FULKE, WILLIAM, was born about the year 153S, probably in London. Of his parentage and early life nothing is certainly known. From Christ's IIospital, where he is supposed to have received the rudiments of his education, he re moved to St. John's College, Cambridge, in the year 1555. After taking his B.A. degree, he spent six years in the study of the law at Clifford's Inn ; but preferring divinity, he was admitted to holy orders ; he took his M.A. in r56.,t, in which year he was elected to a fellowship of his colleg,e. To the study of theology he added an accomplish ment which was rare at that time, a sound know ledge of the Oriental languages. Ile proceeded to his B.D. degree, but was shortly afterwards ejected from his college for too strong a. leaning to tbe principles of puritanism. Upon this he commenced a course of lectures and disputations, which were attended by a numerous class of students. It was not long before he experienced a favoumble tuni in his affairs, having attracted the friendly notice of Queen Elizabeth's favourite, the Earl of Leices ter. Through his means he was presented, Aug. ro, 1571, to the rectory of Warley in Essex, and soon afterwards, March 1573, to that of Denning ton in Suffolk. Fulke obtained an honorary D.D. on being, appointed chaplain to the Earl of Lincoln, when that nobleman went to Paris as British am bassador. The same influence probably contri buted to Dr. Fulke's advancement to the master ship of Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 157S. Having filled the office of Vice-Chancellor, and governed his college for eleven years, he died in August 154 No less than twenty-six treatises were published by him, besides some works known to exist among the Harleian MSS. The charac teristic of all his writings was polemical zeal in de. fence of the Protestant cause, of which he was one of the most able apologists of his time. Al though controversy was his calling, three of his works deserve to be mentioned here from their Biblical character. We mention them in the order of their publication. (1.) in sactum Divi 7ohon nis Apocalypsini priclectiones, London, 1573, 41..-% Translated into English by George Gyfford, Lon don, 1573, 4to. (2.) The text of the Neu: Testa ment of Yesus Christ, translated out of the Villga: Latine by the Papists of the traiterous Seminarie ae Rhemes, with arguments of booker, chapters, and annotations, pretending to disco:ter the corruptions of eiluers translations, and to clear the co:drone:ales of these a'ays. 177teretinto is aa'a'ed the translation out of the original Greeke, commonly used in the Church of England, etc., by William Fulke, D.D.,
London, 15So, 15S9, 16m, 1617, 1,33, folio. This work may be said to embody the whole popish controversy respecting the Scriptures, and as it gives in parallel columns the Rhemish trans lation of the Vulgate, and the Bishops' transla tion, it enables the reader to make an easy com parison of their respective merits. Fulke was a very able man, and his work is entitled to a place in every critical library. Mr. Charles But ler, though a Romanist, candidly commends it as very curious ancl deserving of attention. This polemico-biblical work, which is a good voucher of the advanced learning of the Elizabethan di vines, has been lately reprinted at New York, without the two rival versions. By the help of a close but clear type, however, the whole of Dr. Fulke's unanswered and unanswerable confutation is comprised in a convenient Svo volume. (3.) A Defince of the sincere and true titznslations of the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue, against the cavils of Gregory ilfartin, by William Fulke, D.D., master of Pembroke IIall, Cambridge. This is the title (slightly abridged by being weeded of some vituperative epithets) of a work which has done good service in the Romish controversy since its first publication in the year 15S3, and which' may still be read with interest, for the proofs it affords of the existence of a sound and vigorous criticism in the age of the learned author. Fulke's book is rendered the more interesting by incor porating in its pages the attacks on our early trans lations of the Scriptures, made by one of the most learned controversialists of the time, Gregory Mar tin, one of the divinity professors in the English {Romanist] College of Rheims. The Parker So ciety reprinted Fulke's defence, including Martin's assaults, in 1S43, with great care and accuracy, under the superintendence of the Rev. C. Hartshorne, who enriched the edition with some valuable notes, and a revision of the numerous quotations. Fulke's work seems to have settled the controversy until the time of our James II., when a Romish writer, named Thomas Ward, re vived it by the publication of what was little more than an abridgment of Gregory Martin's volume, entitled, Errata of the Protestant Bible. This work of Ward's has been often reprinted in Ire land in the present century ; but has called forth able refutations by the Rev. Drs. Ryan and Grier. —13, H.