Brownists

Last updated

The Brownists were a Christian group in 16th-century England. They were a group of English Dissenters or early Separatists from the Church of England. They were named after Robert Browne, who was born at Tolethorpe Hall in Rutland, England, in the 1550s. The terms Brownists or Separatists were used to describe them by outsiders; they were known as Saints among themselves. [1]

Contents

A majority of the Separatists aboard the Mayflower in 1620 were Brownists, and the Pilgrims were known into the 20th century as the Brownist Emigration. [2]

The Brownists were eventually absorbed into the Mennonite Church, while others joined the Baptist Church. [3]

Origins

There had been early advocates of a congregational form of organisation for the Church of England in the time of Henry VIII. It became clear that the English government had other plans on the re-establishment of the Anglican Church, after the Catholic Mary's reign, and these dissenters looked towards setting up a separate church.

The first wave of separatism from the Elizabethan Church of England came in London after March 1566, when Archbishop Parker enforced strict adherence to the Prayer Book and 14 ministers were deposed from office. Some of the most radical led their followers in forming the London Underground Church, meeting in secret locations. From possibly a thousand members at its height, this movement shrank, through imprisonment and deaths, to a small group of members in Browne's days. He and Robert Harrison knew of the London church, but seem to have believed it had died.

Browne's leadership

Robert Browne (d. 1633) was a student who became an Anglican priest late in life. At Cambridge University, he was influenced by Puritan theologians, including Thomas Cartwright (1535–1603).

Browne became a Lecturer at St Mary's Church, Islington where his dissident preaching against the doctrines and disciplines of the Church of England began to attract attention. [4] During 1578, Browne returned to Cambridge University and came under the influence of Richard Greenham, puritan rector of Dry Drayton. He encouraged Browne to complete his ordination and serve at a Church of England parish church. Browne was offered a lecturer position at St Bene't's Church in Cambridge, possibly through Greenham, but his tenure there was short. Browne came to reject the puritan view of reform from within the Church, and started to look outside the established Church.

In 1581, Browne had become the leader of this movement and, in Norwich, attempted to set up a separate Congregational church outside the Church of England. He was arrested but released on the advice of William Cecil, his kinsman. Browne and his companions left England and moved to Middelburg 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 were published at Middelburg in 1582: 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; and A Booke which sheweth the life and manners of all True Christians, which set out the theory of Congregational independence. Two men were hanged at Bury St Edmunds in 1583 for circulating them.

Browne was an active Separatist only from 1579 to 1585. He returned to England and to the Church of England, being employed as a schoolmaster and, after 1591, a Church of England parish priest. 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 replied to John Greenwood and Henry Barrowe several times.

He is buried in St Giles's churchyard, Northampton. [5]

After Browne

The Brownist movement revived in London from around 1587, led by Henry Barrow and John Greenwood. Both were arrested in 1587 and kept in prison until their execution in 1593. [6] They wrote numerous books of Brownist theology and polemic in secret during their imprisonment, which were smuggled out by their followers and printed in the Netherlands, the most important being Barrow's A Brief Discoverie of the False Church. Dozens of other Brownists were imprisoned and many of them died in jail. [7]

After the execution of Barrow and Greenwood, the Brownist church was led by Francis Johnson. [8] As a puritan minister, Johnson had been given the job of burning Brownist books, but kept one back for himself and was converted by it. To escape the fate of Barrow and Greenwood, the Brownists made an abortive attempt to settle in Newfoundland, before going into exile in Amsterdam. [9] There the church was co-led by Henry Ainsworth and became known as the Ancient Church. Johnson and Ainsworth printed numerous works in Amsterdam which were smuggled into England.

Another wave of Brownism resulted from Archbishop Richard Bancroft's campaign against puritanism from 1604. John Robinson and John Smyth founded Brownist congregations in the north of England [10] and then led them to Amsterdam around 1608. This was the high point of the movement, with three sizeable Brownist churches, on good terms with each other, in one city. Smyth, however, broke away from Brownism to form the first Baptist church, Robinson responded by removing his church to Leyden, while Johnson and Ainsworth quarrelled with each other and formed congregations. [11]

Johnson took his faction to Virginia, but few survived the journey. Smyth's church joined the Mennonites, while a group of Baptists returned to London led by Thomas Helwys. Half of Robinson's church sailed on the Mayflower to New England. [3]

Shakespeare

The Brownists are mentioned in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night , believed to have been written around 1600–02, in which Sir Andrew Aguecheek says, "I had as lief be a Brownist as a politician" (III, ii). [12] The Browne family seat of Tolethorpe Hall is now home to the Stamford Shakespeare Company. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Henry Ainsworth (1571–1622) was an English Nonconformist clergyman and scholar. He led the Ancient Church, a Brownist or English Separatist congregation in Amsterdam alongside Francis Johnson from 1597, and after their split led his own congregation. His translations of and commentaries on the Hebrew scriptures were influential for centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)</span> Early settlers in Massachusetts

The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who traveled to North America on Mayflower and established the Plymouth Colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Pilgrims' leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownists, or Separatists, who had fled religious persecution in England for the tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Whitgift</span> Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to 1604

John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horses. Whitgift's theological views were often controversial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Barrowe</span> English Separatist Puritan (c. 1550 – 1593)

Henry Barrow was an English Separatist Puritan, or Brownist, who was executed for his views. He led the London underground church from 1587 to 1593; spent most of that time in prison; and wrote numerous works of Brownist apologetics, most notably A Brief Discoverie of the False Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Greenwood (divine)</span> English minister and divine (1556 – 1593)

John Greenwood was an English Separatist Puritan, or Brownist, minister who was executed for his faith. He led the London underground church from 1587 to 1593 and wrote several works of Brownist apologetics, working closely with Henry Barrow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregationalism</span> Religious denomination

Congregationalism is a Protestant, Reformed (Calvinist) tradition in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs.

