A seaman working for the Dutch. One of first Europeans in Japan, he was initially jailed but became a shipbuilder and samurai.
Mughal Emperor of India, celebrated Muslim military leader, unifier of India. He encouraged learning and knowledge, outlawed slavery, and promoted religious tolerance.
Theologian and Puritan. He moved to Holland where he further developed Calvinist theology.
Mystic. He probably wrote the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkrevz, a book which for the first time discussed the previously secret doctrines of the Rosicrucians, a closed membership society which combined Catholic Christianity, mysticism, and service to those in need, which seems to have had roots in Neoplatonism, agnosticism, and the Cabal, and which also may have incorporated some elements of magic and astrology.
Anglican clergyman. He was one of the group of Anglican divines who produced the King James translation of the Bible, one of the supreme works of English literature.
Protestant theologian. He opposed the Calvinist doctrine of predestination and began the process that would diminish the influence of Calvinism within Christian Protestantism.
Philosopher, lawyer, mathematician, churchman. He was a leading Jansenist (French Protestant), foe of the Jesuits, and author (with Blaise Pascal and Pierre Nicole) of the Port-Royal Logic.
Biographer. Although he collected and transcribed folk and ghost stories, his posthumously published Brief Lives raised historical gossip to a high art.
Philosopher and political figure. Bacon's philosophical writings have been widely credited with launching empiricism, induction, and indirectly, the scientific revolution. This is exaggerated. Others such as Harvey seem to have had a better grasp of rudimentary science. But Bacon was a brilliant essayist and deservedly influential. His political as opposed to philosophical career was more of an object lesson than a beacon light for values. After successfully abandoning and then prosecuting his former patron, Lord Essex, for treason against Queen Elizabeth, his previously stalled political career took off. He held many important posts under King James I including the position of Lord Chancellor, and was made a peer as Lord Verulam. However, nemesis struck, he was convicted of taking large bribes, and never regained office.
Quaker. His books, especially the Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1678), were among the most important early Quaker tracts.
Preacher, merchant, and follower of Oliver Cromwell. His preaching was reputed to have been so vehement, rancorous, and explosive that it not only moved crowds, it created mayhem.
Poet. He was a lover of nature and a brilliant inventor and practitioner of the present form of traditional Japanese haiku. Each poem consists of seventeen syllables divided into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, and must appeal to two of our five senses or to one of our senses and our feeling of movement. In his famous walk around Japan, he approached his experiences from a Zen Buddhist perspective, and described them in exquisite prose and verse.
Clergyman. He was a leading Non-conformist minister (protestant but non-conforming to the Church of England), courageously refused to temper his views, and was eventually imprisoned.
Sculptor, architect. He became an exemplar of baroque theatricality.
King. He protected protestants from persecution.
A daredevil often on the wrong side of the law, he was eventually pardoned.