3424476Men of Kent and Kentishmen — Peter GunningJohn Hutchinson


Peter Gunning,

BISHOP,

Was a native of Hoo, where he was born in 1613. He was educated at Canterbury School and at Clare Hall, Cambridge. He became Fellow and Tutor of his College, and distinguished himself as a preacher. He suffered much during the Commonwealth for his loyalty to the King, but at the Restoration he became head of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Regius and Margaret professor of Divinity. In 1669 he was made Bishop of Chichester, and thence translated to Ely, where he died in 1684. He was one of the committee for the review of the Liturgy, and at the Savoy Conference distinguished himself as the opponent of Baxter. He was an able disputant, and wrote many treatises of a controversial character. He is the author of the beautiful and well known prayer in the Liturgy known as "The General Supplication."

[See "Athenæ Oxon.," by Bliss; "Gentleman's Magazine," 1793; "Master's Corpus Christi College"; Salmon's "Lives of the Bishops."]