there met with many neglects and oppofitions by those of Mr. Travers's judgment; infomuch that it turned to his extreme grief; and that he might unbeguile and win them, he defigned to write a deliberate and fober treatife on the church's power to make canons for the ufe of ceremonies, and by law to impofe an obedience to them, as upon her children; and this he proposed to do in eight books of the Laws of Ecclefiaftical Polity; intending therein to fhow fuch arguments as fhould force an afsent from all men, if reafon delivered in sweet language, and void of any provocation, were able to do it; and, that he might prevent all prejudice, he wrote before it a large preface or epiftle to the difsenting brethren, wherein there were fuch bowels of love, and such a commixture of that love with reason, as was never exceeded but in holy writ; and particularly by that of St. Paul to his dear brother and fellow-labourer Philemon; than which none was ever more like this epiftle of Mr. Hooker's. So that his dear friend and companion in his ftudies, Dr. Spencer, might after his death juftly fay, "What "admirable height of learning and depth of judgment dwelt in "the lowly mind of this truly humble man; with what gravity "and majefty of fpeech his tongue and pen uttered heavenly "myfteries; whofe eyes, in the humility of his heart, were al "ways caft down to the ground; how all things that pro"ceeded from him were breathed as from the fpirit of love "as if he, like the bird of the Holy Ghoft, the dove, had "wanted gall; let thofe, who knew him not in his perfon, "judge by thefe living images of his foul, his writings'..

The foundation of these books was laid in the Temple; but he found it no fit place to finifh what he had there defigned; and therefore folicited the Archbishop for a remove, to whom he fpake to this purpose: "My Lord, when I loft the freedom "of my cell, which was my college, yet I found fome degree "of it in my quiet country parfonage; but I am weary of the "noise and oppofitions of this place, and indeed God and Na"ture did not intend me for contentions, but for study and "quietnefs. And, my Lord, my particular contefts here with "Mr. Travers have proved the more unpleasant to me, because "I believe him to be a good man; and that belief hath occa"fioned me to examine mine own confcience concerning his "opinions; and, to fatisfy that, I have confulted the holy Scrip"ture, and other laws, both human and divine, whether the "confcience of him, and others of his judgment, ought to be "fo far complied with by us, as to alter our frame of churchgovernment, our manner of God's worfhip, our praifing and "praying to him, and our eftablished ceremonies, as often as "their tender confciences fhall require us. And, in this exa

See Dr. Spencer's Addrefs to the Reader, prefixed to the firft edi.

tions of "Hooker's Ecclefiaftical Polity.".

"mination, I have not only fatisfied myfelf, but have begun a "treatife, in which I intend the fatisfaction of others, by a de"monstration of the reasonableness of our laws of ecclefiaftical "polity; and therein laid a hopeful foundation for the church's 66 peace; and, fo as not to provoke your adverfary Mr. Cart"wright, nor Mr. Travers, whom I take to be mine (but not "mine enemy), God knows this to be my meaning. To which "end I have fearched many books, and spent many thoughtful "hours; and, I hope not in vain; for I write to reasonable "men. But, my Lord, I fhall never be able to finish what I "have begun, unless I be removed into fome quiet country "parfonage, where I may fee God's blessings fpring out of my "mother earth, and eat mine own bread in peace and privacy. "A place where I may, without disturbance, meditate my approaching mortality, and that great account, which all fleth "muft at the last great day give to the God of all spirits.

"This is my defign; and, as thefe are the defires of my "heart, fo they fhall, by God's afsiftance, be the constant en"deavours of the uncertain remainder of my life. And there"fore, if your Grace can think me and my poor labours worthy "fuch a favour, let me beg it, that I may perfect what I have "begun; which is a blessing I cannot hope for in this place,"

About the time of this request to the Bishop, the parfonage or rectory of Bofcum, in the diocese of Sarum, and fix miles from that city, became void. The Bishop of Sarum is patron of it; but in the vacancy of that fee (which was three years betwixt the death of Bishop Pierce ", and Bishop Caldwell's * admifsion into it), the difpofal of that, and all benefices belonging to it during the time of this said vacancy, came to be

s Mr. Mafon has happily applied this passage in an elegy to the Rev. Mr. Hurd, the prefent Bishop of Worcester:

"Whofe equal mind could see vain Fortune shower
"Her flimfy favours on the fawning crew,

"While in low Thurcafton's fequefter'd bower

"She fixt him diftant from promotion's view.

