From the History of Human Folly [antikvár]

Occult Sciences Can sciences be secret? Is it not their object to dispel darkness like a torch and illuminate the path of progress? No doubt; but there have been times when the path of progress was obstructed by almost insuperable barriers. In the Middle Ages knowledge was confined within the narrow limits determined by theology. Every science had to conform to religious tenets. Galilei was arraigned before a court of justice for having dared to declare that in the text of the Bible there was nothing to forbid scientific research. The Bible was nevertheless used to suppress the pursuit of knowledge and those who ventured to raise their voice in protest were taught to be suitably silent in the dungeons of the Inquisition or sent to the stake, like Giordano Bruno, who died because his conception of the world did not correspond to the doctrines of the Church. It would be possible at this point to make reference to a long list of outstanding intellectuals, men who devoted their lives to investigating the hidden powers of nature, but who nevertheless, in the very moment of success, as the glad cry "Eureka" finally broke from their lips-as Archimedes exclaimed when he discovered the law of specific gravity-were confronted with the accusation, fostered with all the ruthlessness of ignorance that they were disciples of the devil. The Franciscan monk Roger Bacon was similarly accused of being a magician by the illiterate scholars of his time. He was certainly no magician; one might rather accuse nature of having practised magic to produce this unique genius whose light shone seven centuries ahead of his time. Bacon was born in 1214 and died in 1294. He rose to the position of a lecturer at Oxford; but because of his courageous outspokenness in condemning blind respect for authority and because of his uncompromising attitude in openly denouncing the increase of immorality II