An Answere Unto the Confutation of John Nichols by Dudley Fenner

Dudley Fenner (1587) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

. He helped popularise Ramist logic in the English language. Fenner was also one of the first theologians to use the term "

covenant of works Covenant theology (also known as covenantalism, federal theology, or federalism) is a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall structure of the Bible. It uses the theological concept of a covenant as an org ...

" to describe God's relationship with Adam in the ''

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...

''.

Life

He was born in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and educated at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

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

presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

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 Sissing ...

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

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, and, having received ordination according to rite of the

Reformed church Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...

, assisted Cartwright for several years in preaching to the English congregation there. The leniency shown by

Archbishop Grindal Edmund Grindal ( 15196 July 1583) was Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. Though born far from the centres of political and religious power, he had risen rapidly in the church duri ...

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 ar ...

'' 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 Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: * Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels Arts and entertainment * Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * Cooper (video game character), in ...

'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 British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

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

External links

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