age--I began a happy affinity with William Cranmer,--now with
God,--grand-nephew unto the great Archbishop of that name;--a family
of noted prudence and resolution; with him and two of his sisters I
had an entire and free friendship: one of them was the wife of Dr.
Spencer,[1] a bosom friend and sometime com-pupil with Mr. Hooker in
Corpus Christi College in Oxford, and after President of the same. I
name them here, for that I shall have occasion to mention them in the
following discourse, as also George Cranmer, their brother, of whose
useful abilities my Reader may have a more authentic testimony than my
pen can purchase for him, by that of our learned Camden and others.

[Sidenote: Hooker's friends]

This William Cranmer and his two fore-named sisters had some affinity,
and a most familiar friendship, with Mr. Hooker, and had had some
part of their education with him in his house, when he was parson of
Bishop's-Bourne near Canterbury; in which City their good father then
lived. They had, I say, a part of their education with him as myself,
since that time, a happy cohabitation with them; and having some
years before read part of Mr. Hooker's works with great liking and
satisfaction, my affection to them made me a diligent inquisitor into
many things that concerned him; as namely, of his persons, his nature,
the management of his time, his wife, his family, and the fortune
of him and his. Which enquiry hath given me much advantage in the
knowledge of what is now under my consideration, and intended for the
satisfaction of my Reader.

[Sidenote: Conclusion]

I had also a friendship with the Reverend Dr. Usher,[2] the late