THE ELIZABETHAN CHURCH.*

A 'VOLUME that has taken something like five years to pass through the press is a rare product of these goaded times, and is indeed a thing for which the student may be thankful. The author of this ripe edition of the famous Fifth Book of Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity is "the vicar of a London parish whose leisure is a vanishing quantity." That leisure has been used to excellent purpose in the production of this learned contribution to "The English Theological Library" series, which is designed, to use the words of Dr. Creighton, the author of the general introduction to the series, not only to put forth standard works of English theology, but to " illustrate the history of the great crises of the English Church." The work now edited in such elaborate detail is one that well performs this double object, for it is the contribution of one of our greatest theologians, couched in monumental prose, to the solution of the forces which surrounded and threatened the existence of the English Church as it emerged from the earth- quake of the Reformation. The importance of this Fifth Book of the Ecclesiastical Polity has never been lost sight of since its publication in 1597, and in our time it certainly has no less significance than it had three centuries ago. The relation of the State to religion in all its logical as well as its spiritual meaning is to-day a question as vital as it was when Hooker devoted his great intellect, his vast learn- ing, and his immortal pen to the statement of the deep prin- ciples which underlie that subtle relationship, which in its true essence is neither hierarchical nor Erastian. The Church has again passed through a Reformation, and stands to-day in a position not incomparable with that which it occupied in the Elizabethan times, midway between the glamour of Rome and the austerity of Puritanism. Hooker explains the position as no other writer can or could, and this new edition is of par- ticular value, inasmuch as it brings Hooker more effectively within the grasp of the modern student of Church history than even Keble's famous edition, upon which it is based.

Mr. Ronald Bayne has given us the text (with modernised spelling, except in the case of proper names) of the eclitio princeps of 1597, and has prefixed to each chapter a para- graph of summary and comment which, with the headlines, supply a lucid analysis of the treatise. The notes are based on those given by Keble in his second edition of 1841, but they are greatly elaborated with the addition of much new and valuable matter. So many Latin and Greek quotations were contained in the original notes that they were only of value to the classical scholar. Full translations, which will • Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: the Fifth Book. By Richard Hooker. A New Edition, with Prolegomena and Appendices by Ronald Bayne, M.A., University College, Oxford, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Greenwich. London ; Macmillan and ^- rms. 6d. net.] prove of much use even to scholars, are given of all these Latin and Greek passages, while the method of reference and explanation is fuller than that used by Keble. Mr. Bayne has, moreover, cited all Biblical references in full, and in order to preserve what we may call the Elizabethan flavour of the work he has used for this purpose the Geneva Bible of 1560

and the Psalms as given in the Prayer-book version printed in the Bishops' Bible of 1568, and has referred quotations

from the Fathers to early editions probably used by Hooker. Mr. Bayne has, as we have said, contributed much new matter

to the notes. He, however, specially claims as original-

" the referenees to Barrow in the title of ch. 12, the mysterious quotation of Metaphys. Schoolp. in chap. 20, the extensive use in the same chapter (see note 40) of Sibrand Lubbert's discussion on the Canon of Scripture, the reliance (pp. 267, 341, 351, 381-3, 386) upon Simon Goulart's notes in his Cyprian, the probable use of George Cassander's tract on infant baptism, the connection of chaps. 78 and 79 with Saravia's treatises (pp. 503, 507, 532-4, 536-7). A cancelled note by Hooker has been recovered from a pamphlet hitherto unidentified, printed in 1642 (p. xxxiv., n. 9)."

The editor in his prolegomena gives us a good Life of Hooker, an admirable note on the style and characteristics of the writer, a full and very valuable dissertation on " Dis- ciplinarian Puritanism," and other useful notes. He adds to

the appendices given by Keble the famous Christian Letter of Certain English Protestants, published in 1599, attacking Books I. to V. of the Polity, which Hooker intended to

answer. His copy of the letter, covered with notes for the purposes of the reply, is preserved in Corpus Christi College Library, Oxford. Keble had access to this copy, and published "nearly all these notes" in 1836. It is a matter for regret

that nothing has been done in this edition to supplement or check Keble's work in this respect, but we are told that " it has not been permitted to the editor to collate this tract." Mr.

Bayne in his Life of Hooker does not appear to have referred to the 1666 edition of the Polity, to which is prefixed a letter from Henry King, Bishop of Chichester, to Isaac Walton con- taining some interesting facts as to Hooker, whom King, when a child, had known. One phrase in this letter is notable.

