'More than a swineherd': Hooker, Vermigli, and an Aristotelian defence of the royal supremacy. Issue 1 (5th February 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Littlejohn, W. Bradford
• Editors: Ballor, Jordan J.
• Is Part Of: Reformation & Renaissance review. Volume 15:Issue 1(2013)
• Page Start: 68
• Page End: 83
• Publication Date: 2014-02-05
• Subjects: Richard Hooker -- Peter Martyr Vermigli -- political theology -- Aristotle -- royal supremacy; Reformation -- Periodicals; Renaissance -- Periodicals; 270.605
• DOI: 10.1179/1462245913Z.00000000025
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-2459

Abstract

Abstract : This article suggests that alongside the strongly biblical defence of the royal supremacy, which was common in Elizabethan England, there can be found a distinctive line of argument; it stresses the roots of the magistrate's ' cura religionis ' in natural and human law, rather than simply divine law. This argument is often identified with Richard Hooker, who is taken to be innovative at this point. This study argues, however, that many of the same philosophical and theological points can be found in Peter Martyr Vermigli, who may have influenced Hooker. Elements of Vermigli's Aristotelian political theory are traceable on a reading of his Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and the application of these concepts in his biblical commentaries is noticeable.