Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban,[a] PC

QC (/ˈbeɪkən/;[5] 22 January 1561 – 9 April
1626) was an English philosopher and
statesman who served as Attorney
General and as Lord Chancellor of
England. His works are credited with
developing the scientific method and
remained influential through the scientific
revolution.
 The Right Honourable
The Viscount St. Alban
PC QC

Portrait by Pourbus the Younger, 1617

Lord High Chancellor of England
In office
7 March 1617 – 3 May 1621
Monarch James I

Preceded by Sir Thomas Egerton

Succeeded by John Williams

Attorney General of England and Wales
In office
 In office
26 October 1613 – 7 March 1617
Monarch James I

Preceded by Sir Henry Hobart

Succeeded by Sir Henry Yelverton

Personal details

Born 22 January 1561

Strand, London, England

Died 9 April 1626 (aged 65)

Highgate, Middlesex,
England
Buried St. Michael's Church, St.
Albans

Mother Lady Anne Bacon

Father Sir Nicholas Bacon

Alma mater University of Cambridge

Trinity College,
 Trinity College,
Cambridge
University of Poitiers
Notable work Works by Francis Bacon

Signature

Philosophy career

Era Renaissance
philosophy

Region Western philosophy

School Empiricism
Main interests Natural philosophy
Philosophical logic

Influences

Aristotle, Palissy, Telesio, Cicero, Michel de

Montaigne, Machiavelli, Paracelsus, Plato,
 Montaigne, Machiavelli, Paracelsus, Plato,
Roger Bacon, Biringuccio, William Gilbert
Influenced
Basil Montagu, Encyclopédistes, Isaac
Newton, John Locke, Robert Boyle, Thomas
Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire, William
Petty

Bacon has been called the father of

empiricism.[6] His works argued for the
possibility of scientific knowledge based
only upon inductive reasoning and careful
observation of events in nature. Most
importantly, he argued science could be
achieved by use of a sceptical and
methodical approach whereby scientists
aim to avoid misleading themselves.
Although his practical ideas about such a
method, the Baconian method, did not have
a long-lasting influence, the general idea of
the importance and possibility of a
sceptical methodology makes Bacon the
father of the scientific method. This
method was a new rhetorical and
theoretical framework for science, the
practical details of which are still central in
debates about science and methodology.

Bacon was a patron of libraries and

developed a functional system for the
cataloging of books by dividing them into
three categories—history, poetry, and
philosophy—which could further be divided
into more specific subjects and
subheadings. Bacon was educated at
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he
rigorously followed the medieval
curriculum, largely in Latin.

Bacon was the first recipient of the

Queen's counsel designation, which was
conferred in 1597 when Elizabeth I of
England reserved Bacon as her legal
advisor. After the accession of James VI
and I in 1603, Bacon was knighted. He was
later created Baron Verulam in 1618[4] and
Viscount St. Alban in 1621.[3][b]
Because he had no heirs, both titles
became extinct upon his death in 1626, at
65 years. Bacon died of pneumonia, with
one account by John Aubrey stating that
he had contracted the condition while
studying the effects of freezing on the
preservation of meat. He is buried at St
Michael's Church, St Albans,
Hertfordshire.[7]

Biography
Early life
The young Francis Bacon. Inscription around his head
reads: Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem, Latin

for "If one could but paint his mind". National Portrait
Gallery, London

Francis Bacon was born on 22 January

1561 at York House near the Strand in
London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon
(Lord Keeper of the Great Seal) by his
second wife, Anne (Cooke) Bacon, the
daughter of the noted humanist Anthony
Cooke. His mother's sister was married to
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, making
Burghley Bacon's uncle.[8]

Biographers believe that Bacon was

educated at home in his early years owing
to poor health, which would plague him
throughout his life. He received tuition
from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford
with a strong leaning toward Puritanism.
He went up to Trinity College at the
University of Cambridge on 5 April 1573 at
the age of 12,[9] living for three years there,
together with his older brother Anthony
Bacon under the personal tutelage of Dr
John Whitgift, future Archbishop of
Canterbury. Bacon's education was
conducted largely in Latin and followed
the medieval curriculum. He was also
educated at the University of Poitiers. It
was also at Cambridge that Bacon first
met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed
by his precocious intellect, and was
accustomed to calling him "The young lord
keeper".[10]

His studies brought him to the belief that

the methods and results of science as
then practised were erroneous. His
reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his
rejection of Aristotelian philosophy, which
seemed to him barren, disputatious and
wrong in its objectives.

The Italianate York Water Gate – the entry to York

House, built about 1626, the year of Bacon's death

On 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered

de societate magistrorum at Gray's Inn. A
few months later, Francis went abroad
with Sir Amias Paulet, the English
ambassador at Paris, while Anthony
continued his studies at home. The state
of government and society in France under
Henry III afforded him valuable political
instruction.[11] For the next three years he
visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and
Spain.[12] During his travels, Bacon studied
language, statecraft, and civil law while
performing routine diplomatic tasks. On at
least one occasion he delivered diplomatic
letters to England for Walsingham,
Burghley, and Leicester, as well as for the
queen.[12]

The sudden death of his father in February

1579 prompted Bacon to return to
England. Sir Nicholas had laid up a
considerable sum of money to purchase
an estate for his youngest son, but he died
before doing so, and Francis was left with
only a fifth of that money.[11] Having
borrowed money, Bacon got into debt. To
support himself, he took up his residence
in law at Gray's Inn in 1579,[11] his income
being supplemented by a grant from his
mother Lady Anne of the manor of Marks
near Romford in Essex, which generated a
rent of £46.[13]

Parliamentarian
Francis Bacon's statue at Gray's Inn, South Square,
London

Bacon stated that he had three goals: to

uncover truth, to serve his country, and to
serve his church. He sought to further
these ends by seeking a prestigious post.
In 1580, through his uncle, Lord Burghley,
he applied for a post at court that might
enable him to pursue a life of learning, but
his application failed. For two years he
worked quietly at Gray's Inn, until he was
admitted as an outer barrister in 1582.[14]

His parliamentary career began when he

was elected MP for Bossiney, Cornwall, in
a by-election in 1581. In 1584 he took his
seat in parliament for Melcombe in Dorset,
and in 1586 for Taunton. At this time, he
began to write on the condition of parties
in the church, as well as on the topic of
philosophical reform in the lost tract
Temporis Partus Maximus. Yet he failed to
gain a position that he thought would lead
him to success.[11] He showed signs of
sympathy to Puritanism, attending the
sermons of the Puritan chaplain of Gray's
Inn and accompanying his mother to the
Temple Church to hear Walter Travers.
This led to the publication of his earliest
surviving tract, which criticised the English
church's suppression of the Puritan clergy.
In the Parliament of 1586, he openly urged
execution for the Catholic Mary, Queen of
Scots.

About this time, he again approached his

powerful uncle for help; this move was
followed by his rapid progress at the bar.
He became a bencher in 1586 and was
elected a Reader in 1587, delivering his
first set of lectures in Lent the following
year. In 1589, he received the valuable
appointment of reversion to the Clerkship
of the Star Chamber, although he did not
formally take office until 1608; the post
was worth £1,600 a year.[11][3]

In 1588 he became MP for Liverpool and

then for Middlesex in 1593. He later sat
three times for Ipswich (1597, 1601, 1604)
and once for Cambridge University
(1614).[15]

He became known as a liberal-minded

reformer, eager to amend and simplify the
law. Though a friend of the crown, he
opposed feudal privileges and dictatorial
powers. He spoke against religious
persecution. He struck at the House of
Lords in its usurpation of the Money Bills.
He advocated for the union of England and
Scotland, which made him a significant
influence toward the consolidation of the
United Kingdom; and he later would
advocate for the integration of Ireland into
the Union. Closer constitutional ties, he
believed, would bring greater peace and
strength to these countries.[16][17]

Final years of the Queen's reign

Bacon soon became acquainted with

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Queen
Elizabeth's favourite.[18] By 1591 he acted
as the earl's confidential adviser.[11][18]

In 1592 he was commissioned to write a

tract in response to the Jesuit Robert
Parson's anti-government polemic, which
he titled Certain observations made upon a
libel, identifying England with the ideals of
democratic Athens against the
belligerence of Spain.[19]

Bacon took his third parliamentary seat for

Middlesex when in February 1593
Elizabeth summoned Parliament to
investigate a Roman Catholic plot against
her. Bacon's opposition to a bill that would
levy triple subsidies in half the usual time
offended the Queen: opponents accused
him of seeking popularity, and for a time
the Court excluded him from favour.[20]

Memorial to Francis Bacon, in the chapel of Trinity

College, Cambridge

When the office of Attorney General fell

vacant in 1594, Lord Essex's influence was
not enough to secure the position for
Bacon and it was given to Sir Edward
Coke. Likewise, Bacon failed to secure the
lesser office of Solicitor General in 1595,
the Queen pointedly snubbing him by
appointing Sir Thomas Fleming instead.[3]
To console him for these disappointments,
Essex presented him with a property at
Twickenham, which Bacon subsequently
sold for £1,800.[21]

In 1597 Bacon became the first Queen's

Counsel designate, when Queen Elizabeth
reserved him as her legal counsel.[22] In
1597, he was also given a patent, giving
him precedence at the Bar.[23] Despite his
designations, he was unable to gain the
status and notoriety of others. In a plan to
revive his position he unsuccessfully
courted the wealthy young widow Lady
Elizabeth Hatton.[24] His courtship failed
after she broke off their relationship upon
accepting marriage to Sir Edward Coke, a
further spark of enmity between the
men.[25] In 1598 Bacon was arrested for
debt. Afterward, however, his standing in
the Queen's eyes improved. Gradually,
Bacon earned the standing of one of the
learned counsels.[26] His relationship with
the Queen further improved when he
severed ties with Essex—a shrewd move,
as Essex would be executed for treason in
1601.[27]

With others, Bacon was appointed to

investigate the charges against Essex. A
number of Essex's followers confessed
that Essex had planned a rebellion against
the Queen.[28] Bacon was subsequently a
part of the legal team headed by the
Attorney General Sir Edward Coke at
Essex's treason trial.[28] After the
execution, the Queen ordered Bacon to
write the official government account of
the trial, which was later published as A
DECLARATION of the Practices and
Treasons attempted and committed by
Robert late Earle of Essex and his
Complices, against her Majestie and her
Kingdoms ... after Bacon's first draft was
heavily edited by the Queen and her
ministers.[29][30]

According to his personal secretary and

chaplain, William Rawley, as a judge Bacon
was always tender-hearted, "looking upon
the examples with the eye of severity, but
upon the person with the eye of pity and
compassion". And also that "he was free
from malice", "no revenger of injuries", and
"no defamer of any man".[31]

James I comes to the throne

The succession of James I brought Bacon
into greater favour. He was knighted in
1603. In another shrewd move, Bacon
wrote his Apologies in defence of his
proceedings in the case of Essex, as Essex
had favoured James to succeed to the
throne.

