Cooking with Bacon

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

“It is the intention of philosophy to work out the natures and properties of things”

Roger Bacon was one of the greatest geniuses of the second millennium, in my opinion. He wrote three great works, urging the church to focus on science and not on philosophy.

The thirteenth century was a key point in history. Christian thought was torn between the Averrosists and Augustinians. The Averroists were led by Siger de Brabant. They believed that Faith and Reason were to be separated absolutely, and the Augustinians, who held truth to be a matter of faith. The third school, founded by Thomas Aquinas, held that all knowledge originates in sensation, but sense data can be made intelligible only by the action of the intellect, which elevates thought toward the apprehension of such immaterial realities as the human soul, the angels, and God. Thus, reason and religion are separate. In other words, truth and reason cannot be held in conflict with one another. Humans know something when its truth is either immediately evident to them or can be made evident by appeal to immediately evident truths. They believe something when they accept its truth on authority. Religious faith is the acceptance of truths on the authority of God's revelation of them.

This all started in the 12^th century, when the ideas of Aristotle were translated into Latin. Priests such as Honorius of Autin advocated studying nature for its own sake, and not for religious reasons, and disliked having the Church looking over their shoulders. These would become the Averroists, and eventually got into heresies such as the idea that by the very nature of Creation, God’s powers are limited.

But the ideas of the Averroists were eventually suppressed in 1277 by the Bishop of Paris. In the Condemnation of 1277. The Condemnation insisted that God has absolute power, and opposed Aristotelian philosophy that compromised this belief. Siger deBrabant was among the people who were condemned, as was Thomas Aquinas. Finally, it held that God could produce actions that were naturally impossible in the Aristotelian world view

Now, what we need then in a person who will support the Aristotelians, and Bacon. We need…. Pope Clement IV.

Clement IV was the Pope in a time of chaos. He won the war against Manfred of Sicily, and saw the Avengins established there. He died in October, of 1268. This was the year Bacon sent his third work, the Opium Tertium, to the Pope.

Now, the Pope had already received the Opus Majus, which outlined Bacon’s work; the Opus Minor, which repeated and expanded upon the Opus Majus, and finally, the Opus Tertium, which expounded on Bacon’s principles. The Pope died before he could get the Opus Tertium, however, and Bacon eventually died in obscurity.

Now, the Opus Majus contained He rejected the blind following of prior authorities, both in theological and scientific study. His Opus Majus contains treatments of mathematics and optics, alchemy and the manufacture of gunpowder, the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies, and anticipates later inventions such as microscopes, telescopes, spectacles, flying machines and steam ships. Bacon studied astrology and believed that the celestial bodies had an influence on the fate and mind of humans. He also wrote a criticism of the Julian calendar.

"For we can so shape transparent bodies, and arrange them in such a

way with respect to our sight and objects of vision, that the rays

will be reflected and bent in any direction we desire, and under any

angle we wish, we may see the object near or at a distance ... So we

might also cause the Sun, Moon and stars in appearance to descend here

below... "

So, WI the Pope recovers from his disease, and as he is recovering, he receives the Opus Tertium? The effect of this cannot be overstated; Pope Clement would view his survival as an act of God, most likely; (he had felt that the disease was because of the death of Conradin). Clement is so impressed by the Opus Tertium that he orders Bacon to make the journey to Rome. Bacon is given a subsidy by the Pope, and access to the glassworks of Venice. Working in secret, he presents the pope, in 1270, with the first telescope. When the Pope looked through it, he was said to have commented “Miracles and Wonders”.

Meanwhile, the Venetian glassworker has contacted Lorenzo Tiepolo, the Doge of Venice. The Doge pays Lorenzo to make one of these devices on his own, which occurs in 1272.

But I digress. Back to Bacon. Bacon and the Pope agreed that there were “seven deadly sins” in theology. The first sin is the preponderance of (speculative) philosophy. Theology is a Divine science, hence it must be based on Divine principles and treat questions touching Divinity, and not exhaust itself in philosophical cavils and distinctions. The second sin is ignorance of the sciences most suitable and necessary to theologians; they study only Latin grammar, logic, natural philosophy and a part of metaphysics: four sciences very unimportant, scientiæ viles. Other sciences/subjects that he viewed are important were:, foreign (Oriental) languages, mathematics, alchemy, chemistry, physics, experimental sciences, and moral philosophy, they neglect. A third sin is the defective knowledge of even the four sciences which they cultivate: their ideas are full of errors and misconceptions, because they have no means to get at the real understanding of the authors from whom they draw all their knowledge, since their writings abound in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic expressions. Even the greatest and most highly-esteemed theologians show in their works to what an extent the evil has spread.

