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even in his boyhood studies, and on reaching the required age joined the Franciscan
Order. From Oxford he passed on to Paris where he studied medicine and mathematics.
On his return to England he applied himself to the study of philosophy and languages,
with such success that he wrote grammars of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues.
Although Bacon has been described as a physician rather than a chemist, we are indebted
to him for many scientific discoveries. He was almost the only astronomer of his time and
in this capacity rectified the Julian calendar which, although submitted to Pope Clement
IV in 1267, was not put into practice until a later Papacy. He was responsible also for the
physical analysis of convex glasses and lenses, the invention of spectacles and
achromatic lenses, and if not for the actual construction, at any rate for the theory of the
telescope. As a student of chemistry he called attention to the chemical role played by air
in combustion, and having carefully studied the properties of saltpetre, taught its
purification by dissolution in water and by crystallisation.
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From certain of his letters we may learn that Bacon anticipated most of the achievements
of modern science. He maintained that vessels might be constructed which would be
capable of navigation without rowers, and which, under the direction of a single man,
could travel through the water at a speed hitherto undreamt of. He also predicted that it
would be equally possible to construct cars which 'might be set in motion with
marvellous rapidity, independently of horses and other animals,' and flying machines
which would beat the air with artificial wings
It is scarcely surprising that in the atmosphere of superstition and ignorance which
reigned in Europe during the middle ages Bacon's achievements were attributed to his
communication with devils, and that his fame spread through Western Europe not as a
savant, but as a great magician! His great services to humanity were met with censure,
not gratitude, and to the Church his teachings seemed particularly pernicious. She
accordingly took her place as one of his foremost adversaries, and even the friars of his
own order refused his writings a place in their library. His persecutions culminated in
1279 in imprisonment and a forced repentance of his labours in the cause of art and
science.
Amongst his many writings there are extant two or three works on alchemy from which it
is quite evident that not only did he study and practise the science, but that he obtained
his final objective, the Philosophers' Stone. Doubtless during his lifetime his persecutions
led him to conceal carefully his practice of the Hermetic art and to consider the revelation
of such matters unfit
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for the uninitiated. 'Truth,' he writes, 'ought not to be shown to every ribald, for then that
would become most vile which, in the hand of a philosopher, is the most precious of all
things.'
Sir George Ripley, Canon of Bridlington Cathedral, Yorkshire, placed alchemy on a
higher level than many of his contemporaries by dealing with it as a spiritual and not
merely a physical manifestation. He maintained that alchemy is concerned with the mode
of our spirit's return to God who gave it. He wrote in 1471 his 'Compound of Alchemy'
with its dedicatory epistle to Edward IV. It is also reported of this Canon of Bridlington
that he provided funds for the Knights of St. John by means of the Philosophers' Stone.
In the sixteenth century Pierce, the Black Monk, wrote on the Elixir the following:
'Take earth of Earth, Earth's Mother, Water of Earth, Fire of Earth and Water of the
Wood. These are to lie together and then be parted. Alchemical gold is made of three
pure souls, purged as crystal. Body, soul, and spirit grown into a Stone, wherein there is
no corruption: this is to be cast on Mercury and it shall become most worthy gold.'
Other works of the sixteenth century include Thomas Charnock's 'Breviary of Philosophy'
and the additaminta thereto, and 'Enigma' in 1572. He also wrote a memorandum in
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