that a degree of freedom was given to the Church, under the magistrate (the civil ruler), to enact what seemed fitting, both in its worship and government. Richard Hooker reinforced this principle of freedom by grounding it in the divine reason by means of which God providentially orders the universe through natural law. But Hooker believed that to abandon episcopacy would be to depart from the apostolic pattern of the Church. This commitment to the ancient threefold ministry of the Church became,