Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Richd Hooker, George Herbert,

Lives of John Donne, Henry
Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George
Herbert,

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton,
Rich'd
Hooker, George Herbert, &C, Volume Two, by Izaak Walton
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Title: Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George
Herbert, &C, Volume Two
Author: Izaak Walton
Release Date: August 8, 2004 [eBook #13139]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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JOHN DONNE, HENRY WOTTON, RICH'D HOOKER, GEORGE
HERBERT, &C, VOLUME TWO***
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LIVES OF JOHN DONNE, HENRY WOTTON, RICH'D HOOKER,
GEORGE HERBERT, &c, VOLUME TWO
by
IZAAK WALTON

This issue of "Walton's Lives" is based upon John Major's edition of
1825, which was printed from a copy of the edition of 1675, "corrected
by Walton's own pen," Major's "illustrative notes" have been preserved,
with some modifications by later hands. Mr. AUSTIN DOBSON has
read the text, added the marginalia, and contributed the supplementary
notes.
I.G.
August 9,
Walton's birthday,
1898.

CONTENTS
The Life of Mr. Richard Hooker
The Life of Mr. George Herbert, Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral
The Life of Dr. Robert Sanderson, Late Lord Bishop of Lincoln

THE LIFE OF MR. RICHARD HOOKER:
THE AUTHOR OF THOSE LEARNED BOOKS OF THE LAWS OF
ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.
"Judicious Hooker, though the cost be spent On him, that hath a lasting
monument In his own books; yet ought we to express If not the worth,
yet our respectfulness."
SIR WIL. COWPER

INTRODUCTION
[Sidenote: Introduction]
I have been persuaded, by a friend whom I reverence, and ought to
obey, to write the Life of RICHARD HOOKER, the happy Author of
Five--if not more--of the eight learned books of "The Laws of
Ecclesiastical Polity." And though I have undertaken it, yet it hath been
with some unwillingness: because I foresee that it must prove to me,
and especially at this time of my age, a work of much labour to enquire,
consider, research, and determine what is needful to be known
concerning him. For I knew him not in his life, and must therefore not
only look back to his death,--now sixty-four years past,--but almost
fifty years beyond, that, even to his childhood and youth; and gather

thence such observations and prognostics as may at least adorn, if not
prove necessary for the completing of what I have undertaken.
[Sidenote: Reasons for this Life]
This trouble I foresee, and foresee also that it is impossible to escape
censures; against which I will not hope my well-meaning and diligence
can protect me,--for I consider the age in which I live--and shall
therefore but intreat of my Reader a suspension of his censures, till I
have made known unto him some reasons, which I myself would now
gladly believe do make me in some measure fit for this undertaking;
and if these reasons shall not acquit me from all censures, they may at
least abate of their severity, and this is all I can probably hope for. My
reasons follow.
About forty years past--for I am now past the seventy of my age--I
began a happy affinity with William Cranmer,--now with
God,--grand-nephew unto the great Archbishop of that name;--a family
of noted prudence and resolution; with him and two of his sisters I had
an entire and free friendship: one of them was the wife of Dr.
Spencer,[1] a bosom friend and sometime com-pupil with Mr. Hooker
in Corpus Christi College in Oxford, and after President of the same. I
name them here, for that I shall have occasion to mention them in the
following discourse, as also George Cranmer, their brother, of whose
useful abilities my Reader may have a more authentic testimony than
my pen can purchase for him, by that of our learned Camden and
others.
[Sidenote: Hooker's friends]
This William Cranmer and his two fore-named sisters had some affinity,
and a most familiar friendship, with Mr. Hooker, and had had some
part of their education with him in his house, when he was parson of
Bishop's-Bourne near Canterbury; in which City their good father then
lived. They had, I say, a part of their education with him as myself,
since that time, a happy cohabitation with them; and having some years
before read part of Mr. Hooker's works with great liking and
satisfaction, my affection to them made me a diligent inquisitor into
many things that concerned him; as namely, of his persons, his nature,
the management of his time, his wife, his family,