Brownists facts for kids
The Brownists were a group of Christians in England during the 1500s. They were known as English Dissenters or early Separatists because they wanted to separate from the official Church of England. They were named after Robert Browne, who was born in Rutland, England, around the 1550s. While outsiders called them Brownists or Separatists, they called themselves Saints.
Many of the Separatists who sailed on the Mayflower ship in 1620 were Brownists. These people, often called the Pilgrims, were known for a long time as the "Brownist Emigration."
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How the Brownists Started
Even before the Brownists, some people wanted the Church of England to be organized differently. They preferred a congregational style, where each church group made its own decisions. After Queen Mary's Catholic rule, when the Anglican Church was re-established, it became clear the government had other plans. This led some people to think about starting their own separate churches.
The first big wave of separation from the Church of England happened in London around 1566. This was when Archbishop Parker made everyone follow the Prayer Book very strictly. Many ministers lost their jobs. Some of the most radical leaders formed the London Underground Church. They met in secret places. This movement grew to about a thousand members but then became much smaller due to people being arrested or dying.
Robert Browne's Leadership
Robert Browne (who died in 1633) was a student who later became an Anglican priest. At Cambridge University, he was influenced by Puritan thinkers like Thomas Cartwright.
Browne became a lecturer at St Mary's Church, Islington. His preaching against the Church of England's rules and beliefs started to get attention. In 1578, Browne returned to Cambridge University. There, he was influenced by Richard Greenham, a Puritan leader. Greenham encouraged Browne to become a priest and work in a Church of England parish church. Browne was offered a lecturer job at St Bene't's Church in Cambridge, possibly through Greenham. However, he did not stay long. Browne soon decided that he could not reform the Church from within. He began to look for ways to create a church outside the established Church.
In 1581, Browne became the leader of this new movement. In Norwich, he tried to set up a separate Congregational church outside the Church of England. He was arrested but then released thanks to William Cecil, who was related to him. Browne and his friends left England and moved to Middelburg in the Netherlands later in 1581. There, they organized a church based on what they believed was the New Testament model. However, the group broke up within two years because of disagreements among its members.
Browne's most important books were published in Middelburg in 1582. One was A Treatise of Reformation without Tarying for Anie. In this book, he said that the church had the right to make needed changes without the government's permission. The other book was A Booke which sheweth the life and manners of all True Christians. This book explained the idea of churches being independent. Two men faced serious consequences in Bury St Edmunds in 1583 for sharing these books.
Robert Browne was an active Separatist for only a short time, from 1579 to 1585. He later returned to England and rejoined the Church of England. He worked as a schoolmaster and, after 1591, as a Church of England priest. He often argued with those who had followed his earlier separatist ideas and now saw him as someone who had abandoned their cause. He especially responded to John Greenwood and Henry Barrowe many times.
He is buried in St Giles's churchyard in Northampton.
The Movement After Browne
The Brownist movement became strong again in London around 1587. It was led by Henry Barrow and John Greenwood. Both were arrested in 1587 and stayed in prison until they were executed in 1593. While in prison, they secretly wrote many books about Brownist beliefs. Their followers smuggled these books out and had them printed in the Netherlands. Barrow's A Brief Discoverie of the False Church was one of the most important. Many other Brownists were also imprisoned, and some died in jail.
After Barrow and Greenwood were executed, Francis Johnson led the Brownist church. Johnson, a Puritan minister, had been given the job of burning Brownist books. But he kept one for himself and was convinced by its ideas. To avoid the same fate as Barrow and Greenwood, the Brownists tried to settle in Newfoundland. This attempt failed, and they went into exile in Amsterdam. There, the church was co-led by Henry Ainsworth and became known as the Ancient Church. Johnson and Ainsworth printed many works in Amsterdam, which were secretly brought into England.
Another wave of Brownism started after Archbishop Richard Bancroft began a campaign against Puritanism in 1604. John Robinson and John Smyth started Brownist churches in northern England. They then led their groups to Amsterdam around 1608. This was a high point for the movement, with three large Brownist churches in one city, all getting along well. However, Smyth later left Brownism to form the first Baptist church. Robinson responded by moving his church to Leyden. Johnson and Ainsworth also had disagreements and formed separate groups.
Johnson took his group to Virginia, but few survived the journey. Smyth's church joined the Mennonites. A group of Baptists returned to London, led by Thomas Helwys. Half of Robinson's church sailed on the Mayflower to New England.
Brownists in Shakespeare
The Brownists are mentioned in Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night. This play was likely written around 1600–02. In it, a character named Sir Andrew Aguecheek says, "I had as lief be a Brownist as a politician." The Browne family's old home, Tolethorpe Hall, is now where the Stamford Shakespeare Company performs.
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