Every good Episcopal or Church of England seminarian is required, sooner or later, to read Richard Hooker’s five-volume series, “Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polite” (completed 1597). The prose is turgid, dense, and academic. The tomes pose a critique of the raging Puritanism at the time. His sermons and teachings offered reasoned, heavily informed reason against the Puritans with their doctrines of predestination and exclusionary notions of salvation. (Note that some of these controversies are still with us today.)

The Lawes were far more than a rebuttal of strident Puritan positions that racked the country. Some scholars refer to it as “probably the first great work of philosophy and theology to be written in English.” Another writer refers to it as “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”.

Starting with an Aristotelian philosophy, Hooker invokes the legal thought of Thomas Aquinas to develop political philosophy. Hooker’s works in this area are later picked up by philosopher, John Locke to become the underpinnings of American constitutional government. Beyond preventing England from plunging headlong into Puritanism, Hooker’s works strongly influenced theology, political philosophy, and English prose.

King James I is quoted as saying, “I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected language; but a grave, comprehensive, clear manifestation of reason, and that backed with the authority of the Scriptures, the fathers and schoolmen, and with all law both sacred and civil.”

Upon reading all five volumes of this Elizabethan-era prose, most students only remember that Hooker claimed the authority of the church to be the church is based upon the “three-legged stool of Scripture, Tradition and human Reason.” The stool only functions as a stool if all three legs support it. Thank you, Rev. Hooker.