The Life of The Right Honourable Francis Bacon,
Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban.
By William Rawley, D.D.His Lordship’s
First and Last Chaplain and of Late his Majesty’s Chaplain in Ordinary. 1
Francis Bacon, the glory of his age and nation, the adorner and ornament of learning, was born in York House, or York Place, in the Strand, on the two and twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord 1560. His father was that famous Counsellor to Queen Elizabeth, the second prop of the kingdom in his time, Sir Nicholas Bacon, knight, Lord keeper of the great seal of England; a lord of known prudence, sufficiency, moderation, and integrity. His mother was Anne, one of the daughters of Sir Anthony Cook; unto whom the erudition of King Edward the Sixth had been committed; a choice lady, and eminent for piety, virtue, and learning; being exquisitely skilled, for a woman, 22 in the Greek and Latin tongues. These being the parents, you may easily imagine what the issue was like to be; having had whatsoever nature or breeding could put into him.
1. Spedding: Life, vol. i. 3: This is the title of an edition printed in 1670, after Dr. Rawley’s death, and prefixed to the ninth edition of the Sylva Sylvarum. The text of the Life itself is taken from the second edition of the Resuscitatio, the latest with which Dr. Rawley had anything to do. I have, however, modernised the spelling; altered at discretion the typographical arrangement as to capitals, italics, and punctuation, which is very perplexing to a modern eye and has nothing to recommend it; and added the notes.
2. This Life was first published in 1657, as an introduction to the volume entitled Resuscitatio; or bringing into public light several pieces of the works, civil, historical, philosophical, and theological, hitherto sleeping, of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban; according to the best corrected copies. Of this volume a second edition, or rather a re-issue with fresh title page and dedication, and several sheets of new matter inserted, appeared in 1661; the Life of the Honourable Author being prefixed as before, and not altered otherwise than by the introduction of three new sentences; to make room for which two leaves were cancelled. A third edition was brought out in 1671 by the original publisher, containing a good deal of new matter; for which however Dr. Rawley, who died in 1667, is not answerable.
The Beginning
His first and childish years were not without some mark of eminency; at which time he was endued with that pregnancy and towardness of wit, as they were presages of that deep and universal apprehension which was manifest in him afterward; and caused him to be taken notice of by several persons of worth and place, and especially by the Queen; who (as I have been informed) delighted much then to confer with him, and to prove him with questions; unto whom he delivered himself with that gravity and maturity above his years, that Her Majesty would often term him, The young Lord-keeper. Being asked by the Queen how old he was, he answered with much discretion, being then but a boy, that he was two years younger than Her Majesty’s happy reign; with which answer the Queen was much taken. 33
3 3. This last sentence was added in the edition of 1661. The substance of it had appeared before in the Latin Life prefixed to the Opuscula Pliilosophica in 1658, which is only a free translation of this, with a few corrections.
Schoolings
At the ordinary years of ripeness for the university, or rather something earlier, he was sent by his father to Trinity College, in Cambridge, 44 to be educated and bred under the tuition of Doctor John White-gift, then master of the college; afterwards the renowned arch bishop of Canterbury; a prelate of the first magnitude for sanctity, learning, patience, and humility; under whom he was observed to have been more than an ordinary proficient in the several arts and sciences.
Whilst he was commorant in the university, about six teen years of age, (as his lordship hath been pleased to impart unto myself), he first fell into the dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle; not for the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way; being a philosophy (as his lordship used to say) only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man; in which mind he continued to his dying day.
4 4. He began to reside in April 1573; was absent from the latter end of August 1574 till the beginning of March, while the plague raged; and left the university finally at Christmas 1575, being then on the point of sixteen. See Whitgift’s Accounts, printed in the British Magazine, vol. xxxii. p. 365., and xxxiii. p. 444.
