An Answere Unto the Confutation of John Nichols by Dudley Fenner

Dudley Fenner (1587) was an English

puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

divine Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a singl ...

. He helped popularise Ramist logic in the English language. Fenner was also one of the first theologians to use the term " covenant of works" to describe God's relationship with Adam in the ''

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

''.

Life

He was born in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and educated at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...

. There he became an adherent of Thomas Cartwright, and publicly expounded his

presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

views, with the result that he was obliged to leave Cambridge without taking his degree. For some months he seems to have assisted the vicar of

Cranbrook, Kent Cranbrook is a town in the civil parish of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst, in the Weald of Kent in South East England. It lies roughly half-way between Maidstone and Hastings, about southeast of central London. The smaller settlements of Sissin ...

, but it is doubtful whether he received ordination. He next followed Cartwright to

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, and, having received ordination according to rite of the

Reformed church Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

, assisted Cartwright for several years in preaching to the English congregation there. The leniency shown by Archbishop Grindal to puritans encouraged him to return to England, and he became curate of Cranbrook in 1583. In the same year, however, he was one of seventeen Kentish ministers suspended for refusing to sign an acknowledgement of the Queen's supremacy and of the authority of the ''

Prayer Book A prayer book is a book containing prayers and perhaps devotional readings, for private or communal use, or in some cases, outlining the liturgy of religious services. Books containing mainly orders of religious services, or readings for them are ...

'' and articles. He was imprisoned for a time, but eventually regained his liberty and spent the remainder of his life as chaplain in the Reformed church at Middelburg. Fenner and his wife, Joan, had four daughters: * More-fruit Fenner (died 1602) * Free-gift Fenner (born before 1583, died September 1583) * Faint-not Fenner (baptized 1585, died 1604) * Well-abroad Fenner

Works

A list of his authentic works is given in Cooper's ''Athenae Cantabrigienses'' (Cambridge, 1858-1861). They rank among the best expositions of the principles of Puritanism. His textbook, ''The Arts of Logic and Rhetoric'', was a popular textbook on the Ramist school of logic; it used Scripture passages to demonstrate his theories. His major work was ''Sacra theologia'' (Geneva, 1585).

References

* Patrick Collinson
‘Fenner, Dudley (c.1558–1587)’
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 7 Sept 2008

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fenner, Dudley 1550s births 1587 deaths Writers from Kent 16th-century English Puritan ministers 16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 16th-century English writers 16th-century English male writers Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge