Francis Cheynell
1608–1665
Anti-Socinian polemicist; parliamentary visitor of Oxford; President of St John’s briefly.
Biography
Of Merton College Oxford, then Petworth (Sussex) rectory and a chaplaincy in the parliamentary army. Cheynell was the Assembly's chief anti-Socinian polemicist — The Rise, Growth, and Danger of Socinianisme (1643) was the standard English Reformed response to the rising tide of Polish-Socinian and English anti-Trinitarian literature, and his attendance at the deathbed of William Chillingworth (1644) and refusal of Christian burial to him became one of the era's most notorious sectarian incidents. Sent as a parliamentary visitor to purge Oxford in 1648, he served briefly as Lady Margaret Professor and President of St John's College Oxford (1648-1650). His abrasive, doctrinaire style made him unpopular even with allies — Anthony Wood called him 'a busy, hot-headed man' — but his Trinitarian rigour shaped WCF II.3. Ejected at the Restoration, he died in 1665.
Principal works
- The Rise, Growth, and Danger of Socinianisme (1643)
- Chillingworthi Novissima (1644)
- The Divine Trinunity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (1650)
English Presbyterian divine
The great majority of the sitting members were English parish ministers of Presbyterian conviction. They formed the drafting core of the Assembly, manning its three standing committees and supplying most of the text of the Confession, the two Catechisms, and the Directory for Public Worship.