Richard Hooker and a Blog Dilemma

On page 39, our guide makes a casual reference to the "great work of Hooker". Do you know who Richard Hooker was? Almost everyone we will encounter in the 17th century knew, and had read, or read in, Ecclesiastical Polity, Hooker's "great work."

I can point you to Hooker's works:

• Volume 1.
• Volume 2.
• Volume 3.

But I haven't read much in them myself. And this is a fundamental dilemma in my plan for this blog. My inclination is to put other work on hold and read these three volumes. What with work, family and other reading, that would probably take me 9 months. By Christmas, I would have a very good background in the doctrine, politics and history of the Church of England as Queen Elizabeth left it.

Will I do it? Almost certainly not. I don't have enough years left to follow that kind of rabbit hole. The loss is mine and yours. If I had a deeper knowledge of the thought that fed the Church of England, I could write a better blog. (On the other hand, we might never get to 1603.)

For the most part we'll have to rely on Professor Gardiner (who I'm sure read Hooker) to dole out the knowledge we need when we need it.
But Hooker is hardly the only rock on which we may flounder. There are Ralegh's works. Bacon's. Laud's. The Strafford Letters. D'Ewes's diaries. Cromwell's letters and speeches. Milton's political works. Prynne's diatribes. The Parliamentary History. The Anglo-Catholic Library. At every turn there is more material than I have the years or you the patience to read, let alone report.