Ralph Brownrigg or Brownrig (1592–1659) was

bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The current bishop is Mike Harrison (bishop), Mike Harrison, since 2024. From the first bishop until the sixteent ...

from 1642 to 1646. He spent that time largely in exile from his see, which he perhaps never visited. He did find a position there for Seth Ward. He was both a Royalist in politics, and a

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

in religion,''...a

conforming Puritan Historians have produced and worked with a number of definitions of Puritanism, in an unresolved debate on the nature of the Puritan movement of the 16th and 17th century. There are some historians who are prepared to reject the term for historica ...

in close theological agreement with the now dominant faction''

an unusual combination of the period. Brownrigg opposed

Laudianism Laudianism, also called Old High Churchmanship, or Orthodox Anglicanism as they styled themselves when debating the Tractarians, was an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England that tried to avoid the extremes of Rom ...

in Cambridge during the 1630s and at the Short Parliament Convocation of 1640. Nominated to the

Westminster Assembly The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of Divinity (academic discipline), divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and ...

, he apparently took no part in it.

Life

He studied at

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

and

Pembroke Hall, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

. He was awarded an M.A. in 1614 and a D.D. in 1626. He was Rector of St Margaret of Antioch,

Barley, Hertfordshire Barley is a village and civil parish in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. The place-name refers to a lea or meadow and not to the grain-producing plant. The Prime Meridian passes to the west of Barley, which is located o ...

, in 1621. He was Master of

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...

, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, but in 1646 was ejected from both these positions, by the Parliamentary government. He was also deprived of his See by Parliament on 9 October 1646, as episcopacy was abolished for the duration of the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

and the

Protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over ...

. He took refuge with Thomas Rich, lord of the manor of

Sonning Sonning (traditional: ; modern: ) is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England, on the River Thames, east of Reading, Berkshire, Reading. The village was described by Jerome K. Jerome in his book ''Three Men in a Boat'' as "the most fair ...

Works

He continued to preach, for example at the

Temple Church The Temple Church, a royal peculiar in the Church of England, is a church in the Inner Temple, Inner and Middle Temple, Middle Temple, London, Temples located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar for their En ...

, and a collection of sermons of his was published posthumously.

Notes

External links

Bibliographic directory
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ...

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownrigg, Ralph 1592 births 1659 deaths Bishops of Exeter Westminster Divines Masters of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Vice-chancellors of the University of Cambridge 17th-century Church of England bishops