John Davenant

John Davenant
Bishop of Salisbury
Installed	1621
Term ended	1641
Predecessor	Robert Tounson
Successor	Brian Duppa
Other posts	Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity
Personal details
Born	1572
Died	1641
Denomination	Church of England
Occupation	Churchman

John Davenant (London, 20 May 1572 – Salisbury, 20 April 1641) was an English academic and bishop of Salisbury from 1621. He also served as one of the British delegates to the Synod of Dort.

He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, elected a fellow there in 1597, and was its President from 1614 to 1621. From 1609 onward, he served as the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, from which he was called away by James I to represent the Church of England at the Synod of Dort in 1618, along with Samuel Ward, Joseph Hall and George Carleton.

At Dort there were divisions in the Anglican camp:

A compromise pursued went in Davenant's direction. According to one interpretation of Davenant's views:

Other interpretations see Davenant as distinguishing himself from the School of Saumur and from the views of Moses Amyraut. When French Amyraldians attempted to garner support, citing the views of members of the British delegation to the Synod of Dort, Davenant offered a reply by way of clarification in his tract, “On the controversy among the French divines,” in which he appears to make a distinction between his own views and those of the Amyraldians.

Davenant sympathised with the aims of John Dury, as far as unifying Protestantism went, and wrote in his favour, a piece subsequently quoted by Gerard Brandt.

On the topic of predestination, he engaged in controversy with the Arminian Anglican Samuel Hoard.

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