Bacon, a
Protestant, lived during a period of great
social turmoil as well as the
expansion of scientific and social knowledge. In 1605, he sent a draft to his friend
Tobie Matthew who was in
Florence where he was baptized as a
Roman Catholic. Two years later, in 1607, Matthew returned to England, where he was imprisoned for his alleged "
Papist views". The book is addressed as a plea to
King James I and is in two parts or books, each with separate chapters: • Part I praises the king for his appreciation of knowledge and outlines Bacon's ideas as how strict bondage to the past (notably study of Greek and Roman language and form) was a hindrance to optimizing Christian values, which required not academic excellence but excellent practical education via the contemplation of nature conjoined with action for the benefit of society. • Part II Bacon outlines
Novum Organum which avers the benefit to scholars as less important than the benefit of their scholarship to society. He advocated a new discipline studying the effect of climate, geography and natural resources on the various human races, and suggested handbooks should be prepared for diplomacy, business and the new scientific disciplines. In theology he suggested exploring the limits of human reason in matters divine and setting limits thereto. He recommended improving medicine via vivisection of animals and the prior preparation of medicine.
Pure knowledge versus proud knowledge Bacon refutes the claim of
King Solomon that knowledge causes anxiety, discontent and rebellion by distinguishing • pure knowledge arising from the study of
nature that leads to growth and
grace • proud knowledge is that of
worldly values that lead to
atheism ==Consequences==