Ralph Brownrig
1592–1659
Bishop of Exeter; Master of Catharine Hall; moderate Calvinist Episcopalian.
Biography
Of Pembroke Cambridge, then Master of St Catharine's Hall Cambridge (1635-1645) and Bishop of Exeter from 1642. Brownrig was a Calvinist Episcopalian — closer to the Westminster doctrine on the decree and on justification than to Laudian sacramentalism — and a respected preacher, whose Sixty-five Sermons (posthum. 1661) circulated widely after his death. Named to the Westminster Assembly but he refused to sit because of its disestablishment of episcopacy. Ejected from the Mastership of Catharine Hall in 1645 and sequestered from his see in 1646, he lived in retirement at Bury St Edmunds and (later) the household of Sir Thomas Rich in London. Died in December 1659, a few months before the Restoration he had longed for.
Principal works
- Sixty-five Sermons (posthum. 1661)
Named in the ordinance
The 1643 ordinance that summoned the Assembly named some 121 divines. A number — chiefly episcopalians and royalists who heeded the King's proclamation forbidding the Assembly — never took their seats or sat only briefly; a few were later expelled. They are listed here for completeness as part of the originally-summoned roster.