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The Reformation · 1593–1597; later books posthumous
Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity
Richard Hooker · 1554–1600
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What it is
A defence of the English church against Puritan critics, grounded in a doctrine of law running from eternal law through natural reason to human custom.
Why it lasted
The founding work of Anglican theological method and one of the great monuments of English prose, arguing that reason and tradition are not enemies of scripture.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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