of their organisation, will always appear somewhat strange to outsiders. Into discussions; on church polity, however, it is not our intention to enter. The last three works quoted among the authorities at the end of this; article will give the reader as full a view as he can desire of the congregationalist standpoint. Mr. Dexter's most able and learned volume contains an exhaustive account of the literature and bibliography of the whole subject, and his elaborate monograph on Browne's life has materially added to our knowledge of the man's curious career. Here too will be found by far the most complete list of his writings and some valuable extracts from hitherto unknown works which prove him to have been a man of burning enthusiasm and one who, as we might have expected, could at times burst forth mto passages of fiery and impetuous eloquence which must have been extraordinarily effective in their day, however much they may appear to us no more than vehement rhetoric.
[Blore's Hist, and Antiq. of the County of Rutland, 1813, p. 93, &c.; Fuller's Worthies (Rutland); Lamb's Masters's Hist. of Corpus Christi Coll. Cambridge, pp. 123 et seq., 460; communication from Dr. Luard, Registrar of Camb. Univ.; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547-1580. p. 421; Froude's Hist. Engl. x. 289-90; Strype's Parker, ii. 68; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. ii. 177, 178; Fuller's Church Hist. bk. ix., cent. xvi., sect, vi., §§ 1-7, 64-9; Lansdowne MSS., quoted by all modern writers, No. xxxiii. 13, 20; Hanbury's Historical Memorials relating to the Independents, 1839, vol. i. ch. ii.; John Browne's Hist. of Congregationalism in Norfolk and Suffolk (1877), chs. i-iii.; Dexter's Congregationalism of the last Three Hundred Years, as seen in its Literature, New York, 1880.]
BROWNE, SAMUEL (1575?–1632), divine, born at or near Shrewsbury, became a servitor or clerk of All Souls College, Oxford, in 1594, at the age of nineteen, graduated B.A. 3 Nov. 1601, and M.A. 3 July 1605, took orders, and in 1618 was appointed minister of St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury, 'where he was much resorted to by precise people for his edifying and frequent preaching' (Wood). In spite, however, of this notice of his ministry in the 'Athenae Oxon.,' Browne can scarcely have been a puritan, for in the curious little book entitled 'The Looking-glasse of Schisme, wherein by a briefe and true Narration of the execrable Murders done by Enoch ap Evan, a downe-right Nonconformist . . . the Disobedience of that Sect . . . is plainly set forth' (1635), the author, Peter Studley, minister of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury speaks of him with great respect, and says that during the thirteen years of his ministry he was 'rudely and unchristianly handlea' by the disloyal and schismatical party in the town, and that finally, 'by an invective and bitter Libell, consisting of fourteene leaves in quarto cast into his garden, they disquieted his painefull and peaceable soule, and shortened the date of his troublesome pilgrimage.' Browne died in 1632, and was buried at St. Mary's on 6 May. He published 'The Sum of Christian Religion by way of Catechism,' 1630, 1037, 8vo, and 'Certain Prayers,' and left at his death several sermons which he wished printed.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 631; Fasti (Bliss), i. 290, 306; Studley's Looking-glasse of Schisme, 180-1; Phillips's History and Antiquities of Shrewsbury, 100; Some Account of the Ancient and Present Stiito of Shrewsbury (ed. 1810), 216, 217.]
BROWNE, SAMUEL (d. 1668), judge, was the son of Nicholas Browne of Polebrooke, Northamptonshire, by Frances, daughter of Thomas St. John, third son of Oliver, lord St. John. He was thus first cousin to Oliver St. John, chief justice of the common pleas during the protectorate. He was admitted pensioner of Queens' College, Cambridge, 24 Feb. 1614, entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn 28 Oct. 1610, where he was called to the bar 16 Oct. 1623, and elected reader in Michaelmas term 1642. Two years previously he had been returned to parliament as member for the united boroughs of Clifton, Dartmouth, and Hardness in Devonshire. In the articles laid before the king at Oxford in 1642, with a view to negotiations for peace, the appointment of Browne to a seat on the exchequer bench was suggested. In November of the same year he was made one of the commissioners of the great seal. In March 1643-4 he was appointed one of the committee to which the management of the impeachment of Laud was entrusted. His speech on this occasion has not been preserved, but from the constant references which Laud makes to it he appears to have put the case against the archbishop in a very effective way. After the trial was ended (2 Jan. 1644-6) he was deputed, with Serjeants Wilde and Nicolas, to lay before the House of Lords the reasons which, in the opinion of the commons, justified an ordinance of attainder against the archbishop. This had already been passed by the commons, and the upper house immediately followed suit. In July 1646 a paper was introduced to the House of Commons, emanating from Lord Savile, and containing what was in substance an impeachment of Denzil Hollis and Whitelocke,