The following year, during the course of

the uneventful first parliament session,
Bacon married Alice Barnham.[32] In June
1607 he was at last rewarded with the
office of solicitor general.[3] The following
year, he began working as the Clerkship of
the Star Chamber. Despite a generous
income, old debts still could not be paid.
He sought further promotion and wealth
by supporting King James and his arbitrary
policies.

Sir Francis Bacon, c. 1618

In 1610 the fourth session of James's first

parliament met. Despite Bacon's advice to
him, James and the Commons found
themselves at odds over royal
prerogatives and the king's embarrassing
extravagance. The House was finally
dissolved in February 1611. Throughout
this period Bacon managed to stay in the
favour of the king while retaining the
confidence of the Commons.

In 1613 Bacon was finally appointed

attorney general, after advising the king to
shuffle judicial appointments. As attorney
general, Bacon, by his zealous efforts—
which included torture—to obtain the
conviction of Edmund Peacham for
treason, raised legal controversies of high
constitutional importance;[33] and
successfully prosecuted Robert Carr, 1st
Earl of Somerset, and his wife, Frances
Howard, Countess of Somerset, for murder
in 1616. The so-called Prince's Parliament
of April 1614 objected to Bacon's presence
in the seat for Cambridge and to the
various royal plans that Bacon had
supported. Although he was allowed to
stay, parliament passed a law that forbade
the attorney general to sit in parliament.
His influence over the king had evidently
inspired resentment or apprehension in
many of his peers. Bacon, however,
continued to receive the King's favour,
which led to his appointment in March
1617 as temporary Regent of England (for
a period of a month), and in 1618 as Lord
Chancellor. On 12 July 1618 the king
created Bacon Baron Verulam, of Verulam,
in the Peerage of England; he then became
known as Francis, Lord Verulam.[3]

Bacon continued to use his influence with

the king to mediate between the throne
and Parliament, and in this capacity he
was further elevated in the same peerage,
as Viscount St Alban, on 27 January 1621.

Lord Chancellor and public

disgrace
Francis Bacon and the members of the Parliament on
the day of his political fall

Bacon's public career ended in disgrace in

1621. After he fell into debt, a
parliamentary committee on the
administration of the law charged him with
23 separate counts of corruption. His
lifelong enemy, Sir Edward Coke, who had
instigated these accusations,[34] was one
of those appointed to prepare the charges
against the chancellor.[35] To the lords,
who sent a committee to enquire whether
a confession was really his, he replied, "My
lords, it is my act, my hand, and my heart; I
beseech your lordships to be merciful to a
broken reed." He was sentenced to a fine
of £40,000 and committed to the Tower of
London at the king's pleasure; the
imprisonment lasted only a few days and
the fine was remitted by the king.[36] More
seriously, parliament declared Bacon
incapable of holding future office or sitting
in parliament. He narrowly escaped
undergoing degradation, which would have
stripped him of his titles of nobility.
Subsequently, the disgraced viscount
devoted himself to study and writing.
There seems little doubt that Bacon had
accepted gifts from litigants, but this was
an accepted custom of the time and not
necessarily evidence of deeply corrupt
behaviour.[37] While acknowledging that
his conduct had been lax, he countered
that he had never allowed gifts to
influence his judgement and, indeed, he
had on occasion given a verdict against
those who had paid him. He even had an
interview with King James in which he
assured:

The law of nature teaches me to

speak in my own defence: With
 respect to this charge of bribery
I am as innocent as any man
born on St. Innocents Day. I
never had a bribe or reward in
my eye or thought when
pronouncing judgment or
order... I am ready to make an
oblation of myself to the King

— 17 April 1621[38]

He also wrote the following to

Buckingham:
My mind is calm, for my fortune
is not my felicity. I know I have
clean hands and a clean heart,
and I hope a clean house for
friends or servants; but Job
himself, or whoever was the
justest judge, by such hunting
for matters against him as hath
been used against me, may for a
time seem foul, especially in a
time when greatness is the mark
and accusation is the game.[39]
The true reason for his acknowledgement
of guilt is the subject of debate, but some
authors speculate that it may have been
prompted by his sickness, or by a view that
through his fame and the greatness of his
office he would be spared harsh
punishment. He may even have been
blackmailed, with a threat to charge him
with sodomy, into confession.[37][40]

The British jurist Basil Montagu wrote in

Bacon's defence, concerning the episode
of his public disgrace:

