The Folger Library Edition of The Works of Richard Hooker, Volume III: Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: Books VI, VII, VIII

by Richard Hooker, P. G. Stanwood

Overview

The writings of Richard Hooker are of central interest to those studying English Renaissance thought and literature. In this, the third volume of a much-needed critical edition of the Works of Richard Hooker, are the posthumous books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker planned the Laws in eight books, but he died shortly after publication of Book Five. Books Six, Seven, and Eight, which contain his analysis of jurisdiction, episcopacy, and the royal supremacy, are here transcribed from versions that have the most authority. The volume also includes Hooker’s autograph notes toward those texts (brought to light by P. G. Stanwood in the course of his research) and the contemporary notes by George Cranmer and Edwin Sandys on a lost draft of Book Six. Mr. Stanwood’s introduction lays to rest all doubts about the authenticity of the last three books as we have them, doubts current since publication of Walton’s Life of Hooker in 1662.

This edition, sponsored by the Folger Library, is providing authoritative texts to serve as a basis for the scholarly reappraisal of Richard Hooker’s writings that is presently underway.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674632103
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1981
Series:	Folger Library Edition of the Works of Richard Hooker Series , #2
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	728
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

W. Speed Hill was Associate Professor of English at Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Textual Introduction: The Three Last Books

Sigla and Abbreviations

OF THE LAWES OF ECCLESIASTICALL POLITIE

The Sixth Book

Notes on the Sixth Book by George Cranmer and Edwin Sandys

The Seventh Book

The Eighth Book

Fragments

Textual Supplements

I. The Causes of the Continuance of These Contentions Concerning Church Government

II. Hooker's Autograph Notes for the Posthumous Books

III. Archbishop Ussher's Transcription of Hooker's Notes

Textual Commentary

Appendix I. The Sixth Book

i. Nonsubstantive Variants

ii. Additional Manuscript Variants

iii. Scribal Corrections to TCD MS 121 (D4)

Appendix II. The Seventh Book

i. Nonsubstantive Variants

ii. Press Variants in Copies of 1662

Appendix III. The Eighth Book

i. Nonsubstantive Variants

Editorial Reviews

A triumph… The scholarship is professional, the introductory material helpful, and the text itself both accurate and attractive. Indeed, this is the most inviting edition of the Laws ever published.

Seventeenth Century News

Volumes worthy to stand next to the other great monuments of modern editing of English Renaissance literature… Thanks to the new edition a full assessment of Hooker will now be possible.

Queen’s Quarterly

Volumes worthy to stand next to the other great monuments of modern editing of English Renaissance literature… Thanks to the new edition a full assessment of Hooker will now be possible.

Queen’s Quarterly