BROWNE, ROBERT
(1550?, Tolethorpe, Rutland, England Northhampton, England, 1633?). Education: B.A., Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, 1572; studied under Richard Greenham, Dry Dayton, near Cambridge, 1578-79. Career: Teacher, London; open-air preacher, 1572- 78; cure, St. Benet's, Cambridge, 1579; minister, separatist church, Norwich, 1580; minister, separatist church, Bury St. Edmunds, 1581; minister Middelburg, Holland, 1581-83; religious controversialist, Scotland, 1583; religious controversialist, England, 1583-86; master of a grammar school, Southwark, 1581-86; minister, Achurch cum Thorpe, 1586-1633?
Robert Browne is credited with being the earliest separatist from the Church of England and the first practitioner of and writer on Congregational church government. He was connected by birth to some of the most powerful families in England, which helps explain why he lived to a ripe old age in an era when dissent was dangerous.
Browne attended Corpus Christi, Cambridge, when Thomas Aldrich, a leading Puritan was master. After graduating he went to London, where he taught school. In an early show of defiance to authority, he preached in the open air despite the opposition of the local rector. In 1578 he returned to Cambridge for further study and probably lived with Richard Greenham, Puritan minister of nearby Dry Drayton, who was reputed to be influential among the more pious young men at the university. With Greenham's encouragement Browne preached in nearby villages, without license from the bishop. He established a reputation as a fervent preacher and was invited to serve as cure of a church near the university. He soon resigned, however, having decided by this time that the church should be organized along congregational lines. He declared that he did not believe that one should be required to have a license from any human being to preach and burned his license.
Browne argued that the church could not be a national organization; instead it ., should consist of gatherings of "the worthiest, be they ever so few." His bishop barred Browne from preaching. Browne then joined a like-minded friend, Robert Harrison, and gathered a group of followers to form an independent church and meet at Browne's house. That act provoked the bishop to write London complaining that Browne's conduct would lead to "some evil effect." Fearing punishment, Browne moved to Suffolk, where he hoped the bishop would be less hostile. None the less, a complaint had been lodged, and Browne might have been severely punished. Fortunately the letter went to Browne's kinsman, who declared that Browne's behavior likely came "of zeal rather than malice."
Browne was not taken to the tower and tortured on the rack, as were some dissenters at that time. But the complaints against him interrupted his ministry, and in order to worship more freely he and Robert Harrison went to the continent with a few followers. They settled in Middelburg in 1581, where there was already an English congregation, but as would often happen among the English Protestant exiles, these groups became involved in a paper war about differing religious views. Browne and Harrison sent copies of their books to England, where in 1583 they were condemned by royal proclamation. Three men were hanged for association with the books, one for simply binding them.
As if he did not have enough enemies in England, Browne was carried by the force of his personality into dispute with Harrison and other followers, and in the fall of 1583 he migrated to Scotland with four or five families. There, true to form, he condemned local religious practices and soon found himself in a Scottish prison. Rescued again by his English connections, he made his way back to England. In 1586 he was preaching at Northampton, when he offended yet another bishop and was excommunicated from the church. At this point Browne appears to have gone the way of many a "tired radical" and made peace with the system. He taught school at Southwark for five years; then in 1581 he became rector of Achurch cum Thorpe, Northamptonshire. There he ministered for forty years, peaceful apparently until in his later years he came into conflict with a local constable and struck him. He was carried by cart on a feather bed to a jail in Northampton, where he sickened and died.
Browne was clearly an erratic and temperamental person. But innovators are often "square pegs." He is credited with a founding role in Congregational history for the simple reason that he was first to describe and justify from biblical authorities the polity that became Congregationalism. Had he been born half a century later he might have found comfort in the company of compatible saints in Massachusetts Bay. Then again, his disposition to question and innovate might have led him to quarrel with the Puritans, and he might have followed the trail of dissenters south to Rhode Island.
