On Submitted in -Oartial Fulfilment of Requirements for Ti'.E Degree of ?H. D. at Edinldurgh University by Dv/Ight CM Chester Sn
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A THESIS on RC33RT BROY/NE (15507-1653) as CHURCHMAN and THEOLOGIAN. Submitted in -oartial fulfilment of requirements for ti'.e degree of ?h. D. at EdinlDurgh University by Dv/ight CM Chester Snith, B.A., B.D. (Yale University). TABLE of CONTENTS. Page Preface PART ONE: ROBERT BROTOE and the ELIZABETHAN CHURCH CONTROVERSY. Chapter One The First Fifty Years af English Protestantism 1 Chapter Two The Primacy of John V/hitgift 35 Chapter Three Robert Browne: The Years of Open Revolt 81 Chapter Four Robert Browne: The Years of Submission. 136 PART TWO: THE Y/RITINGS of ROBERT BROWNE. Chapter Five A Treatise of Reformation ... 193 Chapter Six A Treatise Vpon the 23. of Hatthewe ... ... 209 Chapter Seven A Booke Y/hich Sheweth . .. 235 Chapter Eight A True and Short Declaration ... 251 Chapter Nine An Answer e to Master Cart-wright 353 Chapter Ten A Reproofe of Certeine Schismati- call Persons ... ... 294 Chapter Eleven A Letter to Mr. Flower ... 315 TABLE of CONTENTS (continued) Page PART THREE: EVALUATION and CONCLUSIONS. Chapter Twelve Browne's Views on Church and State 325 Chapter Thirteen Browne's Views on Church Discipline and Govern ment ... 341 Chapter Fourteen Browne as Theologian .. 364 Chapter Fifteen Summary ••• 386 Appendix ... 390 Bibliography 423 1. PREFACE.. For nearly two and a half centuries after his death, Robert Browne was known only by the unsympathetic accounts of those who were hostile to him and all for v/hich he stood. Even when Hanbury wrote his "Historical Memorials" in 1839, he knew of no evidence concerning Browne's life, other than the stories preserved by his opponents. Then, forty years later, Dexter brought new light to the subject, by his discovery of Browne's "True and Short Declaration," and by his attempt to understand the man and to interpret him fairly. This pioneering work in-the modern study of Browne led to the reprinting of the "True and Short De claration". A few years later, it was used effectively by Wi Hist on "Yalker in "The Creeds and Platforms of Congrega tionalism" in 1893, and by Mackennal, who wrote "The Story of the English Separatists" in the same year. At the end of another decade, T. G. Crippen published a reprint of Browne f s ! "Treatise of Reformation," thus making Browne's first known publication available to a much wider group of readers than those who could contrive to visit the few libraries where Browne's works might be found. Crippen1 s introduction to the Treatise v/as based largely upon Dexter 1 3 account of Browne. Crippen1 s work in 1903 marked the beginning of a period of renewed interest in Browne. In the next few years Burrage, Cater, and Powicke all contributed materiallv ii. to the general knowledge and understanding of Brov/ne. Bur- rage's discovery and publishing of Browne f s Letter to his Uncle Flower, and "A Reproofe of Certaine Schismaticall Persons" went far to clarify the hitherto apparently in soluble contradictions appearing in Browne ! s life. Bur- rage^ "True Story of Robert Browne" was in 1906 an able attempt to fulfil the promise of its title, although nume rous blank spaces and uncertainties had to be left in this account of Browne f s life. Some of those remaining ques tions v/ere answered by Cater who, having studied records at Stamford, Northampton, Peterborough, and Achurch, published his findings in the Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society. Still further important evidence was to be included by Serjeantson in his "History of the Church of St. Giles, Northampton" in 1911. Meanwhile, Powicke had written on Brownism for the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics in 1908, and in 1310 published "Robert Browne, Pioneer of Modern Congregationalism." In these accounts, he included the findings made available by Burrage and Cater, and also helped to clarify various problems of interpretation as to Browne 1 s motives and intentions. In 1912, Burrage included a considerable comment on Browne in his "Early English Dissenters," correcting his True Story at certain points on which additional information had come to light since 1906. Even then, however, Burrage did not ill realize that Serjeantson 1 s research had at last solved the question of Browne 1 s excommunication. Further information relating to Browne was presented by Peel in 1920 in "The Brownists in Norwich and Norfolk in 1580", and by A.P. Scoti Pearson in his Life of Cartwright in 1925. So far as the writer's knowledge extends, the above account includes all the important published work re lating to Robert Bpov/ne during the past century. Other books have, of course, mentioned Mm, but have not added anything ne?