The errors of the Puritans

Résumé du document

The document we're going to talk about today is a set of extracts from Richard Hooker's work Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity written in 1593 (the 3 dots suggest that they were cuts in the text). Actually, this is his main work and it consists of eight books that were published during the reign of Elizabeth I (she came to the throne in 1558). In 1890, Isaac Walton published The work of Mr Richard Hooker with an account of his life and death, a book in which he gathered Hooker's written works and his biography. This very extract relates the debate opposing the Puritan wing of the Church of England and the partisans of the Church of England in the last decade of the reign of Elizabeth I. You all remember that Elizabeth was a protestant: she reformed the English Church, setting up a Via Media which is a middle way between the positions of the Roman Catholics and the Protestants.

Extraits

[...] You all remember that Elizabeth was a protestant: she reformed the English Church, setting up a Via Media which is a middle way between the positions of the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. As it is clearly explained in the text, the most radical Protestants did not agree with the way the English Church had been reformed. They were not pleased with the compromise that had been reached and wanted to adopt the same reforms as those of the other European Protestant Churches. [...]

[...] The other argument of authority is when he uses a vocabulary of justice and rights, because nothing is above the reason that God gave to the man. These are irrefutable arguments for the readers, so Hooker can't be counter-attacked. Hooker's argumentation reflects the religious conflicts of the time. Queen Elizabeth the 1st appealed to Richard Hooker to be the spokesman of the Church of England in such difficult times for the Church. However, as it is pointed out in the paragraph which introduces Hooker to the reader, Hooker had never reached really high positions in the Church of England. [...]

[...] We told you in our second part that Hooker was very ironic in his final enumeration; you've probably noticed that the biblical references are implicit, for instance he talks about the but he doesn't mention the Jordan, the reader has to guess what he's precisely talking about. We can imagine, as he employs an ironical tone, that he didn't want to mention explicitly the Bible not to be attacked for blaspheming the Holy Scripture, which is all the same an important element of the Church of England, as he claims himself. Concerning the present: The reality of the Church of England, at Hooker's time is really different: everything is more formal. We can notice that sacraments and rites are blamed by the Puritans: e.g. [...]

[...] Vocabulary of law/rights, (that we can attach to the main title of the work Of the laws of Ecclesiastical Polity=) : “lawfully” l.43, (l.45), (idem), special violated” = law vocabulary to justify himself, so as not to be counter-attacked and to show that what he defends is authorised officially by the Scripture, so people can't be scared of God's wrath. On the contrary, he says that he serves the “glory of so people should believe him, share his convictions and not the Puritans' ones rhetorical). We see there again the sentence as they be not done against the Scriptures” he insists on the fact that the Church of England is faithful to God's Law. [...]

[...] In the text, they are also at the centre of the debate. In short, they are essential but Hooker and the Puritans diverge in their ways of using the Scripture. Hooker and the Puritans' reading of the Scripture In fact, both Puritans and Hooker believe that Scripture is the basis of religion, that it is the first rule to abide by in religion. But the Puritans accuse the Church of England of not following what's written in the Scriptures: indeed, they want the Scriptures to be followed literally, as their “first assertion” says (first 3 lines), and they want the Church to do only what is written in the Scriptures. [...]