authoritative Papal opinion--the nearer to Thomas,
the nearer to Catholic truth. When it is recalled that this is the man
who gave the great modern impulse to the doctrine of matter and form,
who taught the indestructibility of matter and the conservation of
energy, and declared with St. Augustine that the Creator had made only
the seeds of things, allowing these afterwards to develop for
themselves, which is the essence of the doctrine of evolution, it is
hard to understand how there should be question of opposition between
the Church and science in his time. With regard to the third of these
great physical scientists, the story of his relation to the
ecclesiastical authorities is not quite so simple. Roger Bacon was in
his younger years very much thought of by his own order, the
Franciscans. They sent him to Paris and provided him opportunities to
study under the great Albert, and then transferred him to Oxford,
where he had a magnificent opportunity for teaching. Many years of his
life were spent in peace and happiness in the cloister. A friend and
fellow student at Paris became Pope Clement, and his command was the
primary cause of the composition of Bacon's great works. All three of
his books, and especially the Opus Majus, were written at the command
of the Pope, and were highly praised by the Pontiff himself and by
those who read them in Rome. Unfortunately, difficulties occurred
within Friar Bacon's own order. It is not quite clear now just how
these {328} came about. The Franciscans of the rigid observance of
those early times took vows of the severest poverty. There had been
some relaxation of the rule, however, and certain abuses crept in. The
consequence was the re-assertion after a time of the original rule of
absolute poverty in all its stringency. It was Friar Bacon himself who
had chosen this mode of life and had taken the vows of poverty. Paper
was a very dear commodity, if indeed it was invented early enough in
the century for him to have used it. Vellum was even more expensive.
Just what material Bacon employed for his writings is not now known.
Whatever it was, it seems to have cost much money, and because of his
violation of his vow of poverty Roger Bacon fell under the ban of his
order. He was ordered to be confined to his cell in the monastery and
to be fed on bread and water for a considerable period. It must not be
forgotten that this was within a century after the foundation of the
Franciscans,