The Metaphysics of Brother Roger, of the Order of Friars Minor, regarding the defects contracted in the study of theology. original: "Methaphisica fratris Rogeri ordinis fratrum minorum de viciis contractis in studio theologie." Footnote 1 suggests a later hand incorrectly labeled this as belonging to the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans. Bacon was a Franciscan.

Since my primary intention is to point out the defects of theological study which have been contracted from the excessive curiosity of philosophy, along with the remedies for them, I will therefore introduce authentic testimonies of the philosophers into theological matters. For to use authors, as Cicero original: "Tullius" says in the first book of the Tusculan Disputations, "is both customary and ought to have the greatest weight in all cases." For this reason, Pliny, in the first book of the Natural History, lists almost countless authors whom he follows in the remaining thirty-six books. Hence he says: "For it is kind, I think, and full of honest modesty, to acknowledge those through whom you have made progress." And because variety itself cures the boredom of readers, as the Philosopher Aristotle says in the fourteenth book of his Natural Books Probably referring to the Metaphysics, which consists of fourteen books., and Seneca says in the book On Abundance of Words The quote is actually from Publilius Syrus: "Nothing is pleasant unless variety refreshes it." that "nothing is pleasant unless variety refreshes it," and in the book The Complaint of Nature, Alan of Lille says that "the mind, bored by the sameness of maternal The Latin "materne" may be a corruption of "nimie," meaning excessive. The mind is bored by a satiety of the same things. satiety, feels indignation." Therefore, 39 a 1. I will take care to introduce the eloquence of various authors and different authorities on the same subject. I will try to offer different authorities for various points, not only to avoid the boredom of repetition, as I mentioned, but so that those writing, debating, or speaking in any way may have a diversity of testimonies according to the variety of times. This way, base ignorance of such abundance and trifling speech will not offend the minds of the listeners. I will indeed refrain from using the authorities of philosophers whom the saints recite, except for the sayings of Aethicus the astronomer Aethicus Ister, the purported author of a Cosmography frequently cited in the Middle Ages.