The life, letters & writings of John Davenant D.D., 1572-1641, Lord Bishop of Salisbury

Front matter

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Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. The Davenant Family and Pedigree . . . i

II. John Davenant's Birth, Early Years, and Student

Preface

This volume contains the " Life, Letters, and Writings of Bishop Davenant "—an Anglican Prelate of the seventeenth century — who has been not under-rated, but overlooked. It is an attempt to rescue from comparative obscurity a great and good man, who deserves to be better known, and to pourtray the characteristics of an eminent and typical theologian of the age in which he lived. It emphasises an aspiration to recover and keep alive a precious memory, and has been undertaken as a work of love. Short biographical sketches of this worthy divine have been before written, but this is the first serious effort at a critical and connected biography. As such it illustrates, and is meant to be an ideal picture of, the via media of the Anglican Church.

The "Life of Bishop Davenant" is intended to be a companion volume to the " Life, Times, and Writings " of Dr Thomas Fuller, the Church historian, whose maternal uncle he was, which the present writer published some time ago in two volumes. The two biographies — which necessarily overlap in some degree — yet cover a period of nearly a century, i.e., from 1572-1661^ one of the most critical periods in the history of our institutions in Church and State. The method adopted in this Life is the same as that employed in the former one — and which received the emphatic approval of the late Archbishop of Canterbury. The method consists of giving precis of the various publications of the subject of the memoirs in chronological order, and then making the life to hang, as it were, round these productions in orderly sequence. Thus the whole

X PREFACE

life is preserved as a matter of course, and a complete word-portrait is presented.

One special feature of the work is the number of Davenant's letters, which have now been published for the first time. They have been collected at great trouble and expense from the various public libraries, and it is believed that they will prove — especially the Laudian Epistles — very valuable in throwing a side-light upon the ecclesiastical and ritual troubles of contemporary Church history.

Another important item. It was known that Bishop Davenant's celebrated " Fast Sermon " at Westminster Abbey, preached at one of the National Fasts during the Troubles, was extant, but it could nowhere be found. After a prolonged search, the writer was at length rewarded by finding it in the archives of the British Museum. It is reprinted at length, and will be found full of the "strong meat" and flavour of the theology of that controversial period — and " there were giants in those days."

Considerable attention has been directed to the Synod of Dort, and two chapters have been devoted to the discussion of that celebrated Conference of members of the Reformed Communities. King James — after the fashion of the English Monarch? of those days — sent five of our most illustrious theologians as British representatives to attend its deliberations. Of these, Davenant was certainly the leading spirit of the College. Of this number, Bishop Carleton was reputed a most rigid Calvinist, but the remainder may be classed among the moderate Augustinians. They were all opposed indeed to the peculiar notions of Arminius with respect to the Divine decrees; but as we argue from their language on the benefits of infant baptism, or on the reception of regenerating grace by some who may not afterwards have persevered, their general doctrine had been drawn exclusively from Hippo, in contradistinction from Geneva. It is quite clear that Davenant and his fidus Achates, Dr Seth Ward, upheld the doctrine of

PREFACE xi

" Augustinianism " as the received doctrine df the Church of England, and in this they were agreed with their mutual and learned friend Archbishop Usher. " In the course of the discussions, from the opening of the Synod to its close, we cannot fail to notice," says the late Archdeacon Hardwick, "that the influence of the English Deputies^and more especially of Davenant and Ward — was always on the side of primitive truth and Christian moderation" {History of the Articles, p. 196).

One word more anent the Synod. The British College laboured, and with success, to prove to the Foreign Representatives that the episcopal regimen of our Church was the more excellent way. This they seem to have been fully convinced about, but averred that they had had no chance to conserve the Succession, which they deplored. An interesting question arises whether we could not offer the. Orthodox Reformed Churches of the Continent ; that which they deplored the loss of, viz., the Historic Episcopate and the Divine Liturgy, although, be it remembered, they have retained the three Creeds of the Undivided Church in their symbolical writings. And this might be a first step in the reunion of Christendom. " If ever," said De Maistre, *' a divided Christendom is to be reunited, it must be through the instrumentality of the Anglican Church — for the good sense of the English has preserved the Hierarchy." The eloquent author of " Du Pape " could not fail to see that the Church of England only can touch Rome on the one side, and the Reformed on the other. Such a beginning might also tend to promote that Home Reunion which is so desirable among ourselves.

