ADDRESSING ANCIENT AUTHORITY - BRADWARDINE,THOMAS AND PRISCA-SAPIENTIA

Thomas Bradwardine's theological treatise De Causa Dei provides a valu able source for late medieval views on the relationship between scienc e and religion. Bradwardine, who can be seen as belonging in a traditi on deriving from Roger Bacon, was strongly impressed by the impotence of human reason in dealing with an apparent infinitude of facts, and a ccordingly stressed both ancient authority and prophetic revelation as appropriate sources of scientific knowledge. Two particularly importa nt ancient works for him were the pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum Secreto rum and De Mundo. The latter led him to an arresting image of the univ erse as a magnetically driven clock.