Klöster im Hochmittelalter

90 | Timothy J. Johnson
the path of the sun and the planets, and which planets and signified places
they control. All these make for the diverse characteristics of places, which if
know, a man would be able know the characteristics of all the things of the
world and the nature and properties they acquire by virtue of the place.” ²⁵
According to Bacon, the ability to understand the world is directly tied to the
knowledge of particular places, and the lack of evidence in this matter impedes
anyone who travels. Study of places also includes celestial entities as Scripture maintains
that the faithful will ultimately pass from this world corporeally into heaven
for all eternity. ²⁶ Unfortunately there is paucity of reliable data regarding matters
terrestrial and celestial. This epistemological lacuna is detrimental to those who
look to the Sacred Scriptures as the authoritative guide on the path to the heavenly
Jerusalem. ²⁷ Not only is the biblical text suspect given recent corrupted manuscripts
circulating in Paris, there is little recognition of the literal significance of biblical
places. However, those who know the locations, distances, heights, and depths of
individual terrestrial places, and experience their diversity in heat, dryness, cold,
humidity, fertility, sterility and numerous other characteristics, will have a firm
grasp of history, and ascend easily from the literal and grasp the spiritual meaning
of Sacred Scripture.
Bacon utilizes a nuanced utilization of locus to clarify the relationship between
place and transcendence and distinguishes himself from Bonaventure by underscoring
continentis rather than quietantis, “[…] for place has the property of terminating
local motion and the rational of containing; and therefore the knowledge
of these places renders a literal meaning, and as stated, prepares ways for spiritual
meanings to be understood […]”. ²⁸ Place has agency, and produces multiple stages
25 Quoniam igitur locorum mundi cognitionis maxima utilitas est, ideo aliam descriptionem oportet
afferri. Nam res mundi sciri non possunt nisi per notitiam locorum in quibus continentur. Locus est
principium generationis rerum, ut dicit Porphyrius; quia secundum diversitatem locorum est diversitatis
rerum; et non solum naturalium, sed moralium et scientialium, ut videmus in hominibus quod
secundum diversitatem regionum habent mores diversos et occupant se in artibus et scientiis diversis.
Quia igitur philosophia intromittit se in rebus mundi, multum ei deest adhuc apud Latinos, postquam
non habet certificationem locorum mundi. Sed haec certificatio stat in cognotione longitudinis et latitudinis
cujuslibet loci; tunc enim sciremus sub quibus stellis est quilibet locus, et quantum a via solis et
planetarum, et quorum planetarum et signorum loca recipiant dominium, quae omnia faciunt diversas
complexiones locorum; quae si sciente, possit homo scire complexiones omnium rerum mundi et natura
et proprietates quas a virtue loci contrhahunt. Roger Bacon, Opus majus, ed. John Henry Bridges, vol.
1, London 1900, pp. 300 f. Republished in three volumes by Elibron Classics. All translations are by the
author unless otherwise noted.
26 Roger Bacon, Opus majus (note 25 above), vol. 1, pp. 180 f.
27 Roger Bacon, Opus majus (note 25 above), vol. 1, pp. 183 f.
28 […] quoniam locus habet proprietatem termindandi motum localem et rationem continentiae; et ideo
istorum locorum cognitio et literam facit, ut dictum est, intelligi, et vias parat ad intelligentias spirituales
[…]. Roger Bacon, Opus majus (note 25 above), vol. 1, p. 184.