697J Hooker (1554- 1600) 

The works of Mr. Richard Hooker, (that learned and judicious divine) in eight books of ecclesiastical polity, compleated out of his own manuscrips [sic]; never before published. With an account of his life and death. Dedicated to the Kings most excellent Majesty, Charles IId. by whose royal father (near his martyrdom) the former five books (then onely extant) were commended to his dear children, as an excellent means to satisfie private scruples, and settle the publick peace of this church and kingdom.

London : printed by Thomas Newcomb for Andrew Crook, at the Green-Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1666.                                                             .                                                                                                                                                               Price: $3,000

Folio 34 x22 cm. Signatures: π2, A⁴(-A4),*² a-d⁴e² A-Z4, Aa-Yy ⁴Zz²,Aaa-Zzz4 ,Aaaa-Iiii⁴. [First leaf of text signed B instead of A] COMPLETE. Bound in original full calf, a very crisp and clean copy. With frontis. portrait (plate) of the author signed “Guil. Faithorne sculp:” and additional engraved title page (plate) “Of the lawes of ecclesiastical politie”.

This edition is edited by John Gauden; the account of the life of Richard Hooker is by Izaak Walton. Cf. DNB. Includes: Travers, Walter. A supplication made to the councel by Master Walter Travers.  This work offers a carefully phrased reply to the general principles of Puritanism. Book one of the work draws heavily upon the legal thought of Thomas Aquinas to distinguish seven different forms of law; based upon his Aristotelian belief that humans are naturally inclined to live in society. The work influenced not only Anglican thought, but also wider theology, political theory and English prose.

Richard Hooker Of Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie is Hooker’s best-known work, with the first four books being published in 1594. The fifth was published in 1597. while the final three were published posthumously. this Volume is the 1666 Edition and the ONLY One to contain ALL EIGHT LAWS! Of Lawes has been characterized as “Probably the first great work of philosophy and theology to be written in English” The book is far more than a negative rebuttal of the Puritan claims: it is (here McAdoo quotes John S. Marshall) ‘ a continuous and coherent whole presenting a philosophy and theology congenial to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and the traditional aspects of the Elizabethan Settlement.

Hooker’s monumental Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity “formed the basis of Locke’s Treatise of Civil Government and can thus be considered the first statement of the principles behind the Constitution of England” (PMM 104). “Hooker’s work represents not  only a solid compendium of philosophical ideas in support of ecclesiastical and secular hierarchy, but a reasoned proposal for an open and tolerant society based on mutual love and respect. The work is recognized as a monument of English prose styleâ ¦ it represents the high-water mark of a prose that is at once lucid and elegant, formally balanced and yet forceful and flowing” (Ruoff, 217). The influence of Hooker’s work, both directly and indirectly through the considerable influence of Locke’s Two Treatises, extends as well to the foundation of American constitutionalism. “Madison and the other framers made frequent reference to Calvin, Richard Hooker, and the New England divines in their political writings, and were vitally aware of the long history of compacts in America” (Lutz & Warren, A Covenanted People, 64).  

Wing (CD-ROM, 1996), H2631  https://datb.cerl.org/estc/R11910 

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