Francis Bacon Biography and Timeline — Page 2

Lord Chancellor

Appointed Lord Chancellor

Role range: 1618-1621

Lord Chancellor

Bacon becomes Lord Chancellor and is created Baron Verulam.

Bacon Receives Baron Verulam Title

Bacon was elevated to the peerage as Baron Verulam while serving as Lord Chancellor. The honor marked the height of his political standing before his subsequent disgrace.

Bacon Pursues Reform Of Legal Procedure

Bacon considered how the judicial system might operate with greater consistency and efficiency. His interest in practical institutional methods paralleled his criticism of confused reasoning in science.

Bacon Criticizes Unproductive Syllogistic Reasoning

Bacon argued that inherited reliance on deductive argument could not itself discover new properties of nature. He called for sustained empirical investigation before secure general principles were formed.

Bacon Presents Idols Of The Mind

In the Novum Organum Bacon described recurring sources of intellectual error as idols. This diagnostic scheme called for systematic correction of prejudice and linguistic confusion.

Bacon Proposes Tables Of Induction

Bacon outlined the use of organized tables of presence, absence and degree in investigating nature. The procedure was meant to discipline the move from observations toward explanations.

Bacon Publishes Great Instauration Program

The Great Instauration announced a comprehensive project for rebuilding the organization of knowledge. Its plan connected experimental natural history with a revised method of inference.

Novum Organum

Bacon publishes Novum Organum, setting out his program for the reform of knowledge.

Peerage

Created Viscount St Alban

Impeachment

Parliament fines Bacon & declares him incapable of holding office

Trial

Parliament fines Bacon & declares him incapable of holding office

Trial

Confesses to bribery in chancery suits, fined 40,000 pounds, later remitted by the King

Bacon Falls From Judicial Office

Parliament investigated Bacon over acceptance of gifts in judicial matters and he acknowledged misconduct. His removal from office left him more time for writing while permanently damaging his public reputation.

Bacon Plans Reform After Impeachment

Following his disgrace Bacon returned to projects for intellectual and legal reform. His later writings combined frustrated hopes of rehabilitation with renewed commitment to systematic inquiry.

Bacon Outlines Experimental Natural History

Bacon published materials intended to guide the collection of facts for a reformed natural philosophy. The project treated observation as organized collaborative labor rather than casual curiosity.

Bacon Publishes History Of Winds

Bacon's Historia Ventorum gathered material for an experimental study of winds. The work exemplified his conviction that research should begin with carefully assembled natural histories.

Bacon Writes Historical Study Of Henry Seventh

Bacon published a history of Henry VII that analyzed the consolidation of Tudor monarchy. The work brought his political experience to bear on the interpretation of historical power.

Bacon Expands Learning Treatise In Latin

Bacon published De Augmentis Scientiarum as a substantially enlarged Latin treatment of the advancement of learning. Its international form made his taxonomy and research agenda accessible to European scholars.

Bacon Publishes History Of Life And Death

Bacon examined aging and the possibility of extending human life in a dedicated natural history. His treatment linked medicine to the practical ambitions of his experimental program.

Bacon Imagines Cooperative Research Society

In New Atlantis Bacon depicted Salomon's House as an institution dedicated to coordinated inquiry. The fictional organization later became influential in discussions of collective scientific research.

Bacon Publishes Final Lifetime Essays Edition

Bacon issued a greatly expanded edition of his Essays covering a broad range of practical and ethical subjects. The collection became a major model for the English literary essay.

Death of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon dies at Highgate near London.

New Atlantis Appears After Bacon Death

New Atlantis was published posthumously alongside natural historical materials prepared during Bacon's final years. The utopian narrative gave lasting literary form to his hopes for institutional science.