AN Univerfal, Hiftorical, and Literary DICTIONARY. B B. ABINGTON (GERVASE) was born in Notting- Biog. Brit, hamshire, educated at Trinity college in Cambridge (of which he became fellow), and, July 15, 1578, incorporated mafter of arts at Oxford. He took his doctor's degree in divinity, and was appointed domeftic chaplain to Henry earl of Pembroke prefident of the council in the Marches of Wales; by whose interest he became treasurer of the church of Landaff, prebendary of Wellington in the cathedral of Hereford, and, in 1591, was advanced to the bishoprick of Landaff, which he used to call in joke Affe, the Land thereof having been alienated by his predeceffor Kitchin, in the days of king Henry VIII. and queen Elizabeth. In February 1594, he was tranflated to the fee of Exeter; and, in 1597, to that of Worcester: he was likewise made one of the queen's council for the marches of Wales. To the library of his cathedral at Worcester he was a very great Ibid. benefactor, not only repairing the edifice, but alfo bequeathing to it all his books, a gift of confiderable value. He died of the jaundice, May 17, 1610(A). > Prayer; with a Conference betwixt 'Man's Frailtie and Faith, And ⚫ three Sermons. With alphabetical Tables of the principal matters of each feverall Worke.'. Biogr. Brit. BACON (ROGER) a learned monk of the Franciscan order, was defcended of an ancient family, and born near IlBiog. Brit. chefter in Somersetshire, in the year 1214. He received the firft tincture of learning at Oxford, from whence he went to the university of Paris, at that time much frequented by the English, of whom the moft diftinguished for their learning and abilities highly careffed him. Having been admitted to the degree of doctor, he came back to England, and took the habit of the Franciscan order in 1240, when he was about twenty-fix years of age; but according to others he became a monk before he left France. After his return he was confidered as a most able and an indefatigable enquirer after knowledge by the greateft men of that univerfity, who generously contributed to defray the expences of advancing fcience by experiments, the method which he had determined to follow. His difcoveries were little understood by the generality of mankind; and because by the help of mathematical knowledge he performed things above common understandings, he was fufpected of magic. He was perfecuted particularly by his own fraternity, fo that they would not receive his works into their library, and at last had intereft enough (fays Dr. Freind) with the general of their order to get him imprisoned; fo that, as he confeffes himself, he had reafon to repent of his having taken such pains in the arts and fciences. Bacon was poffeffed with the notion of judiciary aftrology. He imagined that the ftars had a great influence upon human affairs; and by their means, he thought, future things might be foretold. This, according to Dr. Jebb, making the friers of his order to confider him as a person engaged in unlawful arts, occafioned his imprisonment (A). At the particular defire of pope Clement IV. Bacon collected together and enlarged his feveral pieces, and fent them to him Mift. of Phyfic, p. 243. (A) The ingenious author of the Biogr. Brit. obferves that there is great reafon to believe, that though his application to the occult fciences was pretended, yet the true caufe of his ill usage was the freedom with which he had treated the clergy in his writings, in which he fpared neither their ignorance nor their want of in morals (Epift. ad Clement, IV.) befides, his intimacy with bishop Grouthead, who had gone so far as to re prove pope Innocent IV. by letter, and was faid to have made no fcruple of declaring to those with whom he was intimate, that in his judgment the pope was Anti-Chrift (Mat. Paris Hift. Angl. p. 875.) muǹ nas turally in 1267. This collection, which is the fame that himself Biog. Brit, intituled Opus majus, or his Great Work, is ftill extant (B). Dr. Jebb, the learned editor thereof, tells us, that Bacon seems to have propofed two things principally in it, either by laying down a good scheme of philofophy to excite the pope to reform the errors that had crept into the church; or if he could not effect this, to propofe fuch expedients as would break the power of Antichrift, and retard his progrefs. For he appears to have been firmly perfuaded that the church