LIFE

OF

MR. RICHARD HOOKER.

INTRODUCTION.

I HAVE been persuaded by a friend, that I ought to obey, to write The Life of Richard Hooker, the happy Author of five (if not more) of the eight learned books of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. And though I have undertaken it, yet it hath been with some unwillingness, foreseeing that it must prove to me, and especially at this time of my age, a work of much labour to inquire, consider, research, and determine, what is needful to be known concerning him. For I knew him not in his life, and must therefore not only look back to his death (now sixty-four years past), but almost fifty years beyond that, even to his childhood and youth, and gather thence such observations and prognostics, as may at least adorn, if not prove necessary for the completing of what I have undertaken.

This trouble I foresee, and foresee also that it is impossible to escape censures; against which I will not hope my well-meaning and diligence can protect me (for I consider the age in which I live), and shall therefore but entreat of my reader a suspension of them, till I have made known unto him some reasons, which I myself would now fain believe, do make me in some measure fit for this undertaking: and if these reasons shall not acquit me from all censures, they may at least abate of their severity; and this is all I can probably hope for.

My reasons follow.

About forty years past (for I am now in the seventieth of my age) I began a happy affinity with William Cranmer (now with God), grand nephew unto the great Archbishop of that name; a family of noted prudence and resolution;

with him and two of his sisters I had an entire and free friendship: one of them was the wife of Dr. Spencer, a bosom-friend, and sometime com-pupil with Mr. Hooker, in Corpus Christi College in Oxford, and after President of the same. I name them here, for that I shall have occasion to mention them in this following discourse; as also their brother, of whose useful abilities my reader may have a more authentic testimony than my pen can purchase for him, by that of our learned Cambden and others.

This William Cranmer, and his two forenamed sisters, had some affinity, and a most familiar friendship with Mr. Hooker, and had had some part of their education with him in his house, when he was parson of Bishop's-Born near Canterbury; in which city their good father then lived. They had (I say) a great part of their education with him, as myself, since that time, a happy cohabition with them; and having some years before read part of Mr. Hooker's Works with great liking and satisfaction, my affection to them made me a diligent inquisitor into many things that concerned him: as namely, of his person, his nature, the management of his time, his wife, his family, and the fortune of him and his. Which inquiry hath given me much advantage in the knowledge of what is now under my consideration, and intended for the satisfaction of my reader.

I had also a friendship with the Reverend Doctor Usher, the late learned Archbishop of Armagh; and with Doctor Morton, the late learned and charitable Bishop of Durham; as also with the learned John Hales, of Eton-college; and with them also (who loved the very name of Mr. Hooker) I have had many discourses concerning him; and from them, and many others that have now put off mortality, I might have had more informations, if I could then have admitted a thought of any fitness for what by persuasion I have now undertaken. But, though that full harvest be irrecoverably lost, yet my memory hath preserved some gleanings, and my diligence made such additions to them, as I hope will prove useful to the completing of what I intend. In the discovery of which I shall be faithful, and with this assurance put a period to my Introduction.

THE LIFE.

birth

It is not to be doubted, but that Richard Hooker was His born within the precincts, or in the city of Exeter. A city and which may justly boast that it was the birth-place of him youth. and Sir Thomas Bodley; as indeed the county may, in which it stands, that it hath furnished this nation with Bishop Jewel, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, and many others memorable for their valour and learning. He was born about the year of our redemption one thousand five hundred fifty and three; and of parents that were not so remarkable for their extraction or riches, as for their virtue and industry, and God's blessing upon both; by which they were enabled to educate their children in some degree of learning, of which our Richard Hooker may appear to be one fair testimony; and that nature is not so partial as always to give the great blessings of wisdom and learning, and with them the greater blessings of virtue and government, to those only that are of a more high and honourable birth.

