Robert Browne (1550s – 1633) was the founder of theBrownists, a common designation for earlySeparatists from theChurch of England before 1620. In later life he was reconciled to the established church and became anAnglican priest.
Browne was born atTolethorpe Hall inLittle Casterton,Rutland, England, about 1550,[1] and was the third of seven children of Anthony Browne and his wife Dorothy, a daughter of Sir Philip Boteler. In 1572 he graduated fromCorpus Christi College, Cambridge.[2] It was probably while Browne was at Corpus Christi that he first metRobert Harrison from Norwich.[1] They were both influenced by the Puritan theologianThomas Cartwright. It has been claimed that after leaving Cambridge Browne was aschoolmaster atOundle School.[1]
Browne became a lecturer atSt Mary's Church, Islington,[1] where his dissident preaching against the doctrines and disciplines of the Church of England began to attract attention.[3] During 1578 he returned to Cambridge and came under the influence ofRichard Greenham, Puritan rector ofDry Drayton, near Cambridge. Browne may have been encouraged to complete hisordination and serve at a parish church. He was offered a lecturer position atSt Bene't's Church, Cambridge possibly through Greenham, but his tenure there was short lived. He may have come to reject the Puritan view of reform from within the Church, and started to look outside theestablished Church.
Browne was the first seceder from the Church of England and the first to found a church of his own onCongregational principles. By 1581 he had attempted to set up a separate church inNorwich; he was arrested but released on the advice ofWilliam Cecil, his kinsman. Browne and companions left England and moved toMiddelburg in the Netherlands later in 1581. There they organised a church on what they conceived to be the New Testament model, but the community broke up within two years owing to internal dissensions.
His most important works,A Treatise of Reformation without Tarying for Anie, in which he asserted the right of the church to effect necessary reforms without the authorisation of the civil magistrate; andA Booke which sheweth the life and manners of all True Christians which set out the theory of congregational independency, were published at Middelburg in 1582. The following year two men were hanged atBury St Edmunds for circulating them.[4]
Browne was only an active Separatist from 1579 to 1585 and returned to the Church of England. He served as Headmaster ofSt Olave's Grammar School, Southwark 1586–89 and was also Headmaster ofStamford School between 1589 and 1591.[citation needed] He was much engaged in controversy with some of those who held his earlier separatist position and who now looked upon him as a renegade. In particular he several times replied toJohn Greenwood andHenry Barrowe; one of his replies, entitledA Reproofe of certaine schismatical persons and their doctrine touching the hearing and preaching of the word of God (1587–1588) sheds light upon the development of Browne's later views.
He was ordained deacon and priest byRichard Howland,Bishop of Peterborough in September 1591.[5] He held the benefice ofLittle Casterton[5] (in which parish Tolethorpe lay) and thenThorpe Achurch in Northamptonshire from 1591 to 1631.
He was married twice, firstly to Alice Allen, thought to be one of his Middelburg congregation, with whom he fathered nine children. Alice Browne died in July 1610 and in February 1612 Browne married Elizabeth Werrener atSt Martin's Church, Stamford.
Browne was imprisoned 32 times during his life for hisnon-conformist beliefs.
In 1633, Browne became embroiled in a dispute with his godson, who was theConstable of the Lilford estate, regarding the payment of rates, which proceeded to blows. Browne wasarraigned in court, where he was so insolent to theJustice that Browne was put inNorthamptonGaol, where he fell ill and died.[6]
Browne is buried inSt Giles's churchyard, Northampton.[7]
He is considered the father of the Congregational body in the English-speaking world.[8] He is also considered "The Father of thePilgrims" due to theMayflower passengers in 1620 being part of the Brownist movement.
He is commemorated as a reformer of the church in the calendar of theUniting Church in Australia on 5 September.[9]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907).The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)