Bacon has been accused of

servility, of dissimulation, of
various base motives, and their
filthy brood of base actions, all
unworthy of his high birth, and
incompatible with his great
wisdom, and the estimation in
which he was held by the noblest
spirits of the age. It is true that
there were men in his own time,
and will be men in all times, who
are better pleased to count spots
in the sun than to rejoice in its
glorious brightness. Such men
have openly libelled him, like
Dewes and Weldon, whose
falsehoods were detected as
soon as uttered, or have
fastened upon certain
ceremonious compliments and
dedications, the fashion of his
day, as a sample of his servility,
passing over his noble letters to
the Queen, his lofty contempt for
the Lord Keeper Puckering, his
open dealing with Sir Robert
Cecil, and with others, who,
powerful when he was nothing,
might have blighted his opening
fortunes for ever, forgetting his
advocacy of the rights of the
people in the face of the court,
and the true and honest
counsels, always given by him,
in times of great difficulty, both
to Elizabeth and her successor.
When was a "base sycophant"
loved and honoured by piety
such as that of Herbert,
Tennison, and Rawley, by noble
spirits like Hobbes, Ben Jonson,
and Selden, or followed to the
grave, and beyond it, with
 devoted affection such as that of
Sir Thomas Meautys.[41]

Personal life

Religious beliefs

Bacon was a devout Anglican. He believed

that philosophy and the natural world must
be studied inductively, but argued that we
can only study arguments for the
existence of God. Information on his
attributes (such as nature, action, and
purposes) can only come from special
revelation. But Bacon also held that
knowledge was cumulative, that study
encompassed more than a simple
preservation of the past. "Knowledge is the
rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator
and the relief of man's estate," he wrote. In
his Essays, he affirms that "a little
philosophy inclineth man's mind to
atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth
men's minds about to religion."[42]

Bacon's idea of idols of the mind may have

self-consciously represented an attempt to
Christianise science at the same time as
developing a new, reliable scientific
method; Bacon gave worship of Neptune
as an example of the idola tribus fallacy,
hinting at the religious dimensions of his
critique of the idols.[43]

Marriage to Alice Barnham

When he was 36, Bacon courted Elizabeth

Hatton, a young widow of 20. Reportedly,
she broke off their relationship upon
accepting marriage to a wealthier man,
Bacon's rival, Sir Edward Coke. Years later,
Bacon still wrote of his regret that the
marriage to Hatton had not taken place.[44]

At the age of 45, Bacon married Alice

Barnham, the 14-year-old daughter of a
well-connected London alderman and MP.
Bacon wrote two sonnets proclaiming his
love for Alice. The first was written during
his courtship and the second on his
wedding day, 10 May 1606. When Bacon
was appointed lord chancellor, "by special
Warrant of the King", Lady Bacon was
given precedence over all other Court
ladies. Bacon's personal secretary and
chaplain, William Rawley, wrote in his
biography of Bacon that his marriage was
one of "much conjugal love and respect",
mentioning a robe of honour that he gave
to Alice and which "she wore unto her
dying day, being twenty years and more
after his death".[31]
Engraving of Alice Barnham

However, an increasing number of reports

circulated about friction in the marriage,
with speculation that this may have been
due to Alice's making do with less money
than she had once been accustomed to. It
was said that she was strongly interested
in fame and fortune, and when household
finances dwindled, she complained
bitterly. Bunten wrote in her Life of Alice
Barnham[45] that, upon their descent into
debt, she went on trips to ask for financial
favours and assistance from their circle of
friends. Bacon disinherited her upon
discovering her secret romantic
relationship with Sir John Underhill. He
subsequently rewrote his will, which had
previously been very generous—leaving her
lands, goods, and income—and instead
revoked it all.

Sexuality

Several authors believe that despite his

marriage Bacon was primarily attracted to
the same sex.[46][47] Forker,[48] for example,
has explored the "historically
documentable sexual preferences" of both
Francis Bacon and King James I and
concluded they were both orientated to
"masculine love", a contemporary term
that "seems to have been used exclusively
to refer to the sexual preference of men
for members of their own gender."[49]

The well-connected antiquary John Aubrey

noted in his Brief Lives concerning Bacon,
"He was a Pederast. His Ganimeds and
Favourites tooke Bribes".[50] ("pederast" in
Renaissance diction meant generally
"homosexual" rather than specifically a
lover of minors; "ganimed" derives from
the mythical prince abducted by Zeus to
be his cup-bearer and bed warmer.) 

The Jacobean antiquarian, Sir Simonds

D'Ewes (Bacon's fellow Member of
Parliament) implied there had been a
question of bringing him to trial for
buggery,[51] which his brother Anthony
Bacon had also been charged with.[52]

In his Autobiography and Correspondence,

D'Ewes discusses Bacon's love for his
Welsh serving-men, in particular a "very
effeminate-faced youth" whom he calls
"his catamite and bedfellow" ("catamite" is
a corruption of "Ganymede"). The diary
entry for 3 May 1621—the date of Bacon's
censure by Parliament—reveals the full
extent of Bacon's homosexuality.

This conclusion has been disputed by

others, who point to lack of consistent
evidence, and consider the sources to be
more open to interpretation.[28][53][54][55][56]
Publicly, at least, Bacon distanced himself
from the idea of homosexuality. In his New
Atlantis, he described his utopian island as
being "the chastest nation under heaven",
and "as for masculine love, they have no
touch of it".[57]
Death

Monument to Bacon at his burial place, St Michael's

Church in St Albans

On 9 April 1626, Francis Bacon died of

pneumonia while at Arundel mansion at
Highgate outside London.[58] An influential
account of the circumstances of his death
was given by John Aubrey's Brief Lives.[58]
Aubrey's vivid account, which portrays
Bacon as a martyr to experimental
scientific method, had him journeying to
Highgate through the snow with the King's
physician when he is suddenly inspired by
the possibility of using the snow to
preserve meat:

