Browne, George, Dd

Browne, George, D.D., archbishop of Dublin, I the first prelate who embraced the Reformation in Ireland. He was originally a friar of the order of St. Augustine, took the degree of D.D. in 1534, and in 1535 was made archbishop of Dublin. When Henry the Eighth ordered the monasteries to be destroyed, Archbishop Browne immediately ordered that every vestige of superstitious relics, of which there were many in the two cathedrals of Dublin, should be removed. He afterward caused the same to be done in the other churches of his diocese, and supplied their places with the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. In 1545, a command having been issued that the Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth should be compiled, it was violently opposed, and only by Browne's party received. Accordingly, on Easter day following, it was read in Christ Church, Dublin, in the presence of the mayor and the bailiffs of the city; when the archbishop delivered a judicious, learned, and able sermon against keeping the Bible in the Latin tongue and the worship of images. In October, 1051, the title of primate of all Ireland was conferred on Browne. On account of his zeal in the Reformation, he was deprived of his see by Queen Mary in 1554. He died in the year 1556. - Jones, Christian Biog. p. 71; Hook, Eccl. Biog. 3:175.