The fourth sin details the lack of interest in the Holy Scripture, which must be corrected. The fifth sin is that the Word has been corrupted; this is because of the minor changes made by scribes. Something must be done to allow for mass production of the Bible, while not giving scribes the chance to change every word. The sixth sin details the confusion over the literal interpretation of the Bible; because of the mistranslations, and the seventh sin criticizes the laxitude of some priests in preaching.

So, Bacon wants the universities of Christendom overhauled. There is to be a greater amount of study on the Bible itself, the sciences, and an emphasis on experimentation, physics, alchemy, mathematics, and experimentation. Pope Clement goes ahead with this, and tries to work on the sins within the Church.

Bacon also gets his group to overhaul university studies. Major scholars from across Europe join him, including Aquinas.

By 1273, work on the Scriptum Principale commences, at the University of Bologna, in Italy. It is a project of a group of scholars, including Aquinas, and Siger De Brabant. Needless to say, there’s a great deal heated argument, as the philosophies are debated. Eventually, it is decided that’s something true in rationalist philosophy (the real world) can be false in religious belief. Thus, God can make the Earth stand still; but it would not happen normally.

There are a few scientific ideas, as well. Brabant states that he has always held that Biblical events came from the smallest change in the natural order. Thus, it is easier to have a small Earth stand still, and not the heavens. Thus, day and night occurs because the Earth rotates daily, not because the sun circles around each half. (Apologies if this isn’t too clear; this is based on the thinking of Nicole of Oresme, and Siger himself).

Meanwhile, Bacon’s optics have been taken to the microscopic level, as the first microscopes are developed. Looking at a piece of a wine cork, Bacon himself sees small boxes that remind him of the cells of a monastery. Perhaps proving that God has a sense of humor, Bacon decides to name these “cells”.

And, to round things off, Bacon finally gets conducting his experiments for gunpowder. While they are based off of China’s work, and the ratios are off at first (most don’t work, initially), the Franciscan monks eventually get it right, resulting in the accidental destruction of a barn while testing it.

Unfortunately, they’re almost finished with the Scriptum Principalae when Clement IV died, in 1275. This triggers a breach in the church over who should succeed him.

What’s Mine is Yours

The Cardinals are divided between an Italian candidate and a French candidate. The camps are unable to get a 2/3 vote either way, and eventually the people of Ancona, the city where the delegates are meeting, cuts off their food supply greatly, and pretty much locks them up. Things get worse when two of the pontiffs chosen die, and finally the delegates choose Petrus Juliani, the archbishop of Tusculum. He becomes Pope John XX.

Note: He was chosen as the Pope in 1276; this was part of a string of popes who consistently, err, died within a few years. The notable events of his reign are the fizzling of a crusade, which was to be led by the kings of Castille and France; and missionaries, who are sent to Tartary. As luck would have it, they survive, unlike in OTL, where they died enroute. The pope also solves the problem, temporarily, between the Charles of Sicily and Rudolph of Hapsburg.

More important, however, is the Pope’s condemnation of the Archbishop of Paris, for his condemnation of 1277. This is the Pope’s last act before he also dies, but it consists of the joint efforts of Bacon, Aquinas, and Albertus Magnus. It refutes each of the 219 points, rather successfully. This really isn’t that hard; the condemnation is a bit of a rush job.

There are still a few theological issues. The Condemnation says that people have open options. Yet it also says that it is foreknown by God, because God is “outside” of time. In his reply, Aquinas agrees. But Aquinas argues, with support from Bacon and co., that human’s were given the ability of free choice by God, and thus the error to sin. To say that God knows the future, and gave human free choice, implies that God willingly knows what humans will do with free choice. But humans, as mortals and not God, are unable to know everything, and if they knew that free will did not exist, then God’s plan would be said to be flawed. Thus, God may know the future, but humans should not act as if God does.

(That sound you heard was my brain exploding). (Mine Too - Ed)

The reply of the Averroists is strengthened by the fact that the roof did not fall in on the Pope, who was with the Scholars working on the Scriptum Principalae. Pope Gregory, seeing this as a vision from God, gives them yet more funding.

In 1280, the first edition of the Scriptum Principalae is finished, and scribes begin copying it. If only they could produce it faster….

This is when Albertus, observing the tracks left in mud, comes up with an idea which shall revolutionize the world.