Richard Hooker & the Founding of America

The English Reformation, Moderation, and the U.S. Constitution

Introduction
Henry the VIII (1509-1547) was no pious Protestant, but one might say that he rode his political ambition on the wave of Protestant dissent against the primacy of the Pope. Sir Thomas More was executed in England for refusing to break with the Pope, but the Church of England was officially independent of Rome by 1534. From that point on, a great struggle erupted over the exact “brand” of Protestant nation England would become.

Edward VI was next in line, called the “Protestant Prince.” He was a devout young man, and under his rule, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote the first edition of the Book of Common Prayer which was a truly Protestant book of worship that included Protestant Articles of Faith (eventually the 39 Articles). Martin Bucer, Calvin’s mentor from Strasbourg, was also involved in the work of Reformation in England at this time. All of this momentum came to a halt when Edward died, and the committed Roman Catholic, Mary Tudor, came to the throne.

While America was founded by Puritans and presbyterians who would have largely preferred further Reformation than was ultimately accomplished in the Church of England, it is arguable that some of the English Protestant instincts ultimately informed the American political soul, perhaps most notably through the works of Richard Hooker.

A Little More History
Mary Tudor, known among protestants as “Blood Mary,” came to the throne after Edward died having ruled for only 6 years. Jane Gray reigned for 9 days, an abortive attempt by some Protestant nobles to prevent Mary from coming to the throne, and Jane was executed for treason at 16 years old. Mary reigned for five years as a committed Roman Catholic and oversaw the fierce persecution of Protestants, including the burning of Thomas Cranmer.

Under Elizabeth (1558-1603), England settled into what has come to be considered a via media – a “middle way” – which was Protestant in doctrine but tended to keep many of the catholic traditions and forms. This represents an approach to civil and ecclesiastical law, tradition, human reason, toleration, and moderation that had a wide-ranging impact on Western history. During Elizabeth’s reign, the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles came into their traditional forms, and Elizabeth’s successor King James I oversaw the publication of the Authorized Version of the Bible, the most used English version in history.

Richard Hooker and His Moderation
While Cranmer was a significant player in the establishment of true Protestantism in England, many regard Richard Hooker (1554-1600) as the real founder and architect of the via media. Under Hooker’s leadership, the Church of England or Anglican Church, affirmed the supremacy of Scripture but also declared the importance of Church tradition wherever it did not explicitly contradict Scripture. While the 39 Articles affirmed the central doctrines of the Reformation, agreeing with Luther and Calvin, the Church accepted variations of doctrine within its ranks. The Anglican Church also emphasized certain things as “fundamental” to the faith and other things as adiaphora, “things indifferent,” including rituals, vestments, and other traditions.

Hence, the “Puritans” arose urging more complete reforms, arguing that worship should only consist of those things positively commanded by God in Scripture. Initially, Independents and Dissenters (or Separatists) left the Church of England while Puritans tried to continue to reform the Church from within. Many of the Puritans preferred a presbyterian church government, and some argued that presbyterian church government was “jure divino,” meaning by divine command, and therefore all other church governments were unbiblical, rebellious, and remnants of the Roman Catholic Antichrist. Hooker’s primary work, an eight volume series called Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Piety, addressed the complaints of the Puritans and Presbyterians, urging moderation and respect for tradition, distinguishing between different forms of church government in different places at different times drawn from biblical principles and an insistence that a detailed church polity can be deduced from Scripture with absolute precision and certainty. He wrote against that absolute precisionism as a radicalism tending toward fanaticism and violent revolution, as seen in some of the anabaptist sects and uprisings of his day.

Hooker’s moderation mimicked Aristotle’s Golden Mean, seeking to avoid what he saw as extremes in Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. While the founders of America were largely Presbyterian (King George called the War for Independence “The Presbyterian Revolt”), the instinct for toleration among different Christian denominations is reminiscent of Hooker’s desire for moderation and temperance within the Church. While Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity primarily addressed the turmoil inside the Church of England in the late 16th century, his work had many applications to how society and civil government should be organized.

For example, James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” cited Hooker in his deliberations on government structure. And Madison's notes from his studies at Princeton College include references to Hooker, particularly his discussions about the nature of law and authority. Likewise, John Adams praised Hooker's concept of the "mixed polity" in his writings, and Hooker’s work is thought to have influenced his thoughts on the balance of power in government. Adams explicitly mentioned Hooker’s ideas in his "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America."

Calvin’s Geneva and those English Protestants influenced by him taught that all of life must be governed by Scripture. While Hooker was appreciative of Calvin’s work in Geneva and agreed that Scripture must check and correct all of life, he held a far more optimistic view of what he called the Law Natural – or the Law of Reason, the ability for natural man to reason from nature and tradition to establish forms of government and justice. Hooker was also far more skeptical of man’s ability to make application of Scripture to new political and ecclesial contexts in ways that everyone would agree on.

Nevertheless, particular laws and civil orders must be established in every place and time, and those particulars Hooker calls the Law Positive. Law Positive is not immutable (like moral law), but rather prudential application of the Law Natural, tradition, custom, with Scriptural input. Therefore, Law Positive can be changed and improved over time, but Hooker taught that it was best for this change and improvement to happen slowly and deliberatively over time to avoid revolution and extremes. These principles of prudence, biblically informed reason, and continuity with tradition were themes that seem to have influenced the Fathers who established the American constitutional republic.

Conclusion
While Hooker taught that rulers must be under the law, he strongly resisted the Puritans and Presbyterians who wanted to abolish monarchy and the episcopacy altogether. Rather, Hooker taught that different forms of civil and church government might be prudentially and constitutionally established at different times in history depending on what seemed best to the people. While, he seemed to leave some room for the possibility of needing to completely remodel governments, he was extremely leery of such projects, fearing they would tend toward anarchy and violent revolutions. It seems likely that Hooker would have opposed the American War for Independence.

However, while the early Americans certainly leaned more toward the Calvinistic application of Scripture to all of life, skepticism of human nature, and therefore a more robust Protestant doctrine of resistance, nevertheless, the Founding Fathers seem to have received some of the broader tempering of Hooker, as evidenced by the First Amendment. While there were widespread fears that England was plotting to force Anglican bishops on the colonies (as a precursor to full blown monarchy) leading up to the War for Independence, the Constitution insisted on the liberty of different states to decide church polity as they saw fit. Likewise, there were certainly some prominent Anglicans among the Founders, including George Washington himself, the General of the continental army and the first U.S. president. The fact that a bunch of fierce presbyterians and congregationalists could so warmly embrace an Anglican for president represents some measure of Hooker’s influence on America’s founding.