Samuel Browne (1575?–buried 6 May 1632) was a British

divine Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a singl ...

Life

Browne was born at or near

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

, Shropshire. He was a clerk of

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

, in 1594, at the age of nineteen, graduated B.A. on 3 November 1601, and M.A. on 3 July 1605, and took orders. In 1618, he was appointed minister of St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury, "where he was much resorted to by precise people for his edifying and frequent preaching" ( Anthony Wood). In spite, however, of this notice of his ministry in the ''Athenae Oxonienses'', 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 Church, Shrewsbury St Chad's Church in Shrewsbury is traditionally understood to have been founded in Saxon times. Offa of Mercia, King Offa, who reigned in Mercia from 757 to 796 AD, is believed to have founded the church, though it is possible it has an earlier ...

speaks of him with great respect, and says that during the thirteen years of his ministry he was 'rudely and unchristianly handled' by the disloyal and schismatical party in the town, and that finally, 'by an invective and bitter Libel, consisting of fourteene leaves in quarto cast into his garden, they disquieted nis 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.

Works

*''The Sum of Christian Religion by way of Catechism,'' 1630, 1037, 8vo, *''Certain Prayers''

References

;Attribution * * *

The Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

: Lee, Sidney (1903),

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

br>Index and Epitome p. 156
(also main DNB vii 61) 1575 births 1632 deaths 16th-century English clergy 17th-century English clergy Alumni of All Souls College, Oxford English Christian religious leaders {{England-reli-bio-stub