To France
After he had passed the circle of the liberal arts, his father thought fit to frame and mould him for the arts of state; and for that end sent him over into France with Sir Amyas Paulet 55 then employed ambassador lieger into France; by whom he was after awhile held fit to be entrusted with some message or advertisement to the Queen; which having performed with great approbation, he returned back into France again, with intention to continue for some years there. In his absence in France his father the lord-keeper died, 66 having collected (as I have heard of knowing persons) a considerable sum of money, which he had separated, with intention to have made a competent purchase of land for the livelihood of this his youngest son (who was only unprovided for; and though he was the youngest in years, yet he was not the lowest in his father’s affection); but the said purchase being unaccomplished at his father’s death, there came no greater share to him than his single part and portion of the money dividable amongst five brethren; by which means he lived in some straits and necessities in his younger years. For as for that pleasant site and man or of Gorhambury, he came not to it till many years after, by the death of his dearest brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon, 77 being returned from travel, he applied himself to the study of the common law, which he took upon him to be his profession a gentleman equal to him in height of wit, though inferior to him in the endowments of learning and knowledge; unto whom he was most nearly con joined in affection, they two being the sole male issue of a second venter. In which he obtained to great excellency, though he made that (as himself said) but as an accessory, and not his principal study. He wrote several tractates upon that subject: wherein, though some great masters of the law did out-go him in bulk, and particularities of cases, yet in the science of the grounds and mysteries of the law he was exceeded by none. In this way he was after awhile sworn of the Queen’s council learned, extraordinary; a grace (if I err not) scarce known before. 88 He seated himself, for the commodity of his studies and practice, amongst the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, of which house he was a member; where he erected that elegant pile or structure commonly known by the name of The Lord Bacon’s Lodgings, which he inhabited by turns the most part of his life (some few years only excepted) unto his dying day. In which house he carried himself with such sweetness, comity, and generosity, that he was much revered and beloved by the readers and gentlemen of the house. Notwithstanding that he professed the law for his livelihood and subsistence, yet his heart and affection very early period as the date of this appointment was more carried after the affairs and places of estate; for which, if the majesty royal then had been pleased, he was most fit. In his younger years he studied the service and fortunes (as they call them) of that noble but unfortunate earl, the Earl of Essex; unto whom he was, in a sort, a private and free counsellor, and gave him safe and honourable advice, till in the end the earl inclined too much to the violent and precipitate counsel of others his adherents and followers; which was his fate and ruin. 99,1010 His birth and other capacities qualified him above others of his profession to have ordinary accesses at court, and to come frequently into the Queen’s eye, who would often grace him with private and free communication, not only about matters of his profession or business in law, but also about the arduous affairs of estate; from whom she received from time to time great satisfaction. Nevertheless, though she cheered him much with the bounty of her countenance, yet she never cheered him with the bounty of her hand; having never conferred upon him any ordinary place or means of honour or profit, save only one dry reversion of the Register’s Office in the Star Chamber, worth about 1600l. per annum, for which he waited in expectation either fully or near twenty years; 1111 of which his lordship would say in Queen Elizabeth’s time, that it was like another man’s ground Initialling upon his house, which might mend his prospect, but it did not fill his barn; (nevertheless, in the time of King James it fell unto him); which might be imputed, not so much to Her Majesty’s averseness and disaffection towards him, as to the arts and policy of a great states man then, who laboured by all industrious and secret means to suppress and keep him down; lest, if he had risen, he mought have obscured his glory. 1212
5 5. Sir Amyas landed at Calais on the 25th of September 1576, and succeeded Dr. Dale as ambassador in France in the following February. See Burghley’s Diary, Murdin, pp. 778, 779.
6 6. February 1578—9
7 7. Anthony Bacon died in the spring of 1601. See a letter from Mr. John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carlton, in the State Paper Office, dated 27th May 1601.
8 8. He had been admitted da societette introrum of Gray’s Inn on the 27th of June 1576; commenced his regular career as a student in 1579; became utter barrister on the 27th of June 1582; bencher in 1586; reader in 1588; and double reader in 1600. See Harl. MSS. 1912, and Book of Orders, p. 56.
9 9. Spedding: The connexion between Bacon and Essex appears to have commenced about the year 1590 or 1591, and furnishes matter for a long story too long to be discussed in a note. His conduct was much misunderstood at the time by persons who had no means of knowing the truth, and has been much misrepresented since by writers who cannot plead that excuse. The case is not however one on which a unanimous verdict can be expected. Always, where choice has to be made between fidelity to the state and fidelity to a party or person, popular sympathy will run in favour of the man who chooses the narrower duty; for the narrower duty is not only easier to comprehend, but, being seen closer, appears the larger of the two. But though sentiments will continue to be divided, facts may be agreed upon; and for the correction of all errors in matter of fact, I must refer to the Occasional Works, where the whole story will necessarily come out in full detail. In the mean time I may say for myself that I have no fault to find with Bacon for any part of his conduct towards Essex, and I think many people will agree with me when they see the case fairly stated.
