Last November, on a visit to St Stephen's House Oxford, I met an American called Hooker who said he was a descendant of Richard Hooker; a relation of whom he was deeply proud. Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity is the best known work of Richard Hooker (1554-1600). Books I-IV of the Laws were published in 1593, Book V in 1597, Books VI and VIII in 1648-1651, and Book VII in 1662. This monumental treatise (which draws greatly on the work of Aquinas, Calvin and others) not only represents a defence of the system of governance being developed for the established Church of England at this time (subject to royal supremacy), but also an immense contribution to Anglican thought generally, theology (particularly ecclesiology), political theory (it was relied on by such thinkers as John Locke and Edmund Burke), and, indeed, English prose. It has a very special place, therefore, in the scholarship of Anglican theologians today and was used recently in debates about possible adoption of an Anglican Communion Covenant. However, remarkably, its profound insights into the place of law in ecclesial life, do not generally make an appearance in the scholarship of modern Anglican canon lawyers nor in that of historians of English ecclesiastical and canon law: there is no mention of Hooker in the index of either the seminal study of John Baker (on the English canonists 1300-1900) or that of Richard Helmholz (in his recent book on the English ecclesiastical jurisdiction 597 to the 1640s). Though Hooker was a cleric, not a lawyer, perhaps this is in part due to the impenetrability of the Laws’ language, particular prose style, and very long sentences (which carefully unpack propositions). But things have changed.

For the first time, Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity is presented in an accessible modern English-language edition. This is a result of painstaking and meticulous work by the distinguished Hooker scholar Arthur Stephen McGrade, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut. McGrade's interest in Hooker derives from what he considers an ‘extraordinary’ treatise in ‘its range, both intellectual and historical’, in the breadth of sources used (from biblical and classical, through patristic and medieval, to Renaissance and Reformation), its ‘striking combination of wide perspective on human nature and history with intense engagement in the issues of its time and place’, in the ‘coherence of [its] argument’, ‘original organization’, and its provision of ‘the template for the English high style, for Gibbon, Burke, and Ruskin’. Another function is to build on previous editions: the Oxford editions begun by Keble in 1836 and completed in 1888, with revisions by Church and Paget, and the critical Folger Library edition of Hooker's works (1977-98) produced by a group under the general editorship of W. Speed Hill. However, whilst the latter edition in particular has stimulated much valuable research on Hooker, McGrade proposes that ‘neither it nor Keble's editions make the Laws readily accessible to the wide range of readers whom it might interest. Such accessibility is the special goal of the present edition’, an edition which ‘is meant to be useful for all but the most specialized scholarly purposes’ and to present the treatise ‘as clearly and directly as possible for other readers as well’ (Introduction). These purposes A.S. McGrade has admirably fulfilled in a magisterial fashion.

Volume I consists of a substantial introduction, a statement of the principal dated events in Hooker's life and works, a note on the edition (spelling and references), and the modern language version of Books I-IV of the Laws. The Introduction (90 pages) is masterful; it addresses six themes. It looks first at how Hooker came to write the Laws - the political and religious context, of Catholic threats and Puritan attacks, and the life of Hooker. Next it deals with changing situations and lasting problems - the difficulties faced by English Christians living under the Elizabethan Settlement, particularly their ‘disintegration’ into three factions – supporters of the Settlement, Puritans oriented towards Geneva, and Catholics oriented towards Rome. Then the editor discusses Hooker's intended readers. Hooker wrote for the Puritans (who opposed his view of ecclesiastical polity), ‘pastorally, in English, for his own church, not in the Latin of international discourse’, and, given that ‘many English Christians were loyal to the papal church, we can scarcely doubt that Hooker also wrote with them in mind. References to Rome are pervasive…The English church should follow Rome in better practices rather than those “we much more affect” in worse’ (I, xxv-xxvi); Hooker's style is then studied - ‘Hooker himself rightly foresaw that the work would strike some readers as “perhaps tedious, perhaps obscure, dark, and intricate”’ (Bk. I); some of his contemporaries derided the style similarly but later generations have been kinder (C.S. Lewis praised the style ‘for its purposes [as] perhaps the most perfect in English’, its beauty ‘functional’). Indeed, McGrade recommends reading Hooker aloud to help understand the style. McGrade then provides a ‘Tour of the Laws’, with a synopsis of each Book. This is followed by discussion of its intended readers (Puritans, the Reformation world, Rome, the not so skilful, and Hooker himself), and exploration of the fact that ‘Hooker recognized that his motives in writing the Laws may be questioned, that readers might suppose he upheld the establishment in order to profit from it’ (I, xcix), and posterity. Then follows the edition of the Laws’ Preface (setting out the purpose of and background to the treatise), Book I (a theological and philosophical account of the nature of law, the law of nature, and the law of scripture), Book II (on scripture and the laws of reason with a critical analysis of the Puritan position), Book III (on scripture and church polity), and Book IV (on polity and ritual in ecclesial life).

Volume II contains Book V which is on the public duties of the Christian religion and their exercise by those with the power of ‘Ecclesiastical order’, godliness, atheism and superstition, principles for assessing liturgy, places for public worship, preaching, prayer, incarnation and the sacraments, occasional services such as marriage and burial, ministry (nature, structure and problems). Volume III carries Book VI (on the nature of spiritual jurisdiction, penitence as its aim, and the discipline of repentance), Book VII (on the authority of bishops) and Book VIII (on the church and commonwealth in a Christian kingdom, including kingship and its lay character, the royal supremacy, the crown and the creation of ecclesiastical law). Volume III also contains a glossary (based on that in the Folger edition), a guide to Hooker's sources and persons mentioned in the Laws, a bibliography, and indexes of scriptural citations, persons, and subjects. However, whilst modernisation of the Hooker's prose is greatly welcomed, McGrade retains much of Hooker's style, in, for example, long sentences, huge paragraphs, italics – sometimes running for page upon page - and ancient usage (such as ‘us-ward’ and ‘God-ward’). These retentions may be thought to overcomplicate what is already a difficult text to read and comprehend.

This new modern language edition of Hooker's Laws is a remarkable achievement; and that one person (and not a team) has produced it is of itself extraordinary. The three volumes will be of enormous value to historians, theologians, political philosophers, and anyone with an interest in church governance. In particular, it is hoped that making Hooker more accessible will stimulate scholars and practitioners of Anglican canon law to rely more on the wisdom contained in the Laws: to be critical of legal arrangements; to be circumspect over change for its own sake; to be clear on the reasons for propositions; to be alert to theological dimensions of church law and polity; and to recognise the value of articulating complex legal materials as general principles, with a strong theological dimension of weight, for the digestion of law.