SOURCE: Thornton, L. S. “Hooker's System of Laws” and “Church and State.” In Richard Hooker: A Study of His Theology, pp. 25-40; 89-100. London: The MacMillan Co., 1924.

In the following excerpt, Thornton examines of Hooker's hierarchy of laws and explores his concept of the proper relationship between church and state.

We have had a preliminary glimpse into Hooker's mentality and have seen something of the differences which divided him from his Puritan opponents. We are now in a position to examine more closely his system of thought as it unfolds itself in the opening books of the Ecclesiastical Polity. The argument of Books I-IV develops directly out of positions taken up in the three Sermons on the book of Habakkuk and the other documents of the Temple Controversy. Thus the third Sermon, on The Nature of Pride,¹ gives, in the course of a discussion as to the nature...