[f. the surname Brown, Browne.]
1. The system of church-government advocated c. 1581 by Robert Brown, an English Puritan and Nonconformist. His principles, somewhat modified, became those of the Independents.
a. 1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 497. Some fall to Brownisme, some to Popery.
1642. Compl. to Ho. Commons, 15. Schismatical men addicted to Anabaptisme and Brownisme.
1732. Neal, Hist. Purit., I. 595. The violence of persecution drove some of them into the extremes of Brownism.
2. The style of Sir Thomas Browne. (nonce-use.)
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1831), I. 293. Those words which he sometimes took pleasure in adopting, in imitation of Sir Thomas Browne…. In one instance only in these essays has he indulged his Brownism.
3. Med. The Brunonian system. See BRUNONIAN.
