Davenant John, Dd

Davenant John, D.D., bishop of Salisbury, was born in London about 1570, and was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge. In 1594 a fellowship was offered him, which he accepted after his father's death in 1597. In 1609 he was elected Lady Margaret professor of divinity. In 1614 he was chosen master of his college, and in 1618 was one of the four divines sent to the Synod of Dort by James I. SEE DORT. He returned to England in May, 1619, after having visited the most eminent cities in the Netherlands. In 1621 he was appointed to the see of Salisbury; but in 1630-31 he incurred the displeasure of the court by a sermon on predestination, "all curious search into which" the king, in his declaration prefixed to the Thirty-nine Articles in 1628, had strictly enjoined "to be laid aside." The bishop died of consumption in 1641. He was a man of great learning. He published Expositio Epist. D. Pauli ad Colossenses (Cambridge, 1630, 2d edition, fol.; translated by Allport, London, 1831, 2 vols. 8vo), Praelectiones de duobus in theologia cont. capitibus (Cantab. 1631, fol.); Determinationes quaestionum theologicarum (Cantab. 2d edition, 1639, fol.); Dissert. II de Morte Christi et de Predestinatione (Camb. 1630). A translation of one of the Praelectiones appeared under the title A Treatise on Justification, etc., translated from the original Latin (Lond. 1844-46, 2 vols. 8vo). After bishop Davenant's return from the Synod of Dort, he published an earnest appeal for fraternal union among the Reformed churches, under the title Ad fraternam communionem inter Evangelicas Ecclesias restaurandam adhortatio (Camb. 1640; transl. into English, 1641, 8vo). — Biographia Britannica, 4:629.