In this work, the Laudian Revival — in which Davenant played an important part — has been carefully treated, and in this the writer has had the benefit of the advice and supervision of his old friend, the late Rev. James Bliss, M.A., editor of Laud's works in the Anglo-Catholic Library, and who had made Laudian subjects his life's study.

jiiii PREFACE

The writer is conscious that in his analyses of Davenant's works he has done scant justice to the intellectual acumen and subject matter of these learned treatises, which have been the admiration of the theological world for so manyyears.

It is no small effort to reduce to the limitations of a few chapters a, precis of those voluminous and exhaustive works, which have arrested the attention, and won the commendation, of a Bellarmine, a Bull, and a Newman.

In fact no one realizes the imperfections of the present work more than the writer himself, but the critics will please to remember that it has been put together during the intervals of a busy pastorate, and in vacation and other off times.

It may, however, be stated that it is from first to last a labour of love. The present Bishop of Salisbury, who has kindly looked over some of the proof-sheets, but who is in no way responsible for their contents, writes me under date January 2 1st, 1897 : " I wish the book all success, and thank you for the labour of love sp^nt in illustrating the life of a good man, who deserves to be better known."

M. F.

St Mark's Vicarage, Marylebone Road, W., Festival of S. Matthias, 1897.

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF BISHOP DAVENANT

Chapter I The Davenant Family And Pedigree

"There is a secret Z<»a&^(»«« in every man's native soyle effectually attracting them home again to their country, their center." — Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 21.

AMONG the signs which seem to prove the presence of God in history, and more especially in the history of His Church and people, we must reckon the appearance, at critical periods, of some great man — or galaxy of great men — who, themselves imbued with the spirit of the age, know how to give to religious and political movements a practical and permanent shape. The end of the sixteenth century and beginning of the seventeenth century were fertile in such leaders. If we take 1571 as the date of the Elizabethan settlement — synchronising with the publication of the thirty-nine articles in their final shape — and 1662 as the last settlement of the Anglican Reformed Churth, we must consider that time as one of the most important epochs in our national history. It marks the gradual crystallisation of the National Church, it covers the struggles of the two contending parties in its bosom, it reduces an Anglo-Catholic theology to a system, it brings into prominence the peculiar characteristics of Anglicanism, it emphasises, by a vivid contrast, the differ-

A ence between the pre-Reformation and post-Reformation eras. It accentuates the Reformation settlement.

We must never forget that from the outset of the Reformation in England, about 1533, till the final settlement in 1662, there were two nations — like Jacob and Esau-^contending within the womb of the English Church, the men of the Old Learning, who desired to maintain the organic continuity, historical, legal, theological and liturgical, of the post-Reformation and the pre-Reformation Church — to remoye all real abuses, but to retain everything which could be justly entitled Catholic by a fair appeal to Scripture and primitive antiquity ; and those of the New Learning, whose one aim was the entire destruction of everything ancient, as in Scotland and Geneva, and the formation of a sect, whose purity was to be gauged by its qualitative divergence from the discipline and doctrine of Latin Christendom. It is quite clear that this latter section — the dominant party under Edward VI, — consisted for the most part of very unscrupulous men — cruel.'greedy, and sacrilegiotis — though a very few of the better stamp abetted them. When the reaction under Queen Mary took place, many persons of this particular sect fled abroad, but some of the more respectable reformers, such as Matthew Parker and Roger Ascham, were left unr -molested in England. But the impolitic cruelties of the Queen, instigated by her husband and Cardinal Pole, as narrated in the pages of Foxe, created a counter-reactioni, and made the Puritan faction once more popular again). When the Marian exiles returned on the accession of Elizabeth some of the worst among them were advanced by the influence of Walsingham and Leicester, to the vacant bishoprics and deaneries — offices which, as a rule, they , abused, by embezzling church property for their own gain, *an(i fostering Calvinism and Nonconformity amongst the fclergy. And as the Church was also freely plundered, two processes went on all through her reign, the gradus^l

THE DAVENANT FAMILY 3

disappearance not only of Catholic worship, but of Catholic faith and practice, and the steady lowering of the status and education of the clergy, owing to the scantiness of the funds for their maintenance.

