Peter Gunning

Peter Gunning (1614-1684), English divine, was born at Hoo, in Kent, and educated at the King's School, Canterbury[?], and Clare College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1633.

Having taken orders, he advocated the royalist cause from the pulpit with much eloquence. In 1644 he retired to Oxford, and held a chaplaincy at New College until the city surrendered to the parliamentary forces in 1646. Subsequently he was chaplain, first to the royalist Sir Robert Shirley of Eatington (1629-1656), and then at the Exeter House chapel. After the Restoration in 1660 he returned to Clare College as master, and was appointed Lady Margaret professor of divinity. He also received the livings of Cottesmore, Rutlandshire, and Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire.

In 1661 he became head of St John's College, Cambridge, and was elected Regius professor of divinity. He was consecrated bishop of Chichester in 1669, and was translated to the see of Ely in 1674-1675. Holding moderate religious views, he deprecated alike the extremes represented by Puritanism and Roman Catholicism.

His works are chiefly reports of his disputations, such as that which appears in the Scisme Unmask't (Paris, 1658), in which the definition of a schism is discussed with two Romanist opponents.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.