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Humility is the true way to rise:

And God in me this lesson did inspire, To bid this humble man, Friend, sit up higher.

INSCRIPTION ON

RICHARD HOOKER'S MONUMENT1

IN BISHOPSBORNE CHURCH

SUNT MELIORA MIHI

RICHARDUS HOOKER EXONIENSIS SCHOLARIS SOCIUSQ :

COLLEGII CORP. XPI OXON. DEINDE LONDONIIS TEMPLI INTERIORIS

IN SACRIS MAGISTER RECTORQ HUJUS ECCLIE. SCRIPSIT VIII
LIBROS POLITIÆ ECCLESIASTICÆ ANGLICANÆ, QUORUM

TRES DESIDERANTUR.

OBIIT ANo. DOM. MDCIII. ÆTATIS SUÆ L.

POSUIT HOC PIISIMO VIRO MONUMENTUM ANo. DOM. MDCXXXIII.

GULIELMUS COWPER ARMIGER

IN CHRISTO JESU

QUEM GENUIT PER EVANGELIUM.

1 Cor. iv. 15.

1 Hooker's monument was set up in Bishopsborne church at the expense of Sir William Cooper. As Hooker died A.D. 1600, the date given above is a mistake, as also his age.

AT HOOKER'S TOMB

THE grey-eyed morn was sadden'd with a shower,

A silent shower, that trickled down so still, Scarce droop'd beneath its weight the tenderest flower,

Scarce could you trace it on the twinkling rill, Or moss-stone bathed in dew. It was an hour Most meet for prayer beside thy lowly grave, Most for thanksgiving meet, that Heaven such power

To thy serene and humble spirit gave.

"Who sow good seed with tears shall reap in joy."

So thought I as I watch'd the gracious rain, And deem'd it like that silent sad employ Whence sprung thy glory's harvest, to remain For ever. God hath sworn to lift on high Who sinks himself by true humility.

Aug. 1817.

JOHN KEBLE.

"The original MS. is on a half-sheet of foolscap paper, folded, with a piece of dried wall-rue in it, no doubt gathered on the spot."-Keble, Miscellaneous Poems, Oxford, 1869.

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Ecclesiastical Polity' en

1594 ?

tered at Stationer's Hall Jan. 29, 1592-3 Ecclesiastical Polity,' Books I.-IV. published Instituted to Bishopsborne 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' Book V. published

Died

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July 7, 1595

1597

Nov. 2, 1600

CHAPTER VI

HOOKER'S TREATISE 'OF THE LAWS OF ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY-ITS INCEPTION-ITS

DESIGN-ITS OPPORTUNITY-ITS

WHITGIFT. AND HOOKER

STYLE

To the circumstances which led Richard Hooker to devote the main energies of the best of his days to writing his great treatise Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, some slight allusion has already been made in this volume. The treatise was, as we have seen, the outcome of the keen controversy at the Temple. The great and absorbing questions raised in his dispute with Travers and Cartwright, and the Puritan party which they represented, led Hooker to investigate and study, to think and write, to some purpose. The intense earnestness of the whole affair forms one of its most striking features. Hooker's attitude towards Travers, with whom he was at first more immediately concerned, was quite admirable; for he seems to have appreciated very fully the bona fides of his opponent, and

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