Hooker: Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Vol. 1

ISAAC WALTON’S “Life of Richard Hooker” is an English classic, accessible to all readers, which no modern biographer can attempt to compete with, or to supersede. This introduction therefore must be of the nature of a supplement to Walton’s account, adding any facts which may have come to light since he wrote, and briefly considering the significance of Hooker for the twentieth century.

Richard Hooker was born in Exeter, probably in the beginning of the year 1554, just before his uncle, John Hooker, was made Chamberlain of the city. John Hooker’s fame has been hidden behind that of his more illustrious nephew, and therefore students of English literature and politics have not sufficiently realized the great interest and importance of his life and work. He was educated at Oxford, probably at Corpus Christi College like his nephew, studying civil law. He travelled in Germany, pursuing legal studies at Cologne, and also at Strassburg, where he lodged in the house of Peter Martyr and acquired his very definite sympathy with the religious views of the reformers. He came back to Exeter and engaged in the municipal affairs of the town. During forty-eight years he held the office of Chamberlain. He has himself left us an account of his various activities and of the _ growth in importance of his office, composed towards the end of his career, and contained ina large manuscript folio, along with other particulars relating to the history of Exeter. His fame as a student of English antiquities and history caused him to be entrusted with the editorship of the 158% edition of Holinshed’s “Chronicles,” but his modesty made him insert his own contributions to that work so unobtrusively that he has never won proper credit for them. The most interesting is his vigorous and graphic account of the 1549 rebellion, of which he was an eye-witness. Froude owes to Hooker his picturesque narrative of this outbreak in the West country, which was caused by the introduction of Edward VI.’s first - Book of Common Prayer. The excellence of Hooker’s English prose is not less remarkable than his clearness of vision and sagacity as an observer of men and affairs. His second contribution to Holinshed was a valuable account of recent Irish

Vill Introduction

history. His aequaintance with Irish affairs was due to a singular circumstance. That picturesque Elizabethan paladin, Sir Peter Carew,…