ABSTRACT
By the time King James came to the throne in 1603, Francis Bacon had spent much of his adult life trying to gain a position at court. More to the point, as far as Francis was concerned, he was trying to gain the type of position or patronage which would allow him to devote himself to his program for the reform of natural philosophy, as the 1592 letter to his uncle, Lord Burghley, indicates. Charles Whitney has examined the meaning of the term, Instauratio, which Bacon applied to the event. Throughout his writings dealing with the Instauration, Bacon amended the standard narrative of sacred history, weaving the Instauration into his exegesis of the Scriptures and his presentation of Church history. The beginning of the narrative of sacred history is always found in Genesis, the book of 'beginnings'. The doctrine of God acting through a chain of causes, rather than immediately, was critical for Bacon's understanding of the Instauration.
