he fell under the condemnation of his order, and was imprisoned in
1277 on a charge of teaching "suspected novelties". In those days any
knowledge of natural phenomena beyond that of the quasi-science of
the times was regarded as magic, and no doubt some of ROGER BACON'S
"suspected novelties" were of this nature; his recognition of the
value of the writings of non-Christian moralists was, no doubt, another
"suspected novelty". Appeals for his release directed to the Pope
proved fruitless, being frustrated by JEROME D'ASCOLI, General of the
Franciscan Order, who shortly afterwards succeeded to the Holy See under
the title of NICHOLAS IV. The latter died in 1292, whereupon RAYMOND
GAUFREDI, who had been elected General of the Franciscan Order, and
who, it is thought, was well disposed towards BACON, because of certain
alchemical secrets the latter had revealed to him, ordered his release.
BACON returned to Oxford, where he wrote his last work, the _Compendium
Studii Theologiae_. He died either in this year or in 1294.(1)

(1) For further details concerning BACON'S life, EMILE CHARLES: _Roger
Bacon, sa Vie, ses Ouvrages, ses Doctrines_ (1861); J. H. BRIDGES: _The
Life & Work of Roger Bacon, an Introduction to the Opus Majus_ (edited
by H. G. JONES, 1914); and Mr A. G. LITTLE'S essay in _Roger Bacon
Essays_, may be consulted.

It was not until the publication by Dr SAMUEL JEBB, in 1733, of the
greater part of BACON'S _Opus Majus_, nearly four and a half centuries
after his death, that anything like his rightful position in the history
of philosophy began to be assigned to him. But let his spirit be no
longer troubled, if it were ever troubled by neglect or slander, for the
world, and first and foremost his own country, has paid him due honour.
His septcentenary was duly celebrated in 1914 at his _alma mater_,
Oxford, his statue has there been raised as a memorial to his greatness,
and savants have meted out praise to him in no grudging tones.(2)
Indeed, a voice has here and there been heard depreciating his
better-known namesake FRANCIS,(3) so that the later luminary should not,
standing in the way, obscure the light of the earlier; though, for my
part, I would suggest that one need not be so one-eyed as to fail to see
both lights at once.

(2) See _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 (191