Thus when James I. ascended the throne, the Church of England, although it possessed the historic Episcopate and the Old Liturgy, in its main essentials, was in danger of becoming a Calvinist sect, much below the level of 1553, when, although things were outwardly worse, yet the majority of the Clergy and Laity were Catholic. When; for instance, as was brought vividly before us during the recent Laudian Commemoration, William Laud entered St John's College, Oxford, in 1589, he found the university given over to Calvinism; and there was hardly the nucleus of a High Church school of thought visible. It must not, however, be fbrgotten that Hooker was writing in 1 590, and there were also Whitgift; Bilson, the author of the Perpetual Government of Christ s Church, and Bancroft, about the same period. We all know how Laud set himself to combat this state of things, how he did it with the help of Buckeridge, with consummate tact, good temper, and resolution : making new precedents when he had not old ones to fall back upon, and step by step eliminating the dominant error from Oxford. We can hardly realise this in our day when the collapse of Calvinism has been so complete, even in its own chosen homes and centers. Nor was this all, Elizabeth's Bishops, too faithfully seconded by the Presbyterian Archbishop Abbot, under James I. had brought the Church of England to the lowest depths of repute and efficiency. An ignorant, hetferodox, and unconforming clergy filled the benefices in many parts of the country : in the parish churches the most disgraceful squalor and irreverence prevailed: the Prelates, in too many cases, were busy in impoverishing their sees for personal : gain : and every vanity of abuse, nepotism, and scandal, was^ rampant. All this has been forgotten in an age which has been so intent on the recovery of the "six points" of Ritual, as not even to know the " five points" of Calvinism, once so dear to the hearts of our countrymen.

The period when the subject of our memoir flourished, 1 572-1641 — the last thirty years of the sixteenth century and the first forty of the seventeenth century — may be regarded as one of the most critical in the development of the National Church. It was then that the Archbishop just alluded to lived and died. William Laud was born 1573 and died 1645. John Davenant was born 1572 and died 1641. It will be noticed that these two great men went through life and their official experience pari passu, and were colleagues in the Episcopate, Davenant being one of Laud's suffragans, and assisting him in carrying out some of his ceremonial reformations, although belonging to another school of thought. But it was emphatically the age of great men — it was the age of Andrewes, Jeremy Taylor, Hall, Fuller, Bedell, Duppa, Peter Heylin, Hornecke, Juxon, Overall, Usher, Montagu, Wren, Mede, Herbert, Hammond, Sanderson, Cbsin, Hales and Chillingworth. There were indeed giants in those days. Perhaps it is owing to the fact that his lot was cast among such Titans, that Davenant has, not taken that prominence in people's interest and consideration, which was his due. Yet some of our greatest divines have appreciated him at his real value. No other testimony needs to be adduced than one of Bishop Bull, who, however differing from Davenant with regard to the ground of their doctrine, has passed, in the following judgment, the highest eulogiium upon his treatise (on Justification) for sterling worth, scholastic ability, and practical soundness. Thus, says he, on drawing to a close of his own discussion of the subject, 'm\C\^ Harmonia,^' is a conclusion to this undertaking, I will subjoin a remarkable testimony of a man of most extensive learning, and a most worthy Prelate of the Anglican Church, who well knew and faithfully maintained

THE DAVENANT FAMILY 5

the sound and orthodox doctrine of our church in this controversy, and who, in short, most successfully, if ever man did, exposed the subtleties and devices of Bellarmine and of others of the Popish party; I mean the great Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, who in his most learned Disputations concerning actual and imputed righteousness, cap. 31, thus explains and confirms in two short, but indeed, most learned theses, all the statements made in these Dissertations concerning the necessity of good words." ^ " What a pillar he was," says Bishop Hacket, " in the Synod of Dort, is to be read in the judgments of the British Divines inserted among the public acts ; his part being the best in that work ; that work being far the best in the compliments of that synod." Archbishop Usher — and Davenant was on close terms of intimacy with him — would say, " Davenant understood those controversies (the Quinquarticular) better than any man ever did since St Austin."