"Yet fhelter'd there by calm Contentment's wing,

"Pleas'd he could fmile, and with fage Hooker's eye
"See from his mother-earth God's blessings spring,
"And eat his bread in peace and privacy."

t Bofcombe R. St. Andrew's, in the deanery of Amesbury, in the archdeaconry of Sarum.

u Or rather as it is in the earlier editions," Betwixt the translation of "Bishop Pierce to the fee of York, and Bifhop Caldwell's admifsion into "it. Dr. John Pierce, Bishop of Salisbury, was elected to the fee of "York, Feb. 1, 1588, confirmed Feb. 17, and enthronifed by proxy "the 27th of the fame month. He died Sept. 28, 1594." (Le Neve.)

* JOHN CALDWELL, M. D. of St. John's College in Cambridge, was in 1591 promoted from the deanery of Rochefter to the fee of Salisbury, after it had been vacant three years. He died in 1596.

1

difpofed of by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and he prefented Richard Hooker to it in the year 1591. And Richard Hooker was alfo in this faid year inftituted (July 17) to be a minor prebendary of Salisbury, the corps to it being Netherhavin, about ten miles from that city; which prebend was of no great value, but intended chiefly to make him capable of a better preferment in that church. In this Bofcum he continued till he had finished four of his eight proposed books of "The Laws of Ecclefiaftical Polity," and thefe were entered into the registerbook in Stationers'-hall, the 9th of March 1592, but not printed till the year 1594, and then with the before-mentioned large and affectionate preface which he directs to them that feek (as they term it) the reformation of the laws and orders ecclefiaftical in the church of England; of which books I fhall yet fay nothing more, but that he continued his laborious diligence to finish the remaining four during his life (of all which more properly hereafter); but at Bofcum he finished and published but only the first four, being then in the 39th year of his age.

He left Bofcum in the year 1595, by a furrender of it into the hands of Bishop Caldwell, and he prefented Benjamin Russel, who was inftituted into it, the 23d of June in the fame year.

The parfonage of Bishop's-Borne, in Kent, three miles from Canterbury, is in that Archbishop's gift, but in the latter end of the year 1594, Dr. William Redman, the rector of it, was

He became prebendary of Netherhavin, and fubdean of the church of Salisbury, on the refignation of Dr. Nicholas Balguy, who fucceeded him in the Mafterfhip of the Temple. This prebend remains charged in the King's books at 281. 19s, 2d. and has moreover the patronage of the vicarage of Netherhavin. The preferment for which it was intended to qualify him was a refidentiary ship of Sarum, the canons refidentiary of that church, fix in number, being elected out of the prebendaries.

In Queen Elizabeth's time, the form of fubfcription, required from those who were preferred in the Church, was in these words: "We, "whofe names are underwritten, do declare and unfainedly teftify our "afsent to all and fingular the Articles of Religion, and the Confefsion "of the true Chriftian faith, and the Doctrine of the Sacrament, com"prised in a book, intituled Articles whereupon it was agreed by the "Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces, and the whole Clergy, "in the Convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord God "1562, according to the Computation of the Church of England, for "the avoiding of the Diverfities of Opinions, and for the establishing of "Confent touching true Religion, put forth by the Queen's Authority. "And in teftimony of fuch our afsents, we have hereunto fubfcribed our names, with our own proper hands, as hereafter followeth." Among thofe who fubfcribed to this form, "it pleafed me," faith Dr. Bernard, "to find the hand of the reverend and learned Mr. Hooker "thus fubfcribing: Per me RICHARDUM HOOKER, Clericum, in Artibus Magistrum, præfentatum ad Canonicatum et Præbendam de "Nether-haven, in Ecclefiâ cathedrali Sarum, 17 Julii, 1591.'"

(Clavi Trabales.)

made Bishop of Norwich; by which means the power of prefenting to it was pro ea vice in the Queen; and the prefented Richard Hooker, whom she loved well, to this good living of Borne, the 7th of July, 1595, in which living he continued till his death, without any addition of dignity or profit.

And now having brought our Richard Hooker from his birth-place, to this where he found a grave, I fhall only give fome account of his books, and of his behaviour in this parfon-age of Borne, and then give a reft both to myself and my reader.

His first four books and large epifle have been declared to be printed at his being at Bofcum, anno 1594. Next I am to tell, that at the end of these four books, there is printed this advertisement to the reader:-"I haye for fome causes thought "it at this time more fit, to let go these first four books by themfelves, than to stay both them and the reft, till the whole "might together be published. Such generalities of the cause in "queftion as are here handled, it will be perhaps not amifs to "confider apart, by way of introduction unto the books that "are to follow concerning particulars; in the mean time the "reader is requested to mend the printer's errors, as noted un-"derneath."

