obliged him to take thought and care for affairs which concern the life of others. And we shall see how true was Hooker's faith in the working of greater good out of what seems evil; for had it not been for the trials of his married life he might never have undertaken his great work, because the circumstances which called it forth arose out of the concern of his two old pupils at the "thorny wilderness" in which they found him.

Hooker on his marriage had given up his college fellowship, and had been appointed to the living of DraytonBeauchamp, in Buckinghamshire. He had been here about a year, when Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer came to see their old tutor. Izaak Walton gives the following account of their visit :--"They found him with a book in his hand-it was the 'Odes of Horace'-he being then like humble and innocent Abel, tending his small allotment of sheep in a common field; which he told his pupils he was forced to do then, for that his servant had gone home to dine, and assist his wife to do some necessary household business. But when his servant returned and released him, then his two pupils attended him into his house, where their best entertainment was his quiet company; which was presently denied them, for Richard was called to rock the cradle; and the rest of their welcome was so like this, that they stayed but till next morning, which was time enough to discover and pity their tutor's condition; and they having in that time rejoiced in the remembrance, and then paraphrased on many of the innocent recreations of their younger days; and thereby given him as much present comfort as they were able, they were forced to leave him to the company of his wife Joan, and seek themselves a quieter lodging for next night. But at their parting from him Mr. Cranmer said, 'Good tutor, I am sorry your lot is fallen in no better ground, as to your parsonage; and more sorry that your wife proves not a more comfortable

companion, after you have wearied yourself in your studies!' To whom the good man replied, 'My dear George, if the saints have usually a double share in the miseries of this life, I, that am none, ought not to repine at what my wise Creator hath appointed me; but labour, as indeed I do daily, to submit my will to His, and possess my soul in patience and peace.""

Perhaps the looking after his sheep with a book in his hand, and still more the rocking of his baby's cradle, did not appear such great hardships to Hooker as they seemed to the young men; but, at any rate, Mr. Sandys was so persuaded of "his tutor's sad condition," that he induced his father, the Archbishop of York, to use his interest in getting Hooker appointed Master of the Temple. It was with much reluctance that Hooker left his quiet country parish and went up to London. His own wish was to live "where he might see God's blessings spring out of the earth, and be free from noise," but he had work to do in the active world of life; he must do battle in the noise and heat of the combat for that portion of Truth granted to him; and he was too true a hero to shrink from duty because it was distasteful to him. So he came up to London in the year 1585, just at the time when the later controversies of Queen Elizabeth's reign were going on in the Church. Whitgift and Cartwright had made peace with one another, and the Mar-Prelate controversy had scarcely begun; but there was much contention over disputed points, and the Puritan party was gaining strength among the people. The chief weapon of the Puritans lay in their assertion of the absolute authority of Scripture in matters of outward form and Church government, as well as in matters of faith; for this argument laid hold of many of the most faithful and conscientious Christians, who desired to obey the will of God in everything, and who had never perceived that Reason and Nature are

also of God. The principle, too, seemed to many persons to be the same as that contended for by the earlier Reformers, who maintained against the corruptions of doctrine in the Romish Church, that the Bible alone could be the authority for matters of faith, because being beyond our sight we could only know them by a revelation from God.

When Hooker began to preach at the Temple, there was at the same time a Mr. Walter Travers, a friend of Cartwright, who was Evening Lecturer at the Temple Church. He was a true-hearted, earnest man, with whom Hooker had much sympathy; but they differed so much in regard to the ceremonies and order of government in the Church that their sermons were often in direct contradiction to one another. This, of course, produced division in the congregation, which consisted chiefly of the Benchers of the Inn and the students, and the disputes in the pulpit were carried on continually in the hall of the Inn. At length the Archbishop, wishing to put a stop to this, prohibited Mr. Travers from preaching at the Temple; and an appeal was made by Mr. Travers and his friends to the Privy Council, but the queen upheld the Archbishop, so that the appeal was dismissed. Hooker was then accused by Mr. Travers and his supporters of saying things in his sermons which they thought were contrary to Scripture; and also that he prayed before and not after his sermons, kneeled when he prayed, and at the Communion, with other matters so unimportant, that Hooker said that "but to name them I should have thought a greater fault than to commit them.” Hooker defended himself against these accusations in a reply "full of so much quiet learning and humility," that it at once gained him the friendship of the Archbishop. Through all Hooker's writings he never in the heat of argument loses his respect and love for any honest truth-loving opponent; and so strong was his belief in the goodness and earnestness

of Mr. Travers and those who thought with him, that he with careful study examined his own opinions again, in order to satisfy himself that he was right in holding them. It was during this thoughtful reconsideration of his own views about Church government that the idea of his great work, "Ecclesiastical Polity," first occurred to him. He did not wish to attack any who differed from him, but he thought he might satisfy conscientious, faithful men, by the same reasoning which he had found sufficient for himself, that they could, with a clear conscience, accept the system of the English Church.

In order to carry out this design with that completeness which Hooker desired, it was necessary that he should have more time and less interruptions; he therefore gave up the office of Master of the Temple, and took a small living at Boscombe, a little Wiltshire village near Salisbury. He lived here for four years, giving his best thought and careful' work to his book; and at the end of that time four out of the eight books, into which he proposed to divide his work, were finished, and these were published in 1594.

Of their friendship

In 1595 Queen Elizabeth, who had a great esteem for Hooker, gave him the living of Bishopsbourne, a village about three miles from Canterbury. Here Hooker was often visited by persons who had read his books on Ecclesiastical Polity; and he also found a friend, like-minded with himself, with whom he formed a warm and intimate friendship. This was Dr. Saravia, a Prebend of Canterbury. Izaak Walton says:-"In this year 1595, and in this place of Bourne, these two excellent persons began a holy friendship, increasing daily to so high and mutual affections that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same; and their designs both for the glory of God and peace of the Church, still assisting and improving each other's virtues and the desired comforts of a peaceable piety." Hooker's two old pupils, Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer, still main

tained their steadfast love for their master; they came to see him, and were ready to render him every service in their power.

At Bishopsbourne, Hooker worked hard at his great book, but all his thoughts were not absorbed in this: he gave himself also to the work of his parish. He was diligent in preaching and catechising his people, always ready to visit those who were sick or in distress, most anxious to prevent quarrels among them, "urging his parishioners and neighbours to bear with each other's infirmities, to think no evil, but to live in love, because, as St. John says, 'He that lives in love, lives in God, for God is love.' He liked to keep up the old custom of the whole parish, rich and poor, young and old, going in procession round the boundaries of the parish on a certain day every year, because it brought them all together in friendly relation; and at these times he always entered heartily into the spirit of the village festival, and had some merry, loving words for every one, especially for the boys and young people, to whom the occasion was a holiday full of fun. Like Chaucer's poor parson,

"Christes lore and his Apostles twelve

He taught, but first he followed it himselve;"

for his biographer says: "He seemed in this place to teach. God's precepts, as Enoch did, by walking with God in all holiness and humility, making each day a step towards a blessed eternity."

About five years after Hooker came to Bishopsbourne, in 1600, he took a severe cold in going from London to Gravesend by water. This brought on an illness, from which he never recovered; he was able, however, to work on at his book for some time, and he often said to Dr. Saravia, who came every day to see him, "that he did not beg a long life of God for any other reason but to live to finish his three remaining books of 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' and then

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