Few men appear to have been more honoured and venerated by all parties than Bishop Davenant. In all the works of friends and opponents, there is not to be found a single sentence approaching even to disrespect, much less any thing that can tend to cast the slightest reflection upon his deportment in any measure of his public and private life. His profound learning, acuteness of intellect. Catholic spirit, active benevolence, and meekness, are constantly adverted to ; and the phrases, " the good Bishop Davenant," "the excellent Bishop Davenant," "the learned Bishop Davenant," &c., are the usual appendages to his name, even in the writings of those who took up the pen in express hostility to certain of their theological views. Even that eminent nonconformist Dr E. Calamy, in his lecture room at Salters Hall, recommends his hearers to consult the learned and peaceable Bishop Davenant.

The translator of his works on the Colossians and on ' Bishop Bull's Harmonia Apostolica, Disp. II. cap. xviii. sec. la

Justification, remarks, "As respects our author himself when collecting materials for some suitable account of him, it became requisite to search the lives and writings of his contemporaries, and wade through the history of their time; and I soon discovered, that, however neglected in the present age, he enjoyed, in his own, a reputation among the first ; and anxious to do justice to his merits — an anxiety augmented by the efforts of some modern opponents of him, and of his faith, to revive and propagate old misrepresentations, in order to disparage the value of his works — my investigation and search were redoubled." ^

It may be asked with such testimonies to the value and importance of Bishop Davenant's writings, and the opinion of such a Prelate as Bishop Bull, who was complimented by the Pope on his work on the Nicene Creed, how it has happened that his works have been so little known among us ? The comparative oblivion into which the works of Bishop Davenant have fallen, notwithstanding the high estimation in which they were formerly held, must be imputed to the language in which they are composed, for certainly rich as our church is in theologians, she has none perhaps, who in the union of acute and correct argument, solid judgment, scriptural depth, and profound patristic and scholastic erudition, are to be named with him.

Dr Newman, when in the Anglican Communion, wrote an elaborate work on Justification — in vindication of the view maintained by Bishop Bull. To each of these writers the power of Davenant's treatise on the same subject, as amongst the most formidable to be assailed, is felt and acknowledged. The testimony which Bishop Bull has borne to the "great" writer, whose views it was his object to subvert, we have just placed before the reader. Dr Newman, sustaining Bull's view, scarcely refers to any other opponent among the English divines than Davenant ; but whilst he labours in the un-

' Rev. Josiah Allport's Preface to Colossians.

THE DAVENANT FAMILY 7

seemly and ineffectual task of upholding the Roman champion, Cardinal Bellarmine, against the powerful attacks of the learned defender of the doctrine of his own church at that time, he is compelled to bow to his talent and acknowledge that the work he would disparage " abounds with noble passages." But although his principal works, — that on Justification and his Commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians — have now been translated, we fear that, even in their English dress, they would be regarded as too " strong meat " for present day Churchmen.

The Davenants were an ancient family, which seems to have been seated in the Eastern Counties for a considerable period. Some have thought that Sir William Davenant, the eccentric poet-laureate of the period, was a member of this family, but this is not the case. They were also connected with the commerce of the metropolis. The father of the subject of these memoirs — ^John Davenant — was one of the merchant princes of the City of London, and evidently a person of consideration among its citizens.

