Voice of the wise of old!

Go breathe thy thrilling whispers now
In cells where learned eyes late vigils hold,
And teach proud Science where to vail her brow.

Voice of the meekest man!

Now while the Church for combat arms,

Calmly do thou confirm her awful ban,

Thy words to her be conquering, soothing charms.

Voice of the fearless saint!

Ring like a trump, where gentle hearts

Beat high for truth, but, doubting, cower and faint :—

Tell them, the hour is come, and they must take their parts.

John Keble, Miscellaneous Poems

(of Richard Hooker).

UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA

LIFE OF

RICHARD HOOKER

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION-BIOGRAPHERS-EDITORS

IN the roll of the many distinguished sons
who own the Anglican Church as their spiritual
mother, and who are her special glory, the
name of Richard Hooker holds a place of
singular honour.
In the line of English

theologians, who mingled in the strife and
confusion of the sixteenth century, there are
not a few names of splendid lustre, the salt
of the earth in their day and generation; but
a living writer of eminence has recorded his
verdict "I doubt whether we can owe to
any among them much more than to those
two who stand close together near the be-
ginning of the series, Hooker and Andrewes." 1

1 Dr. Paget, Bishop of Oxford, The Spirit of Discipline, Lond. 1891. 2nd ed., p. 322.

John Keble, who made a careful and prolonged study of Hooker's character and works, does not hesitate to affirm that "the name of Richard Hooker is probably more universally known and venerated throughout the Church of England, than that of any one besides among her worthies;" and to speak of him as "one so wise, holy, and venerable."1 This estimate is confirmed by Dr. Paget, who says, "The rare power of Richard Hooker's mind and the enduring value of his work have caused his name to be, perhaps, more widely known than that of any other English theologian."2 As we are told by Isaac Walton in his exquisitely written biography of Hooker, King James I., a ripe scholar and a well-read theologian, "did never mention Mr. Hooker, but with the epithet of learned, or judicious, or reverend, or venerable." And Walton adds, "Nor did his son, our late King Charles the First, ever mention him but with the same reverence, enjoining his son, our now gracious

1 Of Divine Service, the Sacraments, etc., by Richard Hooker, being selections from the Fifth Book of the Ecclesiastical Polity, Oxford 1845. 2nd ed., Preface, p. iii. On Eucharistical Adoration, Oxford 1867. 3rd ed., p. 124.

2 Paget, Introduction to the Fifth Book of Hooker's Treatise of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Oxford 1899, p. 1.

3 Walton's Life of Mr. Richard Hooker, in Hooker's Works, 7th ed., Oxford 1888. Vol. I. p. 72.

Rather his daughter, the Lady Elizabeth. See Ibid. p. 73,

footnote 1.

King (Charles II.), to be studious in Mr. Hooker's books."1 The royal verdict has been confirmed by posterity, and it is not likely to be reversed.

Though chiefly famous as an ecclesiastical writer, possessing a grandeur and a stateliness of style which has raised him to the highest rank amongst writers of English prose, and one who has left an indelible impress upon Anglican theology, there are to be recognized in Hooker's character and life the marks of the saint. His chief personal characteristic, according to his friends, was his genuine humility, or, to use Thomas Fuller's phrase, his dove-like simplicity.' Isaac Walton describes him when living at Bishopsborne as "an obscure, harmless man; of a mean stature, and stooping, and yet more lowly in the thoughts of his soul" and again, he speaks of Hooker's remarkable "meekness, his godly simplicity, and his Christian moderation."2 Dr. Spencer, Hooker's dear friend,' in his preface to the first five Books of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, refers to "the lowly mind of this true humble man, great in all wise men's eyes, except his own, . . . whose eyes in the humility of his heart were always cast down to the 1 Walton's Life, in Hooker's Works, Vol. I. pp. 72, 73 2 Ibid. pp. 77, 86.