And I am next to declare, that his fifth book (which is larger than his first four) was firft alfo printed by itself, anno 1597, and dedicated to his patron (for till then he chofe none) the Archbifhop. Thefe books were read, with an admiration of their

Mr. Hooker fent a written copy of his book, in 1592, to the Lord Treafurer Burghley, accompanied with the following letter:

"My duty in most humble manner remembered. So it is, my good "Lord, that manitimes affection caufes thofe things to be don, which "would rather be forborn, if men were wholly guided by judgment. Albeit, therefore, I muft needs in reafon condemne myfelf of over great boldness for thus prefuming to offer to your Lord hip's view my poor and flender labours: yet, because that which moves me fo to do is a dutiful affection fome way to manifeft itself; and glad to take "this prefent occafion for want of other more worthy your Lordship's "acceptation. I am in that behalf not out of hope your Lordship's "wifdom wil the eafier pardon my fault; the rather becaufe myfelf am perfuaded that my faultinels had been greater, if thefe writings con"cerning the nobler part of thofe laws under which we live fhould not have craved, with the first, your Lordship's favourable approbation. "Whofe painful care to uphold all laws, and especially the ecclefiaftical, hath by the space of fo many years fo apparently thewed itself: that "if we who enjoy the benefit thereof did difsemble it, they whose malice "doth mon envy our good therein, would convince our unthankfulness, Wherefore fubmitting both myfelf, and thefe my fimple doings into your Lordship's moft wife judgment, I here humbly take my leave. London, the 13th of March, 1592.

Your Lordship's mott willingly at commandment,
RICHARD HOOKER."

66

(From Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift, Appendix, B. IV. N, XVII. )

excellency in this, and their just fame spread itself into foreign nations. And I have been told, more than forty years paft, that Cardinal Allen 2, or learned Dr. Stapleton (both Englishmen, and in Italy when Mr. Hooker's four books were first printed), meeting with this general fame of them, were defirous to read an author that both the reformed and the learned of their own church did fo much magnify; and therefore caufed them to be fent for; and after reading of them boafted to the Pope (which was then Clement the Eighth), "That "though he had lately said, he never met with an English book "whofe writer deferved the name of an author; yet there now "" appeared a wonder to them, and it would be fo to his Holi"nefs, if it were in Latin; for a poor obfcure English priest had "wrote four fuch books of laws and church-polity, and in a ftyle "that expressed fo grave and fuch humble majefty, with clear "demonftration of reafon, that in all their readings they had not met with any that exceeded him :" and this begot in the Pope an earnest defire that Dr. Stapleton fhould bring the faid four books, and looking on the English, read a part of them to him in Latin, which Dr. Stapleton did, to the end of the first book; at the conclufion of which, the Pope spake to this purpofe: "There is no learning that this man hath not fearched 66 into; nothing too hard for his understanding: This man in"deed deferves the name of an author; his books will get re

a See" Collier's Ecclef. Hift." Vol. II. p. 643. "Wood's Ath. Ox." Vol. I. p. 268, and the infcription on Cardinal Allen's monument in the chapel of the English College at Rome. "Biograph. Brit." Vol. I. p. 80. [H.]

He was for fome time Fellow of Oriel College, and Principal of St. Mary Hall. He difplayed the moft ardent zeal in defending the religion of his ancestors, left his country in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and fled to France. Here he diftinguished himself by taking under his protection the English refugees, many of whom he placed in two feminaries at Douay and Rheims. He was rewarded by Pope Sixtus V. with a Cardinal's hat in 1587, with the title of Cardinal of St. Martin's in the Mount. In 1589, he was appointed Archbishop of Mechlin in Brabant, and died about 1594. Pope Gregory XIII. entertained fo high an opinion of him, that he introduced him to his Cardinals in thefe words, Venite, fratres mei, oftendam vobis Alanum."

b We learn from the letter of King, Bishop of Chichefter, to Mr. Ifaac Walton, that Dr Stapleton was the perfon who named Hooker's Ecclefiaftical Polity" to Pope Clement VIII. Thomas Stapleton, D. D. defcended from a noble and ancient family in the county of Sussex, left England on account of his religion, and retired into Flauders. He read lectures in divinity at Douay, and afterward, at the exprefs invitation of the King of Spain, filled the Professor's chair at Louvain. He was elteemed for his virtues and his learning, being clafsed fecond to Bellarmine in controverfial skill. He was born in 1535, and died at Louvain in 1598. His works were printed at Paris in 1620, in four volumes tolio. (Wood's Ath. Ox. Vol. I. p. 292.)