Bibliography
A: Booke Which Sheweth the Life and Manners of All True Churches (Middelburg, Holland, 1582); A Treatise of Reformation without Tarrying for Anie (Middelburg, 1582).
B: DNB 3, 57-61; H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, as Seen in its Literature (London, 1879), 61-128; "Robert Browne's Statement of Congregational Principles, 1582," in Williston Walker, Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (Boston, 1960), 1-27.
Robert Browne is credited with being the earliest separatist from the Church of England and the first practitioner of and writer on Congregational church government. He was connected by birth to some of the most powerful families in England, which helps explain why he lived to a ripe old age in an era when dissent was dangerous.
Browne attended Corpus Christi, Cambridge, when Thomas Aldrich, a leading Puritan was master. After graduating he went to London, where he taught school. In an early show of defiance to authority, he preached in the open air despite the opposition of the local rector. In 1578 he returned to Cambridge for further study and probably lived with Richard Greenham, Puritan minister of nearby Dry Drayton, who was reputed to be influential among the more pious young men at the university. With Greenham's encouragement Browne preached in nearby villages, without license from the bishop. He established a reputation as a fervent preacher and was invited to serve as cure of a church near the university. He soon resigned, however, having decided by this time that the church should be organized along congregational lines. He declared that he did not believe that one should be required to have a license from any human being to preach and burned his license.
Browne argued that the church could not be a national organization; instead it ., should consist of gatherings of "the worthiest, be they ever so few." His bishop barred Browne from preaching. Browne then joined a like-minded friend, Robert Harrison, and gathered a group of followers to form an independent church and meet at Browne's house. That act provoked the bishop to write London complaining that Browne's conduct would lead to "some evil effect." Fearing punishment, Browne moved to Suffolk, where he hoped the bishop would be less hostile. None the less, a complaint had been lodged, and Browne might have been severely punished. Fortunately the letter went to Browne's kinsman, who declared that Browne's behavior likely came "of zeal rather than malice."
Browne was not taken to the tower and tortured on the rack, as were some dissenters at that time. But the complaints against him interrupted his ministry, and in order to worship more freely he and Robert Harrison went to the continent with a few followers. They settled in Middelburg in 1581, where there was already an English congregation, but as would often happen among the English Protestant exiles, these groups became involved in a paper war about differing religious views. Browne and Harrison sent copies of their books to England, where in 1583 they were condemned by royal proclamation. Three men were hanged for association with the books, one for simply binding them.
As if he did not have enough enemies in England, Browne was carried by the force of his personality into dispute with Harrison and other followers, and in the fall of 1583 he migrated to Scotland with four or five families. There, true to form, he condemned local religious practices and soon found himself in a Scottish prison. Rescued again by his English connections, he made his way back to England. In 1586 he was preaching at Northampton, when he offended yet another bishop and was excommunicated from the church. At this point Browne appears to have gone the way of many a "tired radical" and made peace with the system. He taught school at Southwark for five years; then in 1581 he became rector of Achurch cum Thorpe, Northamptonshire. There he ministered for forty years, peaceful apparently until in his later years he came into conflict with a local constable and struck him. He was carried by cart on a feather bed to a jail in Northampton, where he sickened and died.
Browne was clearly an erratic and temperamental person. But innovators are often "square pegs." He is credited with a founding role in Congregational history for the simple reason that he was first to describe and justify from biblical authorities the polity that became Congregationalism. Had he been born half a century later he might have found comfort in the company of compatible saints in Massachusetts Bay. Then again, his disposition to question and innovate might have led him to quarrel with the Puritans, and he might have followed the trail of dissenters south to Rhode Island.
Bibliography
A: Booke Which Sheweth the Life and Manners of All True Churches (Middelburg, Holland, 1582); A Treatise of Reformation without Tarrying for Anie (Middelburg, 1582).
B: DNB 3, 57-61; H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, as Seen in its Literature (London, 1879), 61-128; "Robert Browne's Statement of Congregational Principles, 1582," in Williston Walker, Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (Boston, 1960), 1-27.