View source for Peter Gunning

{{Short description|English Royalist church leader, Bishop of Chichester and Bishop of Ely}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2008}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Reverend]]
| name = Peter Gunning
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|}}
| image = Bp Peter Gunning.jpg
| caption = 
| title = [[Bishop of Ely]]
| diocese = [[Diocese of Ely]]
| term = 1675–1684
| predecessor = [[Benjamin Lany]]
| successor = [[Francis Turner (bishop)|Francis Turner]]
| other_post = [[Bishop of Chichester]] (1670–1675)
| birth_date = 1614
| birth_place = 
| death_date = {{death date|1684|7|6|df=y}}
| death_place = 
| buried = [[Ely Cathedral]]
| nationality = British
| religion = [[Anglicanism|Anglican]]
| residence = 
| parents = 
| spouse = 
| children = 
| profession = 
| education = [[The King's School, Canterbury]]
| alma_mater = [[Clare College, Cambridge]]
| consecrated_by = [[Gilbert Sheldon]]
| consecration = 6 March 1670
}}
'''Peter Gunning''' (1614 – 6 July 1684) was an English [[Cavalier|Royalist]] church leader, [[Bishop of Chichester]] and [[Bishop of Ely]].

==Life==

[[File:Peter gunning monument.jpg|thumb|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.<ref>{{acad|id=GNN629P|name=Gunning, Peter}}</ref> Having taken orders, he advocated the Royalist cause eloquently from the pulpit. In 1644, during the [[English Civil War]], he retired to [[Oxford, England|Oxford]], and held a chaplaincy at [[New College, Oxford|New College]] until the city surrendered to the [[Parliament of England|Parliament]]ary forces in 1646. Subsequently he was chaplain, first to the royalist Sir Robert Shirley of [[Eatington]] (1629–1656), and then at the [[Cecil House|Exeter House]] chapel. After the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] in 1660 he was installed as a canon of [[Canterbury Cathedral]]. In the same year he returned to Cambridge as [[List of Masters of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge|Master of Corpus Christi]], 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]]. While he served as Regius Professor of Divinity he established an [[Arminianism|Arminian]] soteriological tradition at Cambridge that was furthered by his successor [[Joseph Beaumont]].{{sfn|Tapsell|2012|pp=48–49}} 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 [[Puritan]]ism 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 (religion)|schism]] is discussed with two Roman Catholic opponents [[John Spenser (Jesuit)|John Spenser]] and John Lenthall.{{sfn|Pollen|1912}}

==Family==
A relative of his, [[Sir Robert Gunning]], became a famous diplomat.

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin|2|indent=yes}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle= Gunning, Peter |volume=12 |pages= 722–723}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hutchinson |first1=John |title=Men of Kent and Kentishmen |date=1892 |publisher=Cross & Jackman |location=Canterbury |pages=58–59 |edition=Subscription  |chapter=[[s:Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Peter Gunning|Peter Gunning]]}}
*{{cite CE1913|first= John Hungerford|last=Pollen|volume=14|wstitle=John Spenser}}
*{{Cite book|title=The later Stuart Church, 1660–1714|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-1-5261-3072-3|editor-last=Tapsell|editor-first=Grant|edition=1|location=Manchester|pages=48–9|doi=10.2307/j.ctt1vwmdzv|jstor = j.ctt1vwmdzv}}
{{refend}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box
 | before=[[Richard Love]]
 | title=[[List of Masters of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge|Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]]
 | years=1661
 | after=[[Francis Wilford]]
}}
{{succession box
 | before=[[Anthony Tuckney]]
 | title=[[List of Masters of St John's College, Cambridge|Master of St John's College, Cambridge]]
 | years=1661–1670
 | after=[[Francis Turner (Cambridge)|Francis Turner]]
}}
{{succession box
 | before=[[Anthony Tuckney]]
 | title=[[Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge]]
 | years=1661–1674
 | after=[[Joseph Beaumont]]
}}
{{s-rel|en}}
{{succession box
 | title=[[Bishop of Chichester]]
 | years=1670&ndash;1675
 | before=[[Henry King (poet)|Henry King]]
 | after=[[Ralph Brideoake]]}}
{{succession box
 | title=[[Bishop of Ely]]
 | years=1675&ndash;1684
 | before=[[Benjamin Lany]]
 | after=[[Francis Turner (bishop)|Francis Turner]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Bishops of Chichester}}
{{Bishops of Ely}}
{{Masters of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge}}
{{Masters of St John's College, Cambridge}}
{{Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity}}
{{Regius Professors of Divinity}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunning, Peter}}
[[Category:1614 births]]
[[Category:1684 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Church of England bishops]]
[[Category:Regius Professors of Divinity (University of Cambridge)]]
[[Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Arminian ministers]]
[[Category:Arminian theologians]]
[[Category:Bishops of Chichester]]
[[Category:Bishops of Ely]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:English theologians]]
[[Category:Lady Margaret's Professors of Divinity]]
[[Category:Masters of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Masters of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Participants in the Savoy Conference]]
[[Category:People educated at The King's School, Canterbury]]
[[Category:People from Hoo St Werburgh]]
[[Category:17th-century Anglican theologians]]