His wife, Margaret Clarke, was the daughter and coheiress of John Clarke, who resided at Farnham Castle, near Guildford, in Surrey. Of the wife of the latter (her maiden name is not given) we have the following interesting biographical notice in Fuller's Church History, where there is a paragraph entitled : The Author's Gratitude to Stephen Gardiner: —

" However (as bloody as he was) for mine own part, I have particular gratitude to pay to the memory of this Stephen Gardiner, and here I solemnly tender the same. It is on the account of Mrs Clarke', my great-grandmother by my mother's side, whose husband rented Farnham Castle, a place whither Bishop Gardiner retired, in Surrey, as belonging to his See. This Bishop, sensible of the consumptions state of his body and finding physick out of the kitchen more beneficial to him than out of the apothecary's shop, and special comfort from the cordials she provided him, did not only himself connive at her heresy, as he termed itj but also protected her during his life from the fury of others. Some will say that this courtesy to her was founded on her kindness to himself. But, however, I am so far from detaining thanks from any, deserved on just cause, that I am ready to pay them where they are but pretended due on any colour." '

This little incident shows that Bishop Gardiner is not so black as he is painted. Fuller no doubt believed most of what is set down in Foxe; but the recollection of the humane feeling on the part of the Bishop towards Fuller's ancestor, the particulars of which he, when a child, had often heard from his grandmother, led him to regard Mar}''s Bishop favourably. This passage bears witness, in the next place, to the early attachment of the family to the Reformed religion. It was this old lady's grandchild, Judith Davenant, who became the mother of Dr Thomas Fuller, the celebrated author. Another daughter of Margaret Davenant was Margaret, wife of Bishop Townson, who preceded his brother-in-law, Dr Davenant, in the See of Salisbury.

Under an altar tomb on the south-east side of St Peter's, Aldwinckle — where Mr Thomas Fuller, the father of the Church Historian was vicar, and where he was born — is buried Margaret Davenant, sometime wife of John Davenant, Esq., citizen of London. She departed this life March 30th, 161 3. When Fuller was about five years old, this Margaret Davenant — who was his grandmother — had come to be near her daughters, and to live with or near them, where she died. How precious a memory she left is seen by the perpetuation of her name in the families of her two daughters. Three years later a tablet was put up to her memory on the south wall. It contains the arms of Davenant and Clarke. Upon the tomb is the following inscription : —

" Many and happy years I lived a wife, Fruitful in children, more in godly life :

' Church History, book viii. p. 17. When writing the life of Foxe, Fuller terms Gardiner (who persecuted him) " that cruel bloodhound."

{Abel Redivivtts.)

THE DAVENANT FAMILY 9

And many years in widowhood I past, Until to heaven I wedded was at last.

In wedlock, children, widowhood ever blest, But most in death, for now with God I rest."

In this church there are some stained glass windows, and around the border of one of them is a dog and hare alternately. The dog seems to suggest that this window was the gift of one of the Lords Lovell. In heraldry a white dog is called a ''lovell" and it was by this very cognizance that in the celebrated satirical verses upon Richard III., reference was made to one of the lords of this manor, Francis Viscount Lovell. These well-known verses are thus given by Fuller : —

" The Rat and the Cat, and Lovell the dog.

Do govern all England under the Hog" '

i.e., Ratcliffe and Catesby under King Richard, " who gave a boar for his crest." It was in this church Fuller's baptism took place, on the 19th June 1608. He had as his godfathers, his two uncles Drs Davenant and Townson, "Both these persons were my godfathers and uncles, the one marrying the sifter of, the other being a brother to, my mother." 2

Robert Townson, a native of Cambridge, was entered at Queens', and became a fellow of that Society, with his future brother-in-law, Davenant, in 1597. He was afterwards beneficed at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, and married Margaret, elder daughter of John Davenant, the merchant of London, being born in 1585. Living in the same neighbourhood, the families of Townsons, and their cousins the Fullers, both very numerous, would naturally have been thrown much together, and there are proofs of an intimacy between the younger Townson and Fuller. To this period belongs Fuller's recollection of his uflcle, Dr Townson, who was "of a comely carriage, courteous

1 Worthies (Northamptonshire), p. 207. ' Worthies (Camb.), p. 154.

lo THE LIFE OF BISHOP DAVENANT

nature, an excellent preacher," and "becoming a pulpit with his gravity." Like Fuller himself and the rest of that family, Dr Townson had a very retentive faculty, and when made D.D. he could repeat the whole of the second book of Virgil's .iEneid without missing a single line. Subsequently he became Bishop of Salisbury in 1620, succeedhig Martin Fotherby. These two divines — Davenaht and Townson — being Fuller's uncles, and beneficed in the same county, were frequent guests at his father's rectory, and he not only saw much of them, but entertained for them the greatest regard.

