Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

Mary and Elizabeth. Born about the same time as Raleigh, Spenser, and Sir Philip Sidney a; a few years later than Cer vantes, Cardinal Bellarmine, and Paul Sarpi b; and only a few years earlier than Lord Bacon, Galileo, and Shakespeare c, he belongs to that last quarter of the sixteenth century, in which the results of its earlier years, both good and evil, were becoming mature, and which wass fruitful in great men, great events, and new and bold beginnings in politics, religion, and philosophy. His education was under the characteristic influences which marked the age and reign of Elizabeth, and he lived to be one of the most original and worthy representatives of its spirit: the one adequate exponent of its religious ideas and policy. With these no one more fully sympathized; and no one conceived them in so com prehensive and masterly a manner. The results of the religious movement of the time had taken shape under the resolute but cautious hand of the Queen in a Church polity, which was thought at the time, and has proved to be, unique; but which has also proved singularly suited to the character of the English nation. Of this system, which looks like the growth of accident, though it was really rooted in the conditions of the people whose history it has since so profoundly affected, Hooker discerned the effective and governing prin ciples; he divined what was permanent and capable of life a Raleigh, 1552. Spenser, 1552, or 1553. Sidney, 1554. b Beilarmine, 1542. Cervantes, 1547. Sarpi, 1552. c Bacon, 1561. Shakespeare, 1564. Galileo,
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historicall