Gunning, Peter Dd

Gunning, Peter D.D., an eminent English High-church bishop, was born at Hoo, in Kent, in the year 1613, and was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge. He became fellow and tutor of his college, and distinguished himself as a preacher, but on account of his zeal for the king's service he was ejected, and afterwards was made chaplain to Sir Robert Shirley, at whose death he obtained the chapel at Exeter House, Strand. At the Restoration his services were rewarded; he was created D.D. by the king's mandate. He was one of the coadjutors selected by the bishops to maintain the High-church cause at the Savoy Conference (1661), and was the principal disputant with Baxter. He had a Romanizing tendency, and advocated prayer for the dead. In 1669 he was made bishop of Chichester, and in 1674 was translated to Ely, where he died in 1684. He wrote largely on the controversies of the time, and especially The Paschal or Lent Fast apostolical and perpetual, recently reprinted in the Library of Anglo-Cath. Theology (Oxford, 1845, 8vo). — Hook, Eccl. Biog. vol. v; Noel, History of the Puritans, iii, 90, 168; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliographica, i, 1355.