Besides his two sisters, Judith and Margaret, Davenant had three brothers, — Edward, William, and James. Edward married Anne, daughter of John Symmes of London. Their son, Edward Davenant, was one of Fuller's tutors at Queens', according to the register of Sydney College. Edward was the President's nephew, and therefore Fuller's cousin. His father, who is described as a merchant of London, was a distinguished mathematician, and "a better Grecian than the Bishop," adds Aubrey, who further says that "he was an incomparable man in his time, and deserves to be remembered." The son was born at his father's house at Croydon, Surrey. He was of Merchant Taylor's School, and coming to Queens' had shown great scholarly ability, excelling also as a mathematician, to which his genius inclined him. He was B.A. 1614, and M.A. 161 8, Fellow also of his College. Aubrey, who knew him well, and obtained from him part, or all of the particulars of Dr Fuller,^ said that he " had excellent notes of his father's in mathematiques, as also in Greeke, and 'twas no small advantage to him to have such a learned father to imbue mathematical knowledge into him when a boy, at night times when he came home from school." When his uncle, the President of Queens', went to the Synod of Dort, as one of the

i"Fr6 Dr Edward Daven' " is added in margin of his notice of Fuller.

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representatives of the Anglican Church, Edward Davenant, then Fellow of the Society, went with him, as the following order implies (October 6, 1618). Leave granted to Mr Davenant to go into Holland, and all his allowances, till his return, as yf hee were at home. — J. D.^

Upon his uncle's accession to the bishopric of Sarum, Edward Davenant received a prebendal stall therein (1623), and afterwards the treasurership (1630), "the best dignity." He dwelt mostly at the vicarage of Gillingham, in Dorset. Gillingham is commended as being a retired place, where he was not much troubled with visits. Here his large family was born. Walker^ has an account of his sufferings and losses during the troubles, stating that, at the time of his sequestration, he had seven sons and five daughters. After holding the vicarage fifty-three years he died. Other patronage came in his way, for he was made Archdeacon of Berks (1630), and received Poulshot Rectory, near Devizes, the latter post he resigned during the troubles to his wife's brother, Mr Grove. Edward Davenant is described as being " not only a man of vast learning, but of great goodness and charity." Aubrey says, " He was my singular good friend. He was very ready to teach and instruct. He did me the favour to inform me first in Algebra; his daughters were algebraists." Sir C. Wren, whose father was Rector of East Knoyle, near Gillingham, spoke very highly of Edward's mathematical abilities. Into his tutor's favourite study, Fuller, we may suppose, like his General Scholar, entered " with great contentment ; using it as ballast for his soul, yet to fix it, not to stall it : nor suffers he it to be so unmannerly as to jostle out other arts." *

It was under this tutor, too, most likely Fuller cultivated his memory, the exercise of which faculty brought him, in latter days, an extraordinary fame. Aubrey makes refer-

1 Old Parchment, reg, fo. 9.6.7. ^ Stifferings, pt. ii. 63.

2 Holy State, p. 67.

ence to a rough and ready' method practised by Davenant, who, no doubt used it among his College pupils. It is said that he had an excellent way of improving his children's memories : he would make one of them read a chapter, &c., and then they were sur le champ Xo repeat what they remembered, which did exceedingly profit them : and so for sermons, he did not let them write notes, which jaded their memories, but give an account viva voce. When his eldest son came to Winton School (where the boys were enjoined to write sermon notes) he had not wrote : the master askt him for his notes — he had none, but sayd : " If I do not give you as good an account as they that do, I am much mistaken." Doubtless, therefore, this method of his tutor was in Fuller's mind when he afterwards wrote his essay on Memory. To his nephew, Edward, Bishop Davenant left the bulk of his property, including as much of his library as he wished to have : this Edward Davenant, it is said, in consequence of his being the heir, gained more by the Church at Sarum than ever any man did by the Charch since the Reformation ; and it was taken ill that he left it nothing or about £^o}- ' Aubre/s Letters, ii. loo-i.