In 1267 he sent his book, _Opus Majus_, together with his _Opus
Minus_, an abridgement of his former work, to Pope Clement IV. After the
death of that Pope Bacon was cited by the General of the Franciscan order,
to which he belonged, to appear before his judges at Paris, where he was
condemned to imprisonment. He is said to have languished in the dungeon
fourteen years, and, worn out by his sufferings, to have died in his
beloved Oxford during the year of his release, 1292. The charge of magic
was freely brought against him. His great work, which has been termed "the
_Encyclopaedia_ and the _Novum Organum_ of the thirteenth century,"
discloses an unfettered mind and judgment far in advance of the spirit of
the age in which he lived. In addition to this he wrote _Compendium
Philosophiae_, _De mirabili Potestate artis et naturae, Specula
mathematica, Speculum alchemicum_, and other works.
The treatment which Galileo received at the hands of the ecclesiastics of
his day is well known. This father of experimental philosophy was born at
Pisa in 1564, and at the age of twenty-four years, through the favour of
the Medicis, was elected Professor of Mathematics at the University of the
same town. Resigning his chair in 1592, he became professor at Padua, and
then at Florence. He startled the world by the publication of his first
book, _Sidereus Nuntius_, in which he disclosed his important astronomical
discoveries, amongst others the satellites of Jupiter and the spots on the
sun.
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