William Brewster (<i>Mayflower</i> passenger) English colonist in North America (1566/67 – 1644)

William Brewster was an English official and Mayflower passenger in 1620. He became senior elder and the leader of Plymouth Colony, by virtue of his education and existing stature with those immigrating from the Netherlands, being a Brownist.

Thomas Helwys, an English minister, was one of the joint founders, with John Smyth, of the General Baptist denomination. In the early 17th century, Helwys was the principal formulator of a demand that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have a freedom of religious conscience. He was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous. He died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of Protestant Dissenters under King James I.

Robert Cushman (1577–1625) was an important leader and organiser of the Mayflower voyage in 1620, serving as chief agent in London for the Leiden Separatist contingent from 1617 to 1620 and later for Plymouth Colony until his death in 1625 in England. His historically famous booklet titled "Cry of a Stone" was written about 1619 and posthumously published in 1642. The work is an important pre-sailing Pilgrim account of the Leiden group's religious lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tolethorpe Hall</span> Country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire

Tolethope Hall in the parish of Little Casterton, Rutland, England, PE9 4BH is a country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire at grid reference TF023104. It is now the location of the Rutland Theatre of the Stamford Shakespeare Company. The hall is a Grade II* Listed Building,

Robert Browne was the founder of the Brownists, a common designation for early Separatists from the Church of England before 1620. In later life he was reconciled to the established church and became an Anglican priest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Robinson (pastor)</span> English pastor (1576–1625)

John Robinson (1576–1625) was the pastor of the "Pilgrim Fathers" before they left on the Mayflower. He became one of the early leaders of the English Separatists called Brownists, and is regarded as one of the founders of the Congregational Church.

Richard Clyfton was an English Separatist minister, at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, and then in Amsterdam. Clyfton is known for his connection with the Pilgrims – the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, USA.

Henry Jacob (1563–1624) was an English clergyman of Calvinist views, who founded the first true congregational church in England. Associated with the Brownists, he asserted the autonomy of the church, and advocated for ecclesiastical government without bishops. This stance challenged the hierarchy of the Church of England and led to his imprisonment and exile.

Christopher Lawne was an English merchant and Puritan of note, who was among the earliest settlers in the Virginia Colony in the early 17th century. Born in Blandford, Dorset, he emigrated on the Marygold in May 1618 and died in Virginia the following year.

Francis Johnson was an English separatist, or Brownist, minister, pastor to an English exile congregation in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Puritans under Elizabeth I</span> Earliest Puritan history, 1558–1603

The reign of Elizabeth I of England, from 1558 to 1603, saw the start of the Puritan movement in England, its clash with the authorities of the Church of England, and its temporarily effective suppression as a political movement in the 1590s by judicial means. This led to the further alienation of Anglicans and Puritans from one another in the 17th century during the reigns of King James and King Charles I, that eventually brought about the English Civil War, the brief rule of the Puritan Lord Protector of England Oliver Cromwell, the English Commonwealth, and as a result the political, religious, and civil liberty that is celebrated today in all English speaking countries.

Matthew Slade (1569–1628) was an English nonconformist minister and royal agent, in the Netherlands by 1600 and active there in the Contra-Remonstrant cause.

The London underground church was an illegal Puritan group in the time of Elizabeth I and James I. It began as a radical fringe of the Church of England, but split from the Church and later became part of the Brownist or puritan Separatist movement. William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Plantation, cited the underground church as the first that ‘professed and practised the cause’ of the Pilgrim Fathers.

References

  1. ↑ Hakim, Joy (2003). Freedom: A History of US. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 54. ISBN   0-19-515711-7. OCLC   50348061.
  2. ↑ Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1920
  3. 1 2 Tomkins. The Journey to the Mayflower. pp. 306–32.
  4. ↑ Cromwell, Thomas (1835). Walks through Islington. London. pp. 82–4.
  5. ↑ Shakespeare, J H (1906). "Robert Browne (1550? – 1633)". Edintone.
  6. ↑ "Thomas Wall". University of Michigan Library. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  7. ↑ Tomkins, Stephen (2020). The Journey to the Mayflower: God's Outlaws and the Invention of Freedom. London: Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 134–213. ISBN   978-1473649118.
  8. ↑ "History: Barrow and Greenwood, Prisoners of Jesus Christ". Reformed Reader. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  9. ↑ Tomkins. The Journey of the Mayflower. pp. 231–6.
  10. ↑ Tomkins, Stephen (17 January 2020). "Before the Mayflower: death, prison, poverty" . Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  11. ↑ Tomkins. The Journey to the Mayflower. pp. 253–299.
  12. ↑ Shakespeare, William. "Twelfth Night". Shakespeare Online. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  13. ↑ "About Us". Stamford Shakespeare Company . Retrieved 11 April 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.