In Paris and elsewhere, the outcries of the Spirituals against the clergy and scholars of the Church resulted in extreme censure for all mendicants. The flames of conflict were fanned by the publication of An Introduction to the Everlasting Gospel by Friar Gerard of San Borgo. His work identified Joachim’s Faithful elite with the Franciscans, an interpretation heartily opposed by the Dominicans who, until that time, had shared persecution with the Greyfriars. The Dominicans joined with their erstwhile enemies, the clergy and university officials, to assault the power and reputation of their rivals. Their campaign resulted in the imprisonment of Brother Gerard; his Introduction and other Joachist works were declared anathema and were no longer published or studied.

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The Franciscans found themselves fighting for their corporate life. Their Minister General, St. Bonaventura, sought tentative reconciliation with the leaders of the Dominicans, then turned to the housekeeping of his own Order. His primary concern was the elimination of the schismatic Spirituals. An order went out to the various convents that any member suspected of Joachist learnings should be closely watched or sent to a place where he could be.

Brother Roger’s eccentric experiments with light and tides could be viewed with more scorn and fear. Heterodoxy, however, was nothing to laugh at or ignore. When the Oxford house received word of Bonaventura’s decree, they lost not time in delivering Bacon to their Paris chapter for observation. The friars there treated him with reserve and suspicion, knowing him to be a potential schismatic and critic of the Order’s leadership. Bacon writes: “My superiors and brothers . . . kept me under close guard and would not let anyone come to me, fearing that my writings would be divulged to others . . .”

Since he was not, strictly speaking, a prisoner, Bacon was allowed to speak with the novitiates of the Order. Among these he found a few young men who appreciated his biting with and approved of his experiential science. H met with them for private discussions, instructing them in the use of mathematical tables and in the methods of “experiment’. Their interest encouraged him to continue their research which his transfer to Paris had interrupted.

Suspicion of the Joachist philosophy did not decrease during the time of Bacon’s confinement. In 1260 Bonaventura met with the other Franciscan ministers at Narbonne, France, and drafted a document that established limits on the writings of their members. No work by a brother was to be published until a panel of Franciscan authorities had read and approved its contents. The author who transgressed against the rule would incur forfeiture of his manuscript and imprisonment. Bonaventura did not wish his Order to suffer an embarrassment similar to that experienced at the publication of Gerard’s Introduction.

Though much of his work stressed points of view which he shared with Albertus Magnus and other accepted “authorities” of his day, Bacon was a ware that the antagonism of this Franciscan brothers posed a stumbling block to his publishing. Desperate at the thought of censureship, he did that which the Order was most sure to frown upon: he stepped beyond their fellowship in search of a patron. The person upon whom he hung his hopes was Guy de Foulques, Cardinal Bishop of Sabina. Bacon approached the Cardinal through his secretary with a summary of his proposed writing project, asking for financial support. Unfortunately, the secretary thought him to mean the opus was ready for review; the response from the Cardinal included no gold, only a request for the polished manuscript to be delivered to him. Finding himself once again misunderstood, Bacon did not attempt to clarify his situation to this correspondent: Foulques’ request remained unacknowledged.

In February of 1265, Cardinal Foulques was elected Pope, taking the name Clement IV, and Bacon decided it was worth his while to again approach him. He sent his second message by way of an English knight, William Bonecor, who was en route to the Vatican as an envoy from the English King. Bacon entrusted his countryman with a letter to Clement, reminding him of the work which he had suggested two years earlier. In obedience to courtly etiquette, he did not mention finances in the letter. Instead, he explained his situation to the knight: Sir William listened patiently as Bacon detailed his need for copyists, equipment, artists, books and parchment. Then he continued on his journey, leaving the friar to nervously await the Pope’s response.

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