Peter Gunning

Bishop Gunning.

Peter Gunning (1614 – 6 July 1684) was an English Royalist church leader, Bishop of Chichester and later of Ely.

Life

Monument Ely Cathedral.

He was born at Hoo St Werburgh, 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 eloquently from the pulpit. In 1644, during the English Civil War, 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 was installed as a canon of Canterbury Cathedral. In the same year he returned to Clare College as Master, and was appointed Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity. He also received the livings of Cottesmore, Rutland, 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 disliked equally Puritanism and Roman Catholicism.

Works

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 John Spenser and John Lenthall.

Family

A relative of his, Sir Robert Gunning, became a famous diplomat.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Academic offices
Preceded by Richard Love	Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 1661–1661	Succeeded by Francis Wilford
Preceded by Anthony Tuckney	Master of St John's College, Cambridge 1661–1670	Succeeded by Francis Turner
Preceded by Anthony Tuckney	Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge 1661—1674	Succeeded by Joseph Beaumont
Church of England titles
Preceded by Henry King	Bishop of Chichester 1670–1675	Succeeded by Ralph Brideoake
Preceded by Benjamin Laney	Bishop of Ely 1675–1684	Succeeded by Francis Turner