Which movement pushed the idea that an individual could go beyond themselves and listen to their own conscience, not religion, to learn about the truth of the universe?

the answer to your question is:

strong-mayor system

john smith was the first englishman to sail around the world. francis bacon served as attorney general and lord chancellor of england. he took up aristotelian ideas, arguing for an empirical, inductive approach, known as the scientific method, which is the foundation of modern scientific inquiry.