BROWNE, ROBERT (c.1550-c.1633). An Eng lish clergyman. founder of the sect of Brownists, or Independents, and the earliest post-Reforma tion seceder from the Church of England. lie was born at Tolethorpe, liutlandshire. and edu cated at Cambridge. He then went to London. where he preached in the open air. Returning to Cambridge, he grew more radical in his views of Church organization, and preached where he pleased, without troubling to obtain the bishop's license. In 158,0 he formed a separatist congre gation at Norwich. Coming thus more than once into conflict with the law, he emigrated in 1581, with his friends, to Middleburg, in Zeeland, where he published several controversial books, including A Treatise of Reformation Without Tarying for Anie. and .1 Hooke which Shelreth the Life and Manners of :Ill True Christians. Browne's difficult temper, however, led to dissen sions, and ultimately to the breaking up of the congregation. He went to Scotland in 1583, and
assailed the established Presbyterian order there with his usual vigor; returned to England in 1584, was again imprisoned for several months, and in 1586 excommunicated. This spiritual penalty seems in some way to have affected him: certainly he ceased to preach nonconformity, and settled down to be master of Stamford Grammar School for five years, and rector of Achureln Northamptonshire, from 1591 to the day of his death, which occurred, probably in 1633, in Northampton jail, his last imprisonment arising from his having struck a constable in a fit of pas sion. For the views adopted by those who fol lcwed his early teachings, see BROWNISTS ; CON GREGATIONALISM: and consult Dexter, Congre gationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years (New York, 1880), which contains a careful account of Browne's career.