/ to what is known about him. For twenty-five years, nothing has been done to bring the account of Browne up to date by gathering together all the 10107,01 relative facts about the man and his teachings. T/hen the writer, therefore, began to investigate the literature bearing upon Browne, in order to understand and evaluate him as Churchman and Theologian, it became apparent that the task should include work of three different sorts. For this reason, the chapters which follow are divided into three parts. Part One, including the first four chapters, presents the historical facts relating to our subject. The first two chapters give an account of the Elizabethan Church problem, seeking to explain the circumstances v;:iic/. influenced Robert Browne. The third and fourth chapters present the most complete account of his life which ci.n co iv, written at present. The writer believes that it presents also the most satisfactory explanation of Browne's character. Part Two consists of seven chapters, which give the substance of Browne's known writings. The course of Browne's argument is followed in each case, and a con siderable amount of direct quotation is included, so that the author's style and method, as well as his arguments, may be understood. The writer believes that this section constitutes the only summary dealing with all of Browne's extant works. Dexter, Walker, Burrage, and Powicke have each presented portions of Browne's writings, in condensed form, but none of them has given the substance of all seven so that they may be closely compared, as to development and evident point of view in the writing. It may be noted that Powicke, who gives almost nothing concerning the'Treatise Vpon the 23 of Matthewe,"and scarcely more with regard to 'A True and Short Declaration," does include a discussion of what Browne seems to have written in reply to Bredwell. The present writer has omitted such material from Part Two, because the only available record of it is in the possibly distorted and certainly inadequate references made by Bred- well himself. Part Three takes the material presented in the two preceding sections, and on the basis thus provided V. undertakes to evaluate Ro"bert Browne as Churchman and Theologian. The writer offers the conclusions thus reached as the judgment concerning Browne which is most positively indicated by the facts Joiov/n about the man and his teach ings. PART ONE- ROBERT BROV/NE and the ELIZABETHAN CHURCH CONTROVERSY. CHAPTER ONE The First Fifty Years of English Protestantism. Robert Browne lived in an age which is, per haps, unsurpassed in the variety of its interests to students of many subjects. Certainly one cannot begin to understand English literature unless one is familiar with the Elizabethan period. Still less can one explain the developments of modern history without knowing what happened in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. So, too, must the student of modern Church History look to the same era if he would know the back ground of English-speaking Protestantism. When one investigates the development of Protestant thought, he discovers that one of its most important figures is Robert Browne. Out of a life which lasted more than eighty years, he spent about a decade in vigorous protest against the Church of England. Despite the comparative brevity of those years their result was an impression so Indelibly fixed upon English thought that "Brownist" remained a by-word long after Browne himself was lost in obscurity. Important as his tenchings were, they cannot be fully understood unless we know the i^an as well. If, as Pierce contends, Brownism was "the only original English 2. contribution to the ecclesiastical interpretation of the (1) New Testament", then we shall want to know more about both it and its author. To do so, however, we must also call to mind the salient facts in the Elizabethan church contro- / versy. No man is likely to be understood except in the framework of his own time and place. Especially is it true, when a man has gained importance because of his part in a controversy, that the whole trend of that conflict must be passed in review if he is to be fitted into his proper place. The Elizabethan church conflict is not to be understood unless we remember that its origins were in political as well as religious affairs, and that those who participated most actively in it were, themselves, subject to the interplay of those two types of motive. This was true from the very moment that Henry VIII established the Church of England as an entity independent of Rome. His act was politically important because the Roman Church refused to sanction Henry 1 s divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and as a consequence the question of legitimate succession to the English throne was involved. So urgent (1) Pierce: An Historical Introduction to the Marprelate Tracts, London 1908, p.