Gaude, Naples, 1882, tom.

vii, pp.

430, 431.
Magic was so common a charge that many physicians seemed to believe it themselves.

In the tenth century Gerbert, afterward known as Pope Sylvester II, was at once suspected of sorcery when he showed a disposition to adopt scientific methods; in the eleventh century this charge nearly cost the life of Constantine Africanus when he broke from the beaten path of medicine; in the thirteenth, it gave Roger Bacon, one of the greatest benefactors of mankind, many years of imprisonment, and nearly brought him to the stake: these cases are typical of very many.
Still another charge against physicians who showed a talent for investigation was that of Mohammedanism and Averroism; and Petrarch stigmatized Averroists as "men who deny Genesis and bark at Christ."(307) (307) For Averroes, see Renan, Averroes et l'Averroisme, Paris, 1861, pp.

327-335.