To limit the power of Satan was deemed hardly less impious than to limit the power of God.
The most powerful protectors availed him little.

His friend Guy of Foulques, having in 1265 been made Pope under the name of Clement IV, shielded him for a time; but the fury of the enemy was too strong, and when he made ready to perform a few experiments before a small audience, we are told that all Oxford was in an uproar.

It was believed that Satan was about to be let loose.

Everywhere priests, monks, fellows, and students rushed about, their garments streaming in the wind, and everywhere rose the cry, "Down with the magician!" and this cry, "Down with the magician!" resounded from cell to cell and from hall to hall.
Another weapon was also used upon the battlefields of science in that time with much effect.

The Arabs had made many noble discoveries in science, and Averroes had, in the opinion of many, divided the honours with St.Thomas Aquinas; these facts gave the new missile--it was the epithet "Mohammedan"; this, too, was flung with effect at Bacon.
The attack now began to take its final shape.