Tuesday, November 3, 2026

It is the 3rd of November 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

What’s an Anglican? How is that different from an Episcopalian? Are they kind of Catholic? These kinds of questions are normal around these parts as we invite Christians to peek in on their whole family tree. Questions of denominational differences, identities, and labels. And there is perhaps no better day on the calendar to discuss our friends in the Church of England than the 3rd of November- a day in which that church remembers a towering figure: Richard Hooker.

Let’s get the myth out of the way and then find the man. Richard Hooker never used the word Anglican, nor the phrase Via Media, nor the idea of a “three-legged stool”. BUT, these are the hooks by which the man is perhaps best understood.

Richard Hooker was born around 1553 in Exeter to a family with little means. Yet they had familial connections within the Church of England. He had bishop John Jewell as a patron and, with his connections, was able to secure a place at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to prepare for the ministry.

By this time, the late 1560s, it was the age of Queen Elizabeth, and the battle was no longer one between Catholics and Protestants, but instead “what kind of Protestants should we be”? There were those who supported the status quo of a Protestant church with Bishops and vestments, while the new so-called “Puritans” tended to lean harder in the ideas of John Calvin. This all came to a head in Hooker’s life when he was appointed Master of the Temple in London (that is, he was a crown-appointed preacher to the Temple church- part of the famed English legal society). But Hooker was not the only appointed preacher- the Puritan William Travers also preached such that the pulpit “spake pure Canterbury in the Morning and Geneva in the afternoon”.

One particularly contentious issue had to do with the question of the fate of Christians who died in the Roman Catholic Church when that was the only available church. Hooker taught that many in the Roman Catholic Church had been saved despite the errors of the church; Travers saw this as abandoning the tenets of the Reformation and leaning back towards Rome. It’s less interesting as a battle today; Hooker was not leaning back towards Rome but had a pastoral concern with people asking the questions of what to think about their ancestors who died before the Reformation or during the Catholic Marian settlement.

Hooker would use this publicity to all but retire in 1591, accepting positions and living with his wealthy in-laws to produce his magnum opus- “Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie”. The first 4 books of the work were published in 1594, the 5th book was published in 1597, and the last three were published posthumously.

It is a defense of the status quo in the church of England under Elizabeth. It approves of bishops, not because bishops are necessary, but because there is not sufficient reason to change. As one of the more thoughtful defenders of the church at the time, he is often lifted up as one of the “great architects of Anglicanism,” even though that term isn’t used until the next century. He defends Protestant theology but leaves church organization and practice as “adiaphora” or something on which Scripture doesn’t clearly teach and thus is open to human interpretation. Because he defended the status quo of a “high church” (vestments and the like) and because he was seen as friendlier to Catholics than the Puritan counterpoint, he has been seen as the idea of the Anglican Church being the via media, or “middle way” between Rome and Geneva.

Because he believed there were some things in Scripture that were unclear and needed human reason to understand, he is attributed with the “three-legged stool” idea that we have Scripture, Reason, and Tradition to guide us. We should note Hooker believed in the supremacy of Scripture in what it clearly teaches, but that with secondary issues we have the gifts of reason and tradition to help guide us. The myth makes the man singular and the “inventor” of so much. But the man himself was remarkable in his brief life- his writing in defense of the Church of England and his insistence on the use of reason and tradition when appropriate. Richard Hooker would die on the 2nd of November in 1600- likely 47 years old. The Church of England remembers this giant of the second generation of the English Reformation with a remembrance on this, the 3rd of November.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 128 from the Seedbed Psalter at psalms.seedbed.com:

Bless’d are all those who fear the Lord,

Who walk within His ways.

You’ll eat the fruit of all your work,
And bless’d will be your days.

Your wife will be a fruitful vine

in your home, full of peace;

Your children round your table will

be like young olive trees.

For thus the one shall bless-ed be

who fears the Lord indeed.

Jerusalem’s prosperity,

May He bless you to see.

From Zion may the Lord bless you;

May all your days be well;

And may you see your children’s seed—
Peace be to Is-ra-el!

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 3rd of November 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who is so Lutheran he looks a lot like a Catholic but sounds nothing like one… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who lists as his denominational preference: “probably one of them.” I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.