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BROWNE, ROBERT (1550-1633)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 666 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BROWNE, See also:ROBERT (1550-1633) , a. See also:leader among the See also:early Separatist Puritans (hence sometimes called Brownists), was See also:born about 1550 at Tolethorpe, near See also:Stamford. He was of an See also:ancient See also:family, several members of which had been distinguished as merchants, See also:county magnates and See also:local benefactors. He was educated at Corpus Christi See also:College, See also:Cambridge, " commencing B.A." in 1572. For some years he was a schoolmaster, but in what See also:place is uncertain. In 1579, on a See also:brother's application and without his own consent, he was licensed to preach, and actually preached for some six months in Cambridge, where he. gained considerable popularity; but impugning the episcopal See also:order of the Established See also:Church, he had his See also:licence revoked early in the following See also:year. He then went, on the invitation of Robert See also:Harrison, " Maister in the Hospitall," to See also:Norwich, where he soon gathered a numerous See also:congregation, the members of which became associated in a religious " See also:covenant," to the refusing of " all ungodlie communion with wicked persons." He seems also to have preached in various parts of See also:Norfolk and See also:Suffolk, especially at See also:Bury St. See also:Edmunds, and vigorously denounced the See also:form of See also:government existing in the Church, which at this See also:time he held incompatible with true ." See also:preaching of the word." Dr Freake, See also:bishop of Norwich, caused him to be imprisoned early in 1581, but he was ere See also:long released through the See also:influence of his remote kinsman, the See also:Lord Treasurer See also:Burghley. Before the end of 1581, however, he incurred two more imprisonments,. and, apparently in See also:January 1582, migrated with his whole See also:company to See also:Middelburg in See also:Zealand. There they organized a church on what they conceived to be the New Testament See also:model, but the community See also:broke up within two years owing to See also:internal dissensions. Meanwhile, Browne issued two most important See also:works, A See also:Treatise of See also:Reformation without Tarying for Anie, in which he asserts the inalienable right of the church to effect necessary reforms without the authorization or permission of the See also:civil See also:magistrate; and A Booke which sheweth the See also:life and See also:manners of all True Christians, in which he enunciates the theory of Congregational independency (see See also:CONGREGATIONALISM). These, with a third See also:tract (A Treatise upon the 23. of See also:Matthew; see C. Burrage, as below, pp.

21-25), making together a thin See also:

quarto, were published at Middelburg in 1582. The following year two men were hanged at Bury St Edmunds for circulating them. In January 15841 Browne and some of his company came to See also:Edinburgh, after visiting See also:Dundee and St See also:Andrews. He remained some months in See also:Scotland, endeavouring to commend his ecclesiastical theories, but had no success. He then returned to Stamford, in which See also:town or neighbourhood he seems to have resided chiefly for the next two years, his See also:residence being broken by visits to See also:London and probably to the See also:continent (early in 1585), and by at least one imprisonment (summer, 1585). His attitude to the lawfulness of occasional attendance at services in See also:parish churches seems to have been changing about this time; on the 1 Probably after See also:writing A True and See also:Short See also:Declaration, the See also:main source of our knowledge of his life hitherto 7th of Oct9ber 1585 he was induced to make a qualified submission to the established order. The See also:story that this result was brought about by See also:excommunication, actual or threatened, is very doubtful, and rests on See also:late and questionable authority. A further submission prepared the way for his See also:appointment, in See also:November 1586, to the mastership of St Olave's See also:grammar school, See also:Southwark, which he held for more than two years. During See also:part of this time he was much engaged in controversy, on the one `See also:hand with See also:Stephen Bredwell, an uncompromising See also:advocate of the established order, and on the other with some of those who more or less occupied his own earlier position, and now looked upon him as a renegade. In particular he several times replied to See also:Barrowe and See also:Greenwood; one of his replies, entitled A Reproofe of certaine schismatical persons and their See also:doctrine touching the See also:hearing and preaching of the word of See also:God (1587-1588), has recently been recovered, and sheds a See also:flood of See also:light upon the development of Browne's later views (see Burrage, pp. 45-62, for this whole See also:period). Before the 2oth of See also:June 1589 his mastership of St Olave's seems to have terminated, and after being See also:rector of Little Casterton (in the See also:gift of his eldest brother) for a See also:month or two, he finally, in See also:September 1591, accepted episcopal ordination and the rectory of Achurch-cum-See also:Thorpe See also:Waterville, in See also:Northamptonshire.

There he ministered for See also:

forty-two years, with one lengthy See also:interval, 1617-1626, which is only partly accounted for (see Burrage, pp. 68-71). There is See also:reason to believe that he never entirely abandoned his early ideal, but latterly thought it possible to maintain a spiritual fellowship within the See also:frame-See also:work of the Established Church. The closing years of his life seem to have been clouded, due partly to separation among his own See also:flock, and partly to growing irritability in himself, a lonely and disappointed See also:man. When over eighty years old he had a dispute with the parish See also:constable about a See also:rate, blows were struck, and before a magistrate he behaved so stubbornly that he was sent to See also:Northampton See also:gaol, where he died in See also:October 1633. He was buried in St See also:Giles's See also:churchyard, Northampton. In spite of his later attitude of See also:compromise with expediency, which he See also:felt forced on him by See also:external conditions too strong to defy or ignore, Robert Browne remains a See also:pioneer in ecclesiastical theory in See also:England, the first formulator of an ideal which subsequently became known as Congregationalism (q.v.). He rediscovered certain forgotten aspects of See also:primitive church life, and did not shrink from suffering for the See also:sake of what he held to be the truth. In addition to the works above-mentioned, Browne wrote several controversial and apologetic See also:treatises, of which some remained in MS. until quite recently, and some are still missing. See H. M. See also:Dexter, The Congregationalism of the Last Three See also:Hundred Years (188o) ; C.

End of Article: BROWNE, ROBERT (1550-1633)

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