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ries ? Some of our readers may be able to assist our inquiries into this matter ; and we invite their attention to this and other doubtful points in the history of Puritan literature . Brook , in his " Lives of the Puritans /* I . 388 , adopts unhesitatingly the statement of the MS . in Dr ,
Williams ' s Library which he had consulted , and argues from it that Fulk was a Puritan- We have no doubt of this fact ; it rests upon the general belief of the times ; but this qiode of proving it is far from satisfactory . * On the whole , we think it probable that Field was the author of the work ,
and that Fenner and Fulk saw and revised the MS ., and perhaps assisted in the publication . Evidence has been brought from the " Defence" of it against Bridges , that it was written
long before it was printed , and that it passed through several hands and was not , strictly speaking , published by the author ; now what can be more probable than that such men as Fenner
and Fulk should have seen it and contributed to its perfectness ? This supposition will account for its being attributed , sometimes to one and ' sometimes to another of the three . Dudley Fenner was brought up at Cambridge and was one of the tutors of the University , and reckoned
amongst his pupils the distinguished Puritans , Cartwright andTravers . He was afterwards preacher at Cranbrook , in Kent ; but scrupling conformity to the ceremonies and discipline of the Church of England , he joined the Nonconformist Refugees at Antwerp , and there received Presbyterian ordination and for some time exercised bis
ministry . He returned to England , and as would appear to Cranbrook , and had his full share of persecution on account of conscience . His name is inserted in Strype ' s Life of Whitgift amongst the nonsubscribing' ministers in Kent , whom the Archbishop had to
" deal with / ' and is thus entered : 64 Fenner , of Cranebrook , no Cure , nor a Graduate . " ( P . 1230 Well might the Archbishop " deal with" a man who taught the following heresies , contained in " Sentences and Principles of Puritans in Kent : Concerning which the
* In Brook , Fenner ' s name is by an error in the transcription or at the press , put Ftnn ' er .
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Lord Burghley writ with his own hand these words , vaz . ' These sentences following are gathered out of certain Sermons and Answers in Writing made by Dudley Fenner . * " " There ought to be no Archbishop in the Church of God ; because he hath no office therein by the word of , God . "
** From the Pope to the Cardinal , and from the Cardinal to the Archbishop , and from the Archbishop to the Lord Bishop , and from the Lord Bishop to the Priest , they can give no reason of any calling they ha \ re , out of the word of God /* "The people ought in every church , by the word of God , to chuse their own ministers : and as
long as they do well to give them double honour . And when they do not , to put them out , and chuse another . " " That any one man , either Archbishop or Lord Bishop , should take upon them to controul , or have dominion over others that are their
fellow- ministers , is directly against the word of God , Luke xxii . fee / 1 This paper of Burghley ' s has also the following direction for prayer , attributed we suppose to Fenner : * ' A Supplement to the Prayer , since the time of my Lord Archbishop rWMteiflfL ' Ye
shall pray also , that God would strike through the sides of all such as go about to take away from the ministers of the gospel , the Liberty which is granted them by the word of-God . ' * At the bottom , Elizabeth's grave minister had amused himself with
another entry , viz . * ' Names given in Baptism by Dudley Fenner . Joy Again . From Above . More Fruit . Dust " ( Strype , p . 124 . ) Unless we knew from whart source Burghley derived his information , it would be idle to discuss how far the last ridiculous
charge against Fenner is to be credited- * The voluminous biographer of Whitgift relates , in the Archbishop ' s own words , a three days' conference that he held with Fenner and the other
nonconforming Kentish ministers . The Primate treated them , according to his own account , in a friendly manner ; but Fenner himself and other
contera-? Another of Burleigh ' s entries ou this curious paper is the following : ** The Minister of Bolton Quarry was married according to the Use of Geneva , of late , or according to the Usage of Scotland . "
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132 Tke JPuriiw * . T * -No . L
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1825, page 132, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2534/page/4/
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