A report on Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure and Scholasticism

Doctor Alexander of (H)ales by George Glover. Line engraving, mid 17th century.

17th-century portrait of Bonaventure by French painter and friar Claude François

14th-century image of a university lecture

Bonaventure's coat of arms of Cardinal Bishop of Albano

St. Bonaventure receives the envoys of the Byzantine Emperor at the Second Council of Lyon.

Alexander of Hales (also Halensis, Alensis, Halesius, Alesius ; c. 1185 – 21 August 1245), also called Doctor Irrefragibilis (by Pope Alexander IV in the Bull De Fontibus Paradisi) and Theologorum Monarcha, was a Franciscan friar, theologian and philosopher important in the development of scholasticism.

- Alexander of Hales

Bonaventure (Bonaventura ; Bonaventura de Balneoregio; 1221 – 15 July 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian Catholic Franciscan, bishop, cardinal, scholastic theologian and philosopher.

- Bonaventure

He entered the Franciscan Order in 1243 and studied at the University of Paris, possibly under Alexander of Hales, and certainly under Alexander's successor, John of Rochelle.

- Bonaventure

The Scholastics, also known as Schoolmen, included as its main figures Anselm of Canterbury ("the father of scholasticism" ), Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas.

- Scholasticism

The latter title is especially suggestive of his role in forming several Franciscans who later became influential thinkers in the faculty, among them Bonaventure, John of La Rochelle, Odo Rigaldus, William of Middleton and Richard Rufus of Cornwall.

- Alexander of Hales

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Roger Bacon

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Medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiricism.

The memorial to Roger Bacon at St Mary Major, Ilchester

A diorama of Bacon presenting one of his works to the chancellors of Paris University

A 19th-century engraving of Bacon observing the stars at Oxford

Ernest Board's portrayal of Bacon in his observatory at Merton College

A manuscript illustration of Bacon presenting one of his works to the chancellor of the University of Paris

$Bacon's diagram of light being refracted by a spherical container of water$

"Roger Bacon discovers gunpowder", "whereby Guy Fawkes was made possible", an image from Bill Nye's Comic History of England

A 19th-century etching of Bacon conducting an alchemical experiment

A portrait of Roger Bacon from a 15th-century edition of De Retardatione

The first page of the letter from Bacon to Clement IV introducing his Opus Tertium

A woodcut from Robert Greene's play displaying the brazen head pronouncing "Time is. Time was. Time is past."

"Friar Bacon's Study" in Oxford. By the late 18th century this study on Folly Bridge had become a place of pilgrimage for scientists, but the building was pulled down in 1779 to allow for road widening.

William Blake's visionary head of "Friar Bacon"

alt=|Spine of a 1750 edition of Opus majus

alt=|Title page of 1750 edition of Opus majus

alt=|First page of 1750 edition of Opus majus

21st century re-evaluations emphasise that Bacon was essentially a medieval thinker, with much of his "experimental" knowledge obtained from books in the scholastic tradition.

In this work Bacon criticises his contemporaries Alexander of Hales and Albertus Magnus, who were held in high repute despite having only acquired their knowledge of Aristotle at second hand during their preaching careers.

Bacon was largely ignored by his contemporaries in favor of other scholars such as Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas, although his works were studied by Bonaventure, John Pecham, and Peter of Limoges, through whom he may have influenced Raymond Lull.