I have been persuaded by a friend1, whom I reverence, and 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, because I foresee 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 his censures, till I have made known unto him some reasons, which I myself would now gladly 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 past2 (for I am now past the seventy of my age3) 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 George Cranmer 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 Camden 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-Borne near Canterbury; in which city their good father then lived. They had (I say) a part of their education with him, as myself, since that time, a happy cohabitation 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 College4; 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.
Footnotes
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[Thus explained in the Epistle to the Reader, prefixed to the Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, and Herbert, when first collected (in 1670) into one volume. “Having writ these two lives,” (of Dr. Donne and sir H. Wotton,) “I lay quiet twenty years, without a thought of either troubling myself or others, by any new engagement in this kind, for I thought I knew my unfitness. But, about that time, Dr. Gauden (then Lord Bishop of Exeter) publisht the Life of Mr. Richard Hooker, (so he called it,) with so many dangerous mistakes, both of him and his books, that discoursing of them with his Grace, Gilbert” [Sheldon] “that now is Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, he enjoined me to examine some circumstances, and then rectify the bishop’s mistakes, by giving the world a fuller and a truer account of Mr. Hooker and his books, than that bishop had done; and, I know I have done so. And, let me tell the reader, that till his Grace had laid this injunction upon me, I could not admit a thought of any fitness in me to undertake it: but, when he had twice enjoined me to it, I then declined my own, and trusted his judgment, and submitted to his commands: concluding, that if I did not, I could not forbear accusing myself of disobedience; and, indeed, of ingratitude for his many favours. Thus I became engaged into the third life.” N. B. This is quoted from the edition of 1675.] ↩
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[Is. Walton was born Aug. 9, 1593. The marriage referred to by the word “affinity” must be dated therefore about 1623. “From one or two entries in the parish register of St. Dunstan, Fleet-street, there is reason to believe that Walton was twice married:” (the second marriage connecting him, as is well known, with Bishop Ken:) “of his first wife nothing is now known, but that her Christian name was Rachel.“ ‘Aug. 25, 1640, Rachell wife of Isaak Walton was buried.’ ”“By her he had two sons. Henry baptized October 12, 1632, and buried October 17, following. Another Henry baptized March 21, 1634, buried Dec. 4. following.” Dr. Bliss’s note in Athen. Oxon. I. 690. In the Appendix, Walton says that George Cranmer’s sister was his (Walton’s) aunt. This passage shews that he means his aunt by marriage: and we may conclude that his first wife was Rachel, daughter of William Cranmer, one of the younger sons of Thomas, son of Edmund, who was brother to the Archbishop, and archdeacon of Canterbury. Dr. Zouch, apparently on the strength of the passage in the Appendix alone, states (vol. II. p. 314.) that “Isaac Walton’s mother was the daughter of Edmund Cranmer:” which is evidently inconsistent with the manner of speaking in the text.] ↩
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[“I have almost attained the declining year of fifty of mine age.” Robert Beal ap. Strype, A. IV. 116.] ↩
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[Archbishop Usher died 1655, aged 75; Bishop Morton 1660, aged 96; Mr. Hales 1656, aged 72.] ↩