FULKE, WILLIAM: English Puritan; b. in London 1538; d. Aug. 28, 1589. He was educated at St. Paul's School, London, and at St. John's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1558; M.A., 1563; B.D., 1568; D.D., 1572). After studying law for six years at Clifford's Inn he returned to Cambridge to study theology. He was appointed fellow in 1564, principal lecturer of his college in 1565, and preacher and Hebrew lecturer in 1567. On his return to Cambridge he allied himself with Thomas Cartwright (q.v.), became a zealous champion of Puritanism and an opponent of Roman Catholicism. He took a prominent part in the vestiarian controversy, inducing about 300 students, at one time, to discard the surplice in the chapel of St. John's. This led to his expulsion, but he was soon restored to his fellowship. On being narrowly defeated for the headship of his college in 1569 he retired from the university and shortly afterward secured the livings of Warley in Essex, and Dennington in Suffolk. In 1572 he accompanied Lord Lincoln to France and was one of the friends who persuaded Cartwright to return to England. In 1578 he obtained the mastership of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, which he held till his death. He was also vice-chancellor of the university in 1581. The same year he was deputed to hold a public disputation with Edmund Campion (q.v.) in the Tower of London, and in 1582 he was one of twenty-five theologians appointed to hold disputations with Roman Catholic priests and Jesuits. He was one of the ablest controversialists of his time. Of his numerous polemic writings, directed largely against the leaders of the Counterreformation in England, the most important are: T. Stapleton and Martiall (Two Popish Heretics) Confuted (London, 1580; ed. R. Gibbings for the Parker Society, Cambridge, 1848); 4 Defense of the Sincere and True Translations of the Holy Scriptures into the English Tongue, against . . . Gregory Martin (1583; ed. C. N. Hartshorne, for the Parker Society, Cambridge, 1843); and The Text of the New Testament . . . Translated out of the Vulgar Latin by the Papists . . . at Rheims (1589).