Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Gunning, Peter
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1614-1684
History
Peter Gunning was born in Kent and matriculated at Clare College, Cambridge in 1629, graduating in 1633. Gunning remained at Clare until he was ejected by parliamentary commissioners in 1644 due to the royalist sympathies manifested in his preaching. He then moved to be with the royal court in Oxford, where he stayed as chaplain of New College until the royalist surrender. For ten years he served as a tutor and chaplain in the households of various royalist nobles, before commencing preaching to a congregation with royalist sympathies at the chapel of Exeter House on the Strand. Services using the Book of Common Prayer were tolerated discreetly in the main, although parliamentarian troops did interrupt Gunning's Christmas Day communion in 1657. After the Restoration his career took off: he resumed his fellowship, became Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Master of Corpus Christi College, and then, in 1661, Master of St John's. He also gained positions in the Church, most notably prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral. Due to his reputation as one of the foremost churchmen of his day he took part in the Savoy Conference in the hope of reconciling episcopalian and presbyterian parties in the Church. Eventually Gunning