THE EVOLVING REPUTATION OF RICHARD HOOKER This page intentionally left blank The Evolving Reputation of Richard Hooker An Examination of Responses, 1660–1714 MICHAEL BRYDON 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26 OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork ©MichaelBrydon2006 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2006 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN0–19–920481–0 978–0–19–920481–6 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Acknowledgements ThisstudybeganlifeasadoctoralthesisfortheDepartmentofThe- ology at the University of Durham. I am most grateful to Dr Alan Ford,mysupervisor,forhisgenerositywithhistime,informationand books.ProfessorJohnMorrill,DrAlisonShellandDrArnoldHunt werealsokindenoughtoreadmyfirstmusingsuponthesubject. Undoubtedly my research would have remained in thesis form without the encouragement of the Revd Dr Peter Groves and Pro- fessorDiarmaidMacCulloch.IfDrGroveshadnotovercomemyshy reluctance to show it to Professor MacCulloch I would never have received the latter’s convincing encouragement to transform it into thisbook. The process of research is heavily dependent upon the help and goodwill of the librarians and archivists you encounter. It is impos- sible to speak too highly of the help that I have received from the staff at Durham University Library, Durham Dean and Chapter Library, Ushaw College Library, Cambridge University Library, and theBodleianLibrary,Oxford. It has also been a pleasure to work with the Oxford University Press. Miss Qureshi, the commissioning editor, has been most sup- portive throughout the publication process. Without the perceptive suggestions offered by the two academic readers it is also certain thatthescopeandperiodofthisbookwouldhavebeenmuchmore limited. ThroughoutmyperiodofstudyIhavebeenfortunateinanumer- ous circle of friends at St Chad’s College, Durham and St Stephen’s House, Oxford. They have all offered encouragement and provided suitabledistractionsatappropriatemoments.Ihavealsobeenblessed inmytitleparishofStPeter’s,Bexhill,whichhasmadetimeforstudy possible. Finally I owe an immense debt to my parents, grandparents, and therestofmyfamily.Withouttheirhelp,support,andnurturewithin theAnglicantraditionIwouldneverhaveembarkeduponthisstudy. Bexhill, M.A.B. 2005 This page intentionally left blank Contents NoteontheText viii Introduction 1 1. HookerandtheJacobeans 21 2. TheRoadTowardsanAnglicanIcon:TheTreatmentof HookerunderCharlesIandtheCommonwealth 45 3. TheEstablishmentofAnglicanTriumphalism 81 4. TheZenithandSlowDeclineofHookerastheIconof RestorationAnglicanism 123 5. TheMaskofDiscontinuity:HookerintheReignsofJames IIandWilliamandMary 150 6. TheIndianSummerofRestorationAnglicanism:Queen AnneandtheToryRevival 176 Hooker’sReputation:AConclusion 198 Bibliography 205 Index 228 A Note on the Text Ingeneraltherehasbeennoattempttostandardizequotationsfrom anyoftheearlyprintedsourcestoconformtocontemporaryEnglish spelling.Theoneconsistentexceptioniswithregardtothelongs. All quotations to the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, unless stated otherwise, are taken from the modern Folger edition of Hooker’s works. The Folger’s dual system for citation has also been adopted. ThismeansthattheFolgerreferencecomesfirstandisfollowedbya bracketedonetoKeble’smorewidelyavailableedition. Introduction It has been claimed that in ‘the long and crowded roll of great English men of letters there is no figure of greater significance to theinstructedmindthanHooker’,andthathis Lawsof Ecclesiastical Polity,areamilestoneinthehistoryofreligiousthought.1 ThePolity has certainly been lauded as the first ‘philosophical masterpiece’ to be written in the vernacular and traditionally been acclaimed for settingouttheclassicdepictionoftheEnglishviamediabasedupon the sound triumvirate of scripture, reason, and tradition.2 Hooker hasbeencelebratedforrejectingthehardeningdisjunctionsbetween theseassortedauthorities,andforbringingthemintoarationaland coherentsynthesis,whichavoidedthemistakenextremesofRoman- ism or Puritanism.3 Although the English Church clearly pre-dated Hooker, his skilful congruence of the divergent strands of the Ref- ormation has been regarded as publicly signifying ‘the beginning of whatwenowcallAnglicanism’.4 Inspiteofthelongevityoftheseclaims,however,itisfarfromclear thatthelegacyofourAnglicanHookerisquitesostraightforward.If HookerwasindeedthefatherofaspecialEnglishChurchsettlement then it begs the question of why the terms Anglican or via media appear nowhere in the Polity? It could be that others applied them later to positions defended by Hooker, or possibly even invented by him.Moreradicallyitmightbethatweneedtoacceptthevalidityof awholeseriesofrevisioniststudies,whichhaveaddressedtheissueof ¹ C.J.Sisson,TheJudiciousMarriageofMrHookerandtheBirthoftheLawsof EcclesiasticalPolity(Cambridge,1940),p.ix. ² P.Avis,AnglicanismandtheChristianChurch(Edinburgh,1989),pp.xix,47;D. Stancliffe,‘Proem’,inP.B.Secor,RichardHooker,ProphetofAnglicanism,(Tunbridge Wells,1999),p.viii;W.D.Neelands,‘HookeronScripture,Reasonand“Tradition”’, inA.S.McGrade(ed.),RichardHookerandtheConstructionofChristianCommunity (Tempe,1997),74–94. ³ J.S.Marshall,HookerandtheAnglicanTradition.AnHistoricalandTheological StudyofHooker’sEcclesiasticalPolity(London,1963),1;H.McAdoo,‘RichardHooker’, in The English Religious Tradition and the Genius of Anglicanism (Wantage, 1992), 105–25. ⁴ Marshall,Hooker,1.