They were resolved they would

try the experiment presently.
They alighted out of the coach
and went into a poor woman's
house at the bottom of Highgate
hill, and bought a fowl, and
made the woman exenterate it.
After stuffing the fowl with snow, Bacon
contracted a fatal case of pneumonia.
Some people, including Aubrey, consider
these two contiguous, possibly
coincidental events as related and
causative of his death:

The Snow so chilled him that he

immediately fell so extremely ill,
that he could not return to his
Lodging … but went to the Earle
of Arundel's house at Highgate,
where they put him into … a
damp bed that had not been
 layn-in … which gave him such a
cold that in 2 or 3 days as I
remember Mr Hobbes told me,
he died of Suffocation.[59]

Aubrey has been criticised for his evident

credulousness in this and other works; on
the other hand, he knew Thomas Hobbes,
Bacon's fellow-philosopher and friend.
Being unwittingly on his deathbed, the
philosopher dictated his last letter to his
absent host and friend Lord Arundel:

My very good Lord,—I was

likely to have had the fortune of
Caius Plinius the elder, who lost
his life by trying an experiment
about the burning of Mount
Vesuvius; for I was also desirous
to try an experiment or two
touching the conservation and
induration of bodies. As for the
experiment itself, it succeeded
excellently well; but in the
journey between London and
Highgate, I was taken with such
a fit of casting as I know not
whether it were the Stone, or
some surfeit or cold, or indeed a
touch of them all three. But
when I came to your Lordship's
House, I was not able to go back,
and therefore was forced to take
up my lodging here, where your
housekeeper is very careful and
diligent about me, which I
assure myself your Lordship will
not only pardon towards him,
but think the better of him for it.
For indeed your Lordship's
House was happy to me, and I
kiss your noble hands for the
welcome which I am sure you
 give me to it. I know how unfit it
is for me to write with any other
hand than mine own, but by my
troth my fingers are so
disjointed with sickness that I
cannot steadily hold a pen.[60]

Another account appears in a biography by

William Rawley, Bacon's personal secretary
and chaplain:

He died on the ninth day of April

in the year 1626, in the early
morning of the day then
celebrated for our Saviour's
resurrection, in the sixty-sixth
year of his age, at the Earl of
Arundel's house in Highgate,
near London, to which place he
casually repaired about a week
before; God so ordaining that he
should die there of a gentle
fever, accidentally accompanied
with a great cold, whereby the
defluxion of rheum fell so
plentifully upon his breast, that
he died by suffocation.[61]
He was buried in St Michael's church in St
Albans. At the news of his death, over 30
great minds collected together their
eulogies of him, which were then later
published in Latin.[62] He left personal
assets of about £7,000 and lands that
realised £6,000 when sold.[63] His debts
amounted to more than £23,000,
equivalent to more than £3m at current
value.[63][64]

Philosophy and works

Bacon, Sylva sylvarum

Francis Bacon's philosophy is displayed in

the vast and varied writings he left, which
might be divided into three great branches:

Scientific works – in which his ideas for

a universal reform of knowledge into
scientific methodology and the
 improvement of mankind's state using
the Scientific method are presented.
Religious and literary works – in which he
presents his moral philosophy and
theological meditations.
Juridical works – in which his reforms in
English Law are proposed.

Influence

Frontispiece to 'The History of Royal-Society of

London' picturing Bacon (in the right) among the
London , picturing Bacon (in the right) among the
founding influences of the Society. National Portrait
Gallery, London

Science

Bacon's seminal work Novum Organum

was influential in the 1630s and 1650s
among scholars, in particular Sir Thomas
Browne, who in his encyclopedia
Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646–72)
frequently adheres to a Baconian
approach to his scientific enquiries. This
book entails the basis of the Scientific
Method as a means of observation and
induction. During the Restoration, Bacon
was commonly invoked as a guiding spirit
of the Royal Society founded under
Charles II in 1660.[65][66] During the 18th-
century French Enlightenment, Bacon's
non-metaphysical approach to science
became more influential than the dualism
of his French contemporary Descartes,
and was associated with criticism of the
ancien regime. In 1733 Voltaire introduced
him to a French audience as the "father" of
the scientific method, an understanding
which had become widespread by the
1750s.[67] In the 19th century his emphasis
on induction was revived and developed by
William Whewell, among others. He has
been reputed as the "Father of
Experimental Philosophy".[68]
He also wrote a long treatise on Medicine,
History of Life and Death,[69] with natural
and experimental observations for the
prolongation of life.

One of his biographers, the historian

William Hepworth Dixon, states: "Bacon's
influence in the modern world is so great
that every man who rides in a train, sends
a telegram, follows a steam plough, sits in
an easy chair, crosses the channel or the
Atlantic, eats a good dinner, enjoys a
beautiful garden, or undergoes a painless
surgical operation, owes him
something."[70]
In 1902 Hugo von Hofmannsthal published
a fictional letter, known as The Lord
Chandos Letter, addressed to Bacon and
dated 1603, about a writer who is
experiencing a crisis of language.

North America

A Newfoundland stamp, which reads "Lord Bacon –

the guiding spirit in colonization scheme"
Bacon played a leading role in establishing
the British colonies in North America,
especially in Virginia, the Carolinas and
Newfoundland in northeastern Canada.
His government report on "The Virginia
Colony" was submitted in 1609. In 1610
Bacon and his associates received a
charter from the king to form the Tresurer
and the Companye of Adventurers and
planter of the Cittye of London and Bristoll
for the Collonye or plantacon in
Newfoundland, and sent John Guy to found
a colony there.[71] Thomas Jefferson, the
third President of the United States, wrote:
"Bacon, Locke and Newton. I consider
them as the three greatest men that have
ever lived, without any exception, and as
having laid the foundation of those
superstructures which have been raised in
the Physical and Moral sciences".[72]

In 1910 Newfoundland issued a postage

stamp to commemorate Bacon's role in
establishing the colony. The stamp
describes Bacon as "the guiding spirit in
Colonization Schemes in 1610".[44]
Moreover, some scholars believe he was
largely responsible for the drafting, in 1609
and 1612, of two charters of government
for the Virginia Colony.[73] William
Hepworth Dixon considered that Bacon's
name could be included in the list of
Founders of the United States.[74]

Law

Although few of his proposals for law

reform were adopted during his lifetime,
Bacon's legal legacy was considered by
the magazine New Scientist in 1961 as
having influenced the drafting of the
Napoleonic Code as well as the law
reforms introduced by 19th-century British
Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel.[75] The
historian William Hepworth Dixon referred
to the Napoleonic Code as "the sole
embodiment of Bacon's thought", saying
that Bacon's legal work "has had more
success abroad than it has found at
home", and that in France "it has
blossomed and come into fruit".[76]

Harvey Wheeler attributed to Bacon, in

Francis Bacon's Verulamium—the Common
Law Template of The Modern in English
Science and Culture, the creation of these
distinguishing features of the modern
common law system:

using cases as repositories of evidence

about the "unwritten law";
determining the relevance of precedents
by exclusionary principles of evidence
 and logic;
treating opposing legal briefs as
adversarial hypotheses about the
application of the "unwritten law" to a
new set of facts.

Statue of Francis Bacon in the Library of Congress,

Washington, DC.

As late as the 18th century some juries

still declared the law rather than the facts,
but already before the end of the 17th
century Sir Matthew Hale explained
modern common law adjudication
procedure and acknowledged Bacon as
the inventor of the process of discovering
unwritten laws from the evidences of their
applications. The method combined
empiricism and inductivism in a new way
that was to imprint its signature on many
of the distinctive features of modern
English society.[77] Paul H. Kocher writes
that Bacon is considered by some jurists
to be the father of modern
Jurisprudence.[78]

Bacon is commemorated with a statue in

Gray's Inn, South Square in London where
he received his legal training, and where he
was elected Treasurer of the Inn in
1608.[79]

More recent scholarship on Bacon's

jurisprudence has focused on his
advocating torture as a legal recourse for
the crown.[80] Bacon himself was not a
stranger to the torture chamber: in his
various legal capacities in both Elizabeth
I's and James I's reigns, Bacon was listed
as a commissioner on five torture
warrants. In 1613(?), in a letter addressed
to King James I on the question of
torture's place within English law, Bacon
identifies the scope of torture as a means
to further the investigation of threats to
the state: "In the cases of treasons, torture
is used for discovery, and not for
evidence."[81] For Bacon, torture was not a
punitive measure, an intended form of
state repression, but instead offered a
modus operandi for the government agent
tasked with uncovering acts of treason.

Organization of knowledge

Francis Bacon developed the idea that a

classification of knowledge must be
universal while handling all possible
resources. In his progressive view,
humanity would be better if the access to
educational resources were provided to
the public, hence the need to organise it.
His approach to learning reshaped the
Western view of knowledge theory from an
individual to a social interest. The original
classification proposed by Bacon
organised all types of knowledge in three
general groups: history, poetry, and
philosophy. He did that based on his
understanding of how information is
processed: memory, imagination, and
reason, respectively. His methodical
approach to the categorization of
knowledge goes hand-in-hand with his
principles of scientific methods. Bacon’s
writings were the starting point for William
Torrey Harris classification system for
libraries in the United States by the second
half of the 1800s.

Historical debates
Bacon and Shakespeare

The Baconian hypothesis of

Shakespearean authorship, first proposed
in the mid-19th century, contends that
Francis Bacon wrote some or even all of
the plays conventionally attributed to
William Shakespeare.[82]

Occult theories
Francis Bacon often gathered with the
men at Gray's Inn to discuss politics and
philosophy, and to try out various
theatrical scenes that he admitted
writing.[83] Bacon's alleged connection to
the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons has
been widely discussed by authors and
scholars in many books.[54] However,
others, including Daphne du Maurier in her
biography of Bacon, have argued that there
is no substantive evidence to support
claims of involvement with the
Rosicrucians.[84] Frances Yates[85] does
not make the claim that Bacon was a
Rosicrucian, but presents evidence that he
was nevertheless involved in some of the
more closed intellectual movements of his
day. She argues that Bacon's movement
for the advancement of learning was
closely connected with the German
Rosicrucian movement, while Bacon's New
Atlantis portrays a land ruled by
Rosicrucians. He apparently saw his own
movement for the advancement of
learning to be in conformity with
Rosicrucian ideals.[86]

An old volume of Francis Bacon and a rose

The link between Bacon's work and the
Rosicrucians' ideals which Yates allegedly
found was the conformity of the purposes
expressed by the Rosicrucian Manifestos
and Bacon's plan of a "Great
Instauration",[86] for the two were calling
for a reformation of both "divine and
human understanding",[c][87] as well as
both had in view the purpose of mankind's
return to the "state before the Fall".[d][e]

Another major link is said to be the

resemblance between Bacon's New
Atlantis and the German Rosicrucian
Johann Valentin Andreae's Description of
the Republic of Christianopolis (1619).[88]
Andreae describes a utopic island in which
Christian theosophy and applied science
ruled, and in which the spiritual fulfilment
and intellectual activity constituted the
primary goals of each individual, the
scientific pursuits being the highest
intellectual calling—linked to the
achievement of spiritual perfection.
Andreae's island also depicts a great
advancement in technology, with many
industries separated in different zones
which supplied the population's needs—
which shows great resemblance to
Bacon's scientific methods and
purposes.[89][90]
While rejecting occult conspiracy theories
surrounding Bacon and the claim Bacon
personally identified as a Rosicrucian,
intellectual historian Paolo Rossi has
argued for an occult influence on Bacon's
scientific and religious writing. He argues
that Bacon was familiar with early modern
alchemical texts and that Bacon's ideas
about the application of science had roots
in Renaissance magical ideas about
science and magic facilitating humanity's
domination of nature.[91] Rossi further
interprets Bacon's search for hidden
meanings in myth and fables in such texts
as The Wisdom of the Ancients as
succeeding earlier occultist and
Neoplatonic attempts to locate hidden
wisdom in pre-Christian myths.[92] As
indicated by the title of his study, however,
Rossi claims Bacon ultimately rejected the
philosophical foundations of occultism as
he came to develop a form of modern
science.[91]

Rossi's analysis and claims have been

extended by Jason Josephson-Storm in
his study, The Myth of Disenchantment.
Josephson-Storm also rejects conspiracy
theories surrounding Bacon and does not
make the claim that Bacon was an active
Rosicrucian. However, he argues that
Bacon's "rejection" of magic actually
constituted an attempt to purify magic of
Catholic, demonic, and esoteric influences
and to establish magic as a field of study
and application paralleling Bacon's vision
of science. Furthermore, Josephson-Storm
argues that Bacon drew on magical ideas
when developing his experimental
method.[93] Josephson-Storm finds
evidence that Bacon considered nature a
living entity, populated by spirits, and
argues Bacon's views on the human
domination and application of nature
actually depend on his spiritualism and
personification of nature.[94]
The Rosicrucian organisation AMORC
claims that Bacon was the "Imperator"
(leader) of the Rosicrucian Order in both
England and the European continent, and
would have directed it during his
lifetime.[95]

Bacon's influence can also be seen on a

variety of religious and spiritual authors,
and on groups that have utilised his
writings in their own belief
systems.[96][97][98][99][100]

Bibliography
Some of the more notable works by Bacon
are:
Essays (1st edition 1597)
The Advancement and Proficience of
Learning Divine and Human (1605)
Essays (2nd edition – 38 essays, 1612)
Instauratio magna (The Great
Instauration) (1620): a multi-part work
including Distributio operis (plan of the
work); Novum Organum (new engine);
Parasceve ad historiam naturalem,
(preparatory for natural history) and
Catalogus historiarum particularium
(catalogue of particular histories) [101]
De augmentis scientiarum (1623) - an
enlargement of The Advancement of
Learning translated into Latin
 Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral
(3rd/final edition – 58 essays, 1625)
New Atlantis (1626)

See also
Cestui que (defence and comment on
Chudleigh's Case)
Romanticism and Bacon

Notes
a. There is some confusion over the
spelling of "Viscount St. Alban". Some
sources, such as the Dictionary of
National Biography (1885) and the
11th edition of the Encyclopædia
Britannica, spell the title with "St.
 Albans";[1][2] others, such as the 2007
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography and the 9th edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, spell it "St.
Alban".[3][4]
b. Contemporary spelling, used by Bacon
himself in his letter of thanks to the
king for his elevation.Birch, Thomas
(1763). Letters, Speeches, Charges,
Advices, &c of Lord Chancellor Bacon.
6. London: Andrew Millar. pp. 271–2.
OCLC 228676038 .
c. "Howbeit we know after a time there
wil now be a general reformation, both
of divine and humane things,
 according to our desire, and the
expectation of others: for it's fitting,
that before the rising of the Sun, there
should appear and break forth Aurora,
or some clearness, or divine light in
the sky" – Fama Fraternitatis sacred-
texts.com
d. "Like good and faithful guardians, we
may yield up their fortune to mankind
upon the emancipation and majority of
their understanding, from which must
necessarily follow an improvement of
their estate [...]. For man, by the fall,
fell at the same time from his state of
innocency and from his dominion over
creation. Both of these losses however
 can even in this life be in some part
repaired; the former by religion and
faith, the latter by arts and sciences. –
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum
e. "We ought therefore here to observe
well, and make it known unto
everyone, that God hath certainly and
most assuredly concluded to send and
grant to the whole world before her
end ... such a truth, light, life, and glory,
as the first man Adam had, which he
lost in Paradise, after which his
successors were put and driven, with
him, to misery. Wherefore there shall
cease all servitude, falsehood, lies, and
darkness, which by little and little, with
 the great world's revolution, was crept
into all arts, works, and governments
of men, and have darkened most part
of them". – Confessio Fraternitatis