King tells us that he had received from his father, the Bishop of London, such a character of Hooker's "learning,. humility, and other virtues, that like jewels of invaluable

price, they still cast such a lustre as envy or the rust of time shall never darken." His statement that Hooker's.

works were highly valued by Pope Clement VIII. and other well-known Roman Catholics of the time is inter- esting in the extreme, though we may doubt if the Pope would have joined with the Bishop in calling Hooker

" Schismaticorum Malleus." King's history of the manu- scripts of Books VI., VII., and VIII. of the Polity may well be reproduced here. We are told that Dr. John Spencer instructed Henry Jackson, of Corpus Christi College— "to transcribe for him all Mr. Hookers remaining written Papers,. many of which were imperfect; for his Study had been rifled or worse used by Mr. Clark, and another of principles too like his. But as these Papers were, they were endeavored to be compleated by his dear friend Dr. Spencer, who bequeathed them as a precious Legacy to my Father ; after whose death they rested in my hand, till Dr. Abbot, then Archbishop of Canterbury, commanded them out of my custody, authorising Dr. John Barkham (his Lordships chaplain) to require and bring them to him to Lambeth : at which time I have heard they were put into the Bishops library, and that they remained there till the martyrdom of Archbishop Laud, and were then by the Brethren of that Faction given with the library to Hugh Peters, as a reward for his remarkable service in those sad times of the Churches confusion."

Mr. Bayne's introductory dissertation on "Disciplinarian Puritanism" is a valuable piece of original work on a subject that still remains obscure despite the efforts of many com-

petent modern historians. The editor tells us that the Fifth Book of the Polity, dealing as it does especially with the Book of Common Prayer, and forming the final docu-

ment of a great controversy, needs an introduction. " It is complementary to the ecclesiastical history of its time, and a

sketch of that history is necessary to its intelligent compre- hension." We had hoped that in this dissertation Mr. Bayne would have given us the earliest history and the dim begin- nings of Dissent. He prefers, however, to take " The Troubles

of Frankfort" as " the starting-point for such a sketch." For our own part, we prefer to believe that the true starting-point is the Wycliffe movement, especially in its later developments after its suppression at the opening of the fifteenth century. Such developments are obscure enough, but they rise into real significance in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII.

"The Troubles of Frankfort" takes up the story of Dissent in the middle of the sixteenth century. In June, 1554, a little band of English Marian exiles joined a small French Protes- tant congregation at Frankfort. In order to secure joint use of the church, they found it, and were glad to find it, necessary to modify the English Prayer-book, and to approximate to'the Geneva Service. Other bodies of exiles, such as those of Zurich and Strasbourg, protested against any change ; but the Frankfort sojourners persisted in their course, and through the agency of John Knox and others, submitted to Calvin a Latin criticism of the Prayer-book. " Nearly all the objections to the Prayer Book which Hooker deals with are here enumerated ; and the general tone and attitude of the writers towards the Prayer Book is exactly that of the Puritan party throughout the reign of Elizabeth." Knox was eventually driven from Frankfort to Geneva, where he drew up the form of prayers which in 1565 became the Book of Common Order of the Scottish Church. Meanwhile the Frankfort remnant pro- duced two Books of Discipline which certainly recognised "ordination by the call of the congregation with or without imposition of hands." On the accession of Elizabeth these ideas were freely introduced into England by the returning ,exiles. Indeed, Travers, the contemporary of Hooker at the Temple, held his position by virtue of such an ordination. Mr. Bayne might, perhaps, have brought out the fact that such a laxity was not in itself distasteful to Elizabeth. This is abundantly proved by the attitude which Elizabeth adopted towards the Calvinistic Discipline that was introduced into Jersey from its University town of Saumur. She recognised in an equivocally worded document a non-episcopal dis- cipline in the island, and for some time James I. felt himself bound by the arrangement. It was only after the union of Jersey to Oxford instead of Saumur that the episcopal discipline was restored. But for England itself policy demanded that there should be not only Crown juris- diction over " the State ecclesiastical and spiritual," but also a uniformity of common prayer and divine service, and the second Prayer-book of Edward VI. was imposed upon the nation by an Imperial hand that moved the Bishops about the board with a cynical contempt for the truth that they, and not the Queen, were the ultimate fact of the entire Settle- ment. The Eraatianism of Elizabeth established the Church of England in face of innumerable dangers, proceeding from Rome on the one hand and from the growth of Dissent on the other; but it bore its inevitable fruits in the gradual development of an irreconcilable Nonconformist party, and in a reactionary " Catholic " party in the Church itself, which, first showing itself in the Nonjuror Movement (a Movement that ultimately fell back on the first Prayer- book of Edward VI. or a " primitive " equivalent), found in the side-issues of the Oxford Movement an opportunity of disclaiming the Settlement of the sixteenth century.

Mr. Bayne in his dissertation has traced in elaborate detail the whole development of the Puritan position, and in doing so has thrown much valuable light on this difficult and troublous time. We could have wished that he had quoted William Harrison's description (1577) of the " prophecies " or " conferences " of the clergy " erected only for the examina- tion or trial of the diligence of the clergy in their study of Holy Scripture," but which the laity attended, and which

were the seed-plots of organised Dissent. This, however, is a slight criticism. The dissertation is a worthy introduction to the great Fifth Book of the Polity, which, as we have said, demonstrates the spiritual realities that underlay and underlie the Church of England as by Law Established.