The first major voice of Anglican theology, Hooker's defense of the Elizabethan Church against Puritan attack set Anglicanism's tone for centuries. The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity added Thomas Aquinas to English politics, sets forth a theory of natural law, and luminously illustrates the age's ethical, political, and religious assumptions.

Richard Hooker Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: Its texts are based on fresh transcriptions of the earliest and most authoritative documents, in many instances manuscripts written or corrected by Hooker himself or contemporary transcripts of these.