His complexion (if we may guess by him at the age of forty) was sanguine, with a mixture of choler; and yet his motion was slow, even in his youth, and so was his speech, never expressing an earnestness in either of them, but a gravity suitable to the aged. And it is observed (so far as inquiry is able to look back at this distance of time) that at his being a schoolboy, he was an early questionist, quietly inquisitive, Why this was, and that was not, to be remembered? Why this was granted, and that denied? This being mixed with a remarkable modesty, and a sweet serene quietness of nature; and with them a quick apprehension of many perplexed parts of learning, imposed then upon him as a scholar, made his master and others to believe him to have an inward blessed divine light, and therefore to consider him to a little wonder. For in that, children were less pregnant, less confident, and more malleable, than in this wiser, but not better age.

This meekness and conjuncture of knowledge, with modesty in his conversation, being observed by his schoolmaster, caused him to persuade his parents (who intended him for an apprentice) to continue him at school till he

could find out some means, by persuading his rich uncle, or some other charitable person, to ease them of a part of their care and charge; assuring them, that their son was so enriched with the blessings of nature and grace, that God seemed to single him out as a special instrument of his glory. And the good man told them also, that he would double his diligence in instructing him, and would neither expect nor receive any other reward, than the content of so hopeful and happy an employment.

This was not unwelcome news, and especially to his mother, to whom he was a dutiful and dear child; and all parties were so pleased with this proposal, that it was resolved so it should be. And in the mean time his parents and master laid a foundation for his future happiness, by instilling into his soul the seeds of piety, those conscientious principles of loving and fearing God; of an early belief, that he knows the very secrets of our souls; that he punisheth our vices, and rewards our innocence; that we should be free from hypocrisy, and appear to man what we are to God, because first or last the crafty man is catched in his own snare. These seeds of piety were so seasonably planted, and so continually watered, with the daily dew of God's blessed Spirit, that his infant virtues grew into such holy habits as did make him grow daily into more and more favour both with God and man; which, with the great learning that he did attain to, hath made Richard Hooker honoured in this, and will continue him to be so to succeeding generations.

This good schoolmaster, whose name I am not able to recover (and am sorry, for that I would have given him a better memorial in this humble monument, dedicated to the memory of his scholar), was very solicitous with John Hooker, then chamberlain of Exeter, and uncle to our Richard, to take his nephew into his care, and to maintain him for one year in the University, and in the mean time to use his endeavours to procure an admission for him into some College; still urging and assuring him that his charge would not continue long; for the lad's learning and manners were both so remarkable, that they must of necessity be taken notice of; and that God would provide him some second patron, that would free him and his parents from their future care and charge.

These reasons, with the affectionate rhetoric of his good master, and God's blessing upon both, procured from his uncle a faithful promise that he would take him into his care and charge before the expiration of the year following, which was performed.

This promise was made about the fourth year of the reign of Queen Mary; and the learned John Jewel (after Bishop of Salisbury) having been in the first of this Queen's reign expelled out of Corpus Christi College in Oxford (of which he was a Fellow), for adhering to the truth of those principles of religion, to which he had assented in the days of her brother and predecessor, Edward the Sixth; and he having now a just cause to fear a more heavy punishment than expulsion, was forced, by forsaking this, to seek safety in another nation, and, with that safety, the enjoyment of that doctrine and worship for which he suffered.

But the cloud of that persecution and fear ending with the life of Queen Mary, the affairs of the Church and State did then look more clear and comfortable; so that he, and many others of the same judgment, made a happy return into England about the first of Queen Elizabeth; in which year this John Jewel was sent a commissioner or visitor of the churches of the western parts of this kingdom, and especially of those in Devonshire, in which county he was born; and then and there he contracted a friendship with John Hooker, the uncle of our Richard.

In the third year of her reign, this John Jewel was made Bishop of Salisbury: and there being always observed in him a willingness to do good and oblige his friends, and now a power added to it; John Hooker gave him a visit in Salisbury, and besought him for charity's sake to look favourably upon a poor nephew of his, whom nature had fitted for a scholar; but the estate of his parents was so narrow, that they were unable to give him the advantage of learning; and that the Bishop would therefore become his patron, and prevent him from being a tradesman; for he was a boy of remarkable hopes.' And though the Bishop knew men do not usually look with an indifferent eye upon their own children and relations, yet he assented so far to John Hooker, that he appointed the boy and his schoolmaster should attend him about Easter next following at that place; which was done accordingly; and then, after