The Brownists were some of the first separatists from the Church of England in the aftermath of the English Reformation. The movement was founded by Robert Browne, who while at Cambridge had come under the Puritan influences of first Thomas Cartwright and then Richard Greenham. His first attempt to set up a church on Congregationalist principles came at Norwich in 1580. This caused him to be arrested, and he only escaped due to the influence of his relative, William Cecil. He and his followers moved to the Netherlands, where they established a short-lived church at Middelburg. In later life he returned to England and retreated from some of his more radical views, but through his published writing, he inspired other separatists over the following half-century, and can be viewed as the…
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