Christopher Davenport

Francis Davenport,O.M.R.,also known asFrancis of Saint Clare,(1598 – 31 May 1680) was anEnglish Catholictheologian, aRecollectfriar and royalchaplain.

Life

He was bornChristopher DavenportinCoventry,England, in 1598, the son ofAldermanJohn Davenport and Elizabeth Wolley, and from the grammar school at Coventry went toDublinwhere he spent fifteen months, leaving it 22 November 1611. In 1613 he and his brotherJohn Davenportproceeded toMerton College, Oxford,entering as "battelers" and taking Cook's commons; but the warden required them to enter as commoners or to leave the college; whereon in 1614 they transferred toMagdalen Hall.Here Christopher received hisBachelor of Artsdegree on 28 May, his Dublin residence being allowed to count.His brother John subsequently became a notedPuritanministerand joined theMassachusetts Bay ColonyinNew England.Leading a band of some 500 colonists from there, he founded theNew Haven Colonyin 1638, later a part of theConnecticut Colony.

Christopher Davenport, on the other hand, was converted toCatholicismby a priest living nearOxfordand in 1615 went to theEnglish College, Douai,Flanders (present day northeast France). Attracted by the efforts to restore the EnglishFranciscanProvince, he joined the Flemish Franciscans atYpres,7 October 1617. When he wasprofessedthe following year, under the name of Francis of St. Clare, he joined the English Franciscan Recollects, a reform branch of theOrder of Friars Minorknown for their strict practice of poverty, at the newly establishedfriaryof St. Bonaventure in Douai on 18 October 1618.

Davenport was sent to theUniversity of Salamancain Spain, where he earned hisDoctorate of Divinity.Returning to Douai, he became first professor of theology at St. Bonaventure's and filled the office ofguardian.At length he was sent to England and was appointed chaplain to QueenHenrietta Maria,in which capacity he attended the Court and became acquainted with KingCharles I of England,Archbishop Laud,LordMontague, Bishop of Norwich,and LordGoodman, Bishop of Gloucester.

On 19 June 1637, Davenport was electedMinister Provincialof the Recollects, an office to which he was subsequently re-elected on 10 July 1650, and 4 June 1665. After theRestoration of 1660he was appointed chaplain to QueenCatharine of Braganza,and returned to London, where he spent most of his remaining years with occasional visits toFlanders.His intellectual ability and attractive manner won him the friendship of many, and aided in reconciling numerous converts to the Catholic Church, among whom wasAnne, Duchess of York.

He died on 31 May 1680.

Works

Inspired with the idea of converting England by means of corporate reunion, Davenport wrote a treatise to show that theThirty-nine Articleswere susceptible of an interpretation more in accordance with Catholic teaching than was usually supposed. This was theParaphrastica Expositio Articulorum Confessionis Anglicanae,published as an appendix to his book,Deus, Natura, Gratia(Lyon, 1634). It offended many Catholics and was put on the Index in Spain, though a condemnation by Rome was averted byGregorio Panzani,the pope's unofficial representative in London.In this work he also was one of the Catholic writers who seized on the 1633 thesis ofEleazar Duncon,printed in theFive Pious and Learned Discourses(1635) ofRobert Shelford,as illustrating how close Anglican and Catholic theological views had become.In 1652, while serving as Provincial of his Order for England, Davenport published his most ambitious philosophical treatise,Paralipomena philosophica de mundo peripatetico,aimed at harmonizingScotismwith new astronomical and chemical discoveries.

Davenport's other works are:

• Epistolium, continens confutationem duarum proposititionem astrologicarum(Douay, 1626);
• Apologia Episcoporum(Cologne, 1640);
• The Practice of the Presence of God(Douay, 1642);
• Systema Fidei(Liège, 1648);
• De Definibilitate Controversiae Immaculate Conceptionis Dei Genitricis Opusculum(Douay, 1651);
• Explanation of the Mundo Peripatetico(Antwerp, 1652);
• An Echiridion of Faith(Douay, 1655);
• Explanation of the Catholic Belief(1656);
• Manuale Missionariorum Regularium praecipue Anglorum Ordinis Sacti Francisci(Douay, 1658, 1661);
• Fragmenta: seu Historia Minor. Provine. Angl. Fratrum Minorum;
• Tractatus de Schismate praesertim Anglicano;
• Vindication of Roman Catholics(1659);
• Liber Dialogorum(Douay, 1661);
• Problemata Scholastica et controversialia speculativa;
• Corollarium Dialogi de Medio Aninarum Statu,
• Religio Philosophia Peripati discutienda(Douay, 1662, 1667);
• Opera omnia Francisci a S. Clara(Douay, 1665-1667);
• Disputatio de antiqua Provinciae Praecedentia(1670);
• Supplementum Historiae Provinciae Angliae(Douay, 1671).

References

• Davenport, Anne Ashley (2017).Suspicious Moderate. The Life and Writings of Francis a Sancta Clara (1598-1680).Notre Dame:University of Notre Dame Press.ISBN978-0-26-810097-1.
• Anthony à Wood,Athenae Oxonienese,ed. Bliss (London, 1817), III, 1221
• Joseph Gillow,Bibliographical Dictionary of Catholics,s. v.
• Oxford Historical Society,Oxford University Register(Oxford, 1887), X. 374
• George Gresley Perry(1888)."Davenport, Christopher".InStephen, Leslie(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 14. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Joseph Foster,Alumni Oxonienses(Oxford, 1891), I. 376;
• Thomas J. Shahan,'Christopher Davenport',U. S. Cath. Hist. Magazine(Philadelphia, April, 1888), II, 153.
• Davenport, Anne A. (2009). "Baroque Fire. A Note on Early-Modern Angelology".Early Science & Medicine.14(1/3): 369-397 (379-388).doi:10.1163/157338209X425623.JSTOR20617790.

External links

• Davenport, Anne A. (2007). "Scotus as the Father of Modernity. The Natural Philosophy of the English Franciscan Christopher Davenport in 1652".Early Science & Medicine.12(1): 55–90.doi:10.1163/157338207X166399.JSTOR4130294.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Christopher Davenport".Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.