would foon be reformed, either by means of the pope himself, who was a man of integrity, or because the exorbitant dominion of Antichrift would become obnoxious to mankind, and fo fall to destruction. When Bacon had been ten years in prifon, Jerom d'Afcoli, general of his order, who had condemned his doctrine, was chofen pope, and affumed the name of Nicholas IV. As he was reputed a perfon of great abilities, and one who had turned his thoughts to philofophical ftudies, Bacon refolved to apply to him for his discharge; and in order to fhew both the innocence and the usefulness of his studies, addressed to him a treatife On the means of avoiding the infirmities of old age (c). What effect this treatise had on the pope does not appear. But, towards the latter end of his reign, Bacon, by Dr. Jebb the interpofition of some noblemen, obtained his release, and gives us this returned to Oxford, where he spent the remainder of his days date in his in peace, and died in the college of his order on the 11th of preface. Biog. Brit. June 1294. He was (fays Dr. Peter Shaw, a very able Boerhaave's judge of his merit) beyond all comparison, the greatest Chemistry, man of his time; and might perhaps ftand in competition vol. i. p. 28. turally bring upon him the hatred of a great part of the clergy; more efpecially since his zeal led him to follow the practice, as well as the opinion, of his patron, by writing freely to the pope about the neceffity of a reformation. (Mf. Cotton, Tiber. C, 5. fol. 3.) (B) In a beautiful folio, neatly and accurately printed by William Bowyer, at London, A. D. 1733, under the title of Fratris Rogeri Bacon ordinis minorum Opus majus ad Clementem quartum pontificem Romanum: ex Mf. codice Dublinienfi, cum aliis quibufdam collato. (c) Dr, Richard Browne, who ef teemed it one of the best perform- in the note. with the greatest that have appeared fince. It is wonderful, confidering the ignorant age wherein he lived, how ' he came by fuch a depth of knowledge on all subjects. His writings are compofed with that elegancy, concifeness, and ftrength, and adorned with fuch juft and exquifite obfervations on nature, that, among all the chemists, we do not know his equal. He writ many treatifes, fome of which are loft, or locked up in private libraries. What relate to chemistry, are chiefly two fmall pieces wrote at Oxford, which are now in print, and the manufcripts to be seen in the public library of Leyden, having been carried thither among Voffius's manufcripts from England. In these he attempts to fhew how imperfect metals may be ripened into • perfect ones. He adopts Geber's notion, that mercury is the common bafis of all metals, and fulphur the cement; and • fhews that it is by a gradual depuration of the mercurial matter, and the acceffion of a fubtle fulphur, that nature pro• duces gold; and that if, during the process, any other third ⚫ matter happens to intervene befide the mercury and fulphur, • fome other bafer metal will arife: fo that if we could but ⚫ imitate nature's method, we might change other metals into gold. Having compared (fays the fame ingenious writer) feveral of friar Bacon's operations with the modern experiments of Mr. Homberg, made by direction of that • curious prince the duke of Orleans, we judge that Bacon has defcribed fome of the very things which Homberg pub⚫lishes as new difcoveries. Thus, for instance, Bacon teaches exprefly, that if a pure fulphur be united with mercury, it ⚫ will produce gold: on which very principle Mr. Homberg has made many experiments for the production of gold, • described in the Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences, an. 1705. His other phyfical writings fhew no less genius and force of mind. In his treatise Of the fecret works of art and nature, he fhews that a perfon who was perfectly acquainted with the manner which nature observes in her operations, would not only be able to rival, but surpass her. In another piece, Of the nullity of magic, he fhews with great fagacity and penetration, whence the notion sprung, and how weak all pretences to it are. From a repeated perufal of his works (adds the fame fkilful chemift) we ⚫ find our friar was no ftranger to many of the capital difcoveries of the present and past ages. Gunpowder he certainly knew thunder and lightening, he tells us, may be produced by art; for that fulphur, nitre, and charcoal, 6 ⚫ which |