SOURCE: Archer, Stanley. “Ecclesiastical Polity, Books 6-8: Issues of Power and Authority.” In Richard Hooker, pp. 98-116. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983.

In the following excerpt, Archer examines Books six through eight of Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, asserting that Hooker's goal in the last three books was to reject the lay elders as part of church polity, while defending the office and authority of the bishops and upholding the monarch as the head of the Church of England.

The final three books of Ecclesiastical Polity have long been subject to uncertainty, doubt, and tentative conclusions as to authorship. Although Hooker lists them in his outline in 1593 and his wording to the reader suggests that they are nearly complete, they were not published until long after his death.¹ Books 6 and 8 were first published in 1648 by Richard Bishop, who had obtained the publication rights from William Stansby, and book 7 finally...