and to an ardent son of St. Francis the living on bread
and water would not be a very difficult thing at this time, since his
ordinary diet would, at least during certain portions of the year, be
scarcely better than this. There is no account of how Roger Bacon took
his punishment. He might easily have left his order. There were many
others at that time who did. He wished to remain as a faithful son of
St. Francis, and seems to have accepted his punishment with the idea
that his example would influence others of the order to submit to the
enforcement of the regulation with regard to poverty, which superiors
now thought so important, if the original spirit of St. Francis was to
be regained.

It is sometimes said that Friar Bacon indulged in scientific
speculations which seemed subversive of {329} Christian mysteries, and
that this was one reason for his punishment. Recently he has been
declared the first of the modernists since he attempted to rationalize
religious mysteries. Whatever truth there may be in this, of one thing
we are certain, that before his death Bacon deeply regretted some of
his expressions and theories, and did not hesitate to confess humbly
that he was sorry to have even seemed to hint at supposed science
contrary to religious truth.

Of course, it may well be said, even after all these communities of
interest between the medieval and the modern teaching of the general
principles of science have been pointed out, that the universities of
the Middle Ages did not present the subjects under discussion in a
practical way, and their teaching was not likely to lead to directly
beneficial results in applied science. It might well be responded to
this, that it is not the function of a university to teach
applications of science, but only the great principles, the broad
generalizations that underlie scientific thinking, leaving details to
be filled in in whatever form of practical work the man may take up.
Very few of those, however, who talk about the purely speculative
character of medieval teaching, have manifestly ever made it their
business to know anything about the actual facts of old-time
university teaching by definite knowledge, but have rather allowed
themselves to be guided by speculation and by inadequate second-hand
authorities, whose dicta they have never taken the trouble to
substantiate by a glance at contemporary authorities on medieval
matters, much less by reading the old scholastics the