next word is with this Committee. W. EMERY BARNES. Art. 12.-ROGER BACON. 1. Roger Bacon, sa vie, ses oeuvrages, ses doctrines, d'après des textes inédits. By Émile Charles. Paris: Hachette, 1861. 2. Roger Bacon: Essays contributed by various writers on the occasion of the commemoration of the seventh centenary of his birth. Collected and edited by A. G. Little. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914. 3. Rogeri Baconis opera quaedam hactenus inedita. Edited by J. S. Brewer. Public Record Commission, 1859. 4. The Opus Majus' of Roger Bacon. Edited by J. H. Bridges. London: Williams & Norgate, 1897-1900. 5. The Greek Grammar of Roger Bacon, and a Fragment of his Hebrew Grammar. Edited by Rev. E. Nolan and S. A. Hirsch. Cambridge: University Press, 1902. 6. Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi (fasc. 1 Metaphysica; ff. 2, 3: Communia Naturalium: f. 4: De Celestibus). Edited by R. Steele. Oxford: University Press, 1905, etc. 7. Un fragment inédit de l'Opus Tertium de Roger Bacon, précédé d'une Étude sur ce fragment. Edited by Pierre Duhem. Quarrachi, 1909. 8. Fratris Rogeri Bacon Compendium Studii Theologiae. Edited by H. Rashdall. Aberdeen: University Press, 1911. 9. Part of the Opus Tertium of Roger Bacon, including a fragment now printed for the first time. Edited by A. G. Little. Aberdeen: University Press, 1912. THE modest ceremony which took place on June 10the unveiling of Mr Hope Pinker's statue of Roger Bacon in the Museum at Oxford-may be taken as a recognition by his University of the efforts of European students in recent years to elucidate the work and to publish the writings of one of the greatest of Oxford men. His own Order chose its most learned and famous member to do honour to its long-forgiven son; Rome sent from the Vatican the Vice-Prefect of its library, a polished medievalist; the University of Paris, his second Alma Mater, despatched as her representative that one of her distinguished sons who has done most to make his work familiar in France; the Collège de France, a monument of the French return to classicism, and the Institut, the intellectual centre of modern France, joined in the celebration, and emphasised the international character of his fame; and English science, in the person of one of its titular heads, handed over the statue to a Chancellor of academic as well as political distinction. It is not inopportune at such a time to endeavour to trace the history of the change in Bacon's position from contempt to reverence in the estimation of modern Europe since the Renaissance, and to gather up what is known or can be reasonably assumed as to his life, his writings, the teachers he followed, his doctrines, and their influence on his contemporaries and successors. At no time since his death could such an enquiry have been entered on with an equal wealth of materials; and, though many gaps occur in our knowledge which are hardly likely to be filled, we have sufficient facts to ensure a general accuracy of outline in our picture. The first mention of Roger Bacon in modern literature is made by Pico della Mirandola, the brilliant young nobleman and friend of Lorenzo de Medici. A marvel of classical learning-witness his famous positions de omni re scibili' ('et de quibusdam aliis,' as Voltaire wittily remarked)-his writings show much knowledge of the great teachers of the 13th century, and a not inconsiderable acquaintance with some of them only to be read in manuscript, including the 'Opus Majus,' the 'De Erroríbus Studentium Theologie,' and the Compendium Studii Theologie' of Bacon. Pico's interest in the Cabbala, which he took to be a system as old as Abraham, but which we now know to be, in the main, a creation of the 13th century, led him to a general attack upon astrologers, in the course of which he reflected very severely on Bacon for his credulity and his reliance on magic and astrology, while in another work he ridiculed the explanation of the moon's action upon the tides, which Bacon had adapted from Grosseteste. Pico's nephew, Francesco, repeated the attack; and to him and Pico may be ascribed the origin of Bacon's European reputation as a magician. It is probable that the strictures of Pico were one of the contributory causes to the printing of Bacon's epistle De Secretis Operibus Naturae et de Nullitate Magiae' in 1542, which gave . direction and a colour of foundation to the growth of the popular legend of Bacon as a magician; though it existed long before, as we know from the well-known lines of Gavin Douglas in the 'Palice of Honour,' written before 1520 : "The nigromancie thair saw I eik anone To what an extent this reputation had become an established tradition may be seen from Bale's account of Roger Bacon in the first edition (1545) of his biographical dictionary of English writers, the famous 'De Scriptoribus.' He calls Bacon a 'Prestigiator et magus necromanticus,' who used his evil powers at the will of the Roman clergy, though he allowed that Bacon was in omni literatura prophana percelebris, mathematicus presertim et philosophus eruditus.' Such a censure by an author professing, and in general reaching, a high standard of accuracy, no doubt aroused attention. John Dee, a scholar of high attainments and great powers, set about the composition of an Apology for Roger Bacon, entitled 'Speculum Unitatis,' in which it was proved that he had wrought the greatest marvels naturally and by methods which any Christian man might use, though the unlearned populace might see in them the work of devils.' The work was completed in December 1557 but never printed. John Leland, the famous antiquary, who had for years been making collections for a work resembling Bale's, had owned and read some of Bacon's treatises. On his death in 1556, Leland's collections fell into the hands of Bale, who incorporated them with his own work and issued a second edition in two volumes (1557 and 1559). In this edition Bacon is described as 'Philosophus acutissimus. . . [qui] sui seculi unicum plane miraculum diceretur. . . mathesi peritiae incredibilis sed absque necromantia.' Every one is more or less familiar with the popular form of the legend-how by means of a perspective mirror Bacon could show an enquirer what was going on in distant lands; how he was able to destroy a besieging force by means of his burning-glass; and how he constructed a head of brass which should reveal to him all wisdom, if it had not been unfortunately destroyed. Of these three wonders, two-the mirror and the burningglass-are plainly based on Bacon's real achievements, the brazen head being an introduction from wellknown sources. The burning-glass and its destructive powers are a favourite topic of Bacon's, while there can hardly be a doubt that some arrangement of lenses which amounted to a telescope without the enclosing tubes was made by him. Such an arrangement is known to have been invented by Leonard Digges, who died in 1571, from his study of Bacon's works. Towards the close of the 16th century the legend took a concrete form in a chapbook, 'The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon,' and in a play, Robert Greene's 'Honourable History of Frier Bacon and Frier Bungay,' which was performed in 1592 and printed in 1594. Though the date of the earliest print that we have of the chap-book must be later than this, there can be no doubt that it was the source of the play, and that it was itself derived from an English translation of the De Secretis Operibus,' not printed till 1597. In the early years of the 17th century an enterprising young professor of Marburg-a city which had a special relationship with the English Reformed Church-directed attention to the scientific side of Bacon's work by publishing two sections of the 'Opus Majus,' the 'Perspectiva' and the 'Specula Mathematica' from Oxford manuscripts; while Bacon's treatise on the care of health, De Retardandis Senectutis Accidentibus,' had already been printed in 1590. The publication of these works put Bacon's fame on a solid foundation, and excited a curiosity as to his writings which became more widespread as time went on. Certain coincidences of language leave little doubt that his work was known to his namesake, the great Chancellor. Selden, in his 'De Diis Syris' (1617), vindicated him from the suspicion of magic; he also collected his writings, and was engaged on an edition of his works so late as 1653. Sir Joseph Williamson, Secretary of State and President of the Royal Society, copied out some of his treatises with his own hand. In the early years of the 18th century a new side. |