Richard Hooker, Anglican Theologian, at Exeter

This statue of Richard Hooker in front of Exeter Cathedral, celebrates Richard Hooker, born in Exeter in 1554, and an influential Anglican priest and theologian. He is seen with Archbishops Cranmer and Parker as the founder of Anglican theology.

He was appointed to preach at Paul's Cross in London in 1581 and became famous in that religion obsessed age, in that he opposed the Puritan doctrine of pre-destination - that is those that were saved by God were pre-destined. Hooker believed in Justification by Faith, but argued that even those who did not understand or accept this could be saved by God.

His best known work is the Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, which is a reply to the general principles of Puritanism, then commanding the intellectual high ground in an age when religious difference mattered - often fatally.

English Puritans influenced by John Calvin of Geneva (see previous blips) argued for the demotion of the clergy, and government by the pre-destined Elect. This was not a theoretical issue because what lay behind the debate was the position of Queen Elizabeth I as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Hooker argued that church organisation was one of the things indifferent adiaphora to God. He believed that minor doctrinal issues were not issues that damned or saved the soul, but rather frameworks around the moral life of the believer. There were good monarchies and bad monarchies, good democracies and bad ones, good churches and bad ones. What mattered was the piety of the people. However he did not feel that the power of bishops need be absolute.

This is a rather attractive view to a modern reader, but was depicted as "Popishness" by Hooker's Puritan critics.