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(1561-1626)"  . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.).
Dictionary of National Biography. 2.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 328–60.
Peltonen, Markku (2007) [2004]. "Bacon,
Francis, Viscount St Alban (1561–
1626)". Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography (online ed.). Oxford University
Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/990 .
(Subscription or UK public library
membership required.)
Attribution
 This article incorporates text from a
publication now in the public
domain: Adamson, Robert; Mitchell,
John Malcolm (1911), "Bacon, Francis",
in Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), Encyclopædia
Britannica, 3 (11th ed.), Cambridge
University Press, pp. 135–152
 This article incorporates text from a
publication now in the public
domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed.
(1908). "Bacon, Francis". New Schaff–
Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious
Knowledge. 2 (third ed.). London and
New York: Funk and Wagnalls.
Further reading
Farrell, John (2006). "6: The Science of
Suspicion". Paranoia and Modernity:
Cervantes to Rousseau. Cornell
University Press. ISBN 978-0801474064.
Farrington, Benjamin (1964). The
Philosophy of Francis Bacon. University
of Chicago Press. Contains English
translations of
Temporis Partus Masculus
Cogitata et Visa
Redargutio Philosophiarum
Heese, Mary (1968). "Francis Bacon's
Philosophy of Science". In Vickers, Brian
(ed.). Essential Articles for the Study of
Francis Bacon. Hamden, CT: Archon
Books. pp. 114–139.
Lewis, Rhodri (2014). "Francis Bacon
and Ingenuity". Renaissance Quarterly.
67 (1): 113–163. doi:10.1086/676154 .
JSTOR 10.1086/676154 .
Roselle, Daniel; Young, Anne P. "5: The
'Scientific Revolution' and the
'Intellectual Revolution' ". Our Western
Heritage.
Rossi, Paolo (1968). Francis Bacon: from
Magic to Science. University of Chicago
Press.
 Serjeantson, Richard. "Francis Bacon
and the 'Interpretation of Nature' in the
Late Renaissance," Isis (Dec 2014)
105#4 pp. 681–705.

External links

Francis Bacon
at Wikipedia's sister projects

Media
from
Wikimedia
Commons
 Quotations
from
Wikiquote
Texts from
Wikisource
Data from
Wikidata

Klein, Juergen. "Francis Bacon" . In

Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Francis Bacon" . Internet Encyclopedia
of Philosophy.
Works by Francis Bacon at Project
Gutenberg
Works by or about Francis Bacon at
Internet Archive
Works by Francis Bacon at LibriVox
(public domain audiobooks)
"Archival material relating to Francis
Bacon" . UK National Archives.
Contains the New Organon, slightly
modified for easier reading
Lord Macaulay's essay Lord Bacon
(Edinburgh Review, 1837) [1]
Francis Bacon of Verulam. Realistic
Philosophy and its Age by Kuno Fischer,
translated from the German by John
Oxenford London 1857
Bacon by Thomas Fowler (1881) public
domain at Internet Archive
The Francis Bacon Society
English translation of Hugo von
Hofmannsthal's fictional The Lord
Chandos Letter, addressed to Bacon
The George Fabyan Collection at the
Library of Congress is rich in the works
of Francis Bacon.
Francis Bacon Research Trust
Montmorency, James E. G. (1913).
"FRANCIS BACON" . In Macdonell, John;
Manson, Edward William Donoghue
(eds.). Great Jurists of the World.
London: John Murray. pp. 144–168.
Retrieved 11 March 2019 – via Internet
Archive.
 Political offices

Attorney
Preceded by General of Succeeded by
Sir Henry England and Henry
Hobart Wales Yelverton
1613–1617

Lord High
Preceded by
Chancellor of In
The Viscount
England commission
Brackley
1617–1621

Parliament of England

Preceded by Member of Succeeded by

Francis Parliament for Sir Francis
Kinwellmarsh Bossiney Drake
Robert Doyly 1581–1584
 With: Robert John
Redge Leveson

Member of
Parliament for
Weymouth
Succeeded by
and
Preceded by Laurence
Melcombe
Laurence Tomson
Regis
Tomson Edward
1584–1585
John Wolley Bacon
With:
Moyle Finch William
Laurence
Thomas Sprynt
Tomson
Hanham Edward
George
Phelips
Grenville
Edward
Penruddock
Preceded by Member of Succeeded by
Maurice Parliament for Thomas
Horner Taunton Fisher
William 1586–1588 John
Goldwell With: John Goldwell
Goldwell

Member of
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William 1588–1593 Doughty
Cavendish With: Edward John Wroth
Warren

Preceded by Member of Succeeded by

Robert Wroth Parliament for Robert Wroth
William Middlesex Sir John
Fleetwood 1593 Peyton
 With: Robert
Wroth

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Parliament for
Ipswich
Preceded by
1597–1614 Succeeded by
Robert
With: Michael Robert
Barker
Stanhope Snelling
Zachariah
(1597–1604) William Cage
Lok
Henry
Glemham
(1604–1614)

Preceded by Member of Succeeded by

Nicholas Parliament for Robert
Steward Cambridge Naunton
University
 Henry 1614–1621 Barnabas
Mountlow With: Sir Miles Gooch
Sandys

Peerage of England

Baron
New creation Verulam Extinct
1618–1626

Viscount St
New creation Alban Extinct
1621–1626

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