10 10. Spedding: I suspect he was mistaken, both as to the date and the nature of it. The title he got no doubt from a letter addressed by Bacon to King James, about the end of January 1620—1. “You found me of the Learned Council, Extraordinary, without patent or fee, a kind of individuum vayum. You established me and brought me into Ordinary.” Coupling this probably with an early but undated letter to Burghley, in which Bacon thanks the Queen for “appropriating him to her service,” he imagined that the thanks were for the appointment in question. This however is incredible. A copy of this letter in the Landsdowne Collection gives the date, 18 October 1580; at which time Bacon had not been even a student of law for more than a year and a half, and could not therefore have been qualified for such a place; still less could such a distinction have been conferred upon him without being much talked of at the time and continually referred to afterwards. Moreover, we have another letter of Bacon’s to King James, written in 1606, in which he speaks of his “nine years service of the crown.” This would give 1597 as the year in which he began to serve as one of the learned council; at which time it was no extraordinary favour, seeing that he had been recommended for solicitor general three or four years before, both by Burghley and Egerton. It appears however to have been no regular or formal appointment. He was not sworn. He had no patent; not even a written warrant. His tenure was only ratione verbi regii Elizabethee. Elizabeth, who “looked that her word should be a warrant,” chose to employ him in the business which belonged properly to her learned council, and he was employed accordingly. His first service of that nature, the first at least of which I find any record, was in 1594. In 1597 he had come to be employed regularly, and so continued till the end of the reign, and was familiarly spoken of as “Mr. Bacon of the learned council.”
11 11. The reversion, for which he considered himself indebted to Burghley, was granted to him in October 1589. He succeeded to the office in July 1608. In the Latin version Dr. Rawley adds that he administered it by deputy.
12 12. The person here alluded to is probably his cousin Robert Cecil, who, though he always professed an anxiety to serve him, was supposed (apparently not without reason) to have thrown obstacles secretly in the way of his advancement.
From Queen Elizabeth I., to King James I.
But though he stood long at a stay in the days of his mistress Queen Elizabeth, yet after the change, and coming in of his new master King James, he made a great progress; by whom he was much comforted in places of trust, honour, and revenue. I have seen a letter of his lordship’s to King James, wherein he makes acknowledgment, that he was that master to him, that had raised and advanced him nine times; thrice in dignity, and six times in office. His offices (as I conceive) were Counsel Learned Extraordinary. 1313 His Majesty, as lie had been to Queen Elizabeth; King’s Solicitor-General; His Majesty’s Attorney-General; Counsellor of Estate, being yet but Attorney; Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England; lastly, Lord Chancellor; which two last places, though they be the same in authority and power, yet they differ in patent, height, and favour of the prince; since whose time none of his successors, until this present honourable lord, 1414 did ever bear the title of Lord Chancellor. His dignities were first Knight, then Baron of Verulam; lastly, Viscount St. Alban; besides other good gifts and bounties of the hand which His Majesty gave him, both out of the Broad Seal and out of the Alienation Office, 1515 to the value in both of eighteen hundred pounds per annum; which, with his manor of Gorhambury, and other lands and possessions near thereunto adjoining, amounting to a third part more, he retained to his dying day.
13 13. Spedding: Dr. Rawley should rather have said “counsel learned, no longer extraordinary.” It is true indeed that King James did at his first entrance confirm Bacon by warrant under the sign manual in the same office which he had held under Elizabeth by special commandment. But it was the “establishing him and bringing him into ordinary” with a salary of 40l., which he reckons as first in the series of advancements. This was in 1604. He was made solicitor in 1607, attorney in 1613, counsellor of state in 1616, lord-keeper in 1617, Lord Chancellor in 1618. His successive dignities were conferred respectively in 1603, 1618, and 1620/1.
14 14. Spedding: Sir Edward Hyde was made Lord Chancellor June 1, 1660. This clause was added in 1661; the leaf having been cancelled for the purpose.
15 15. Here the paragraph ended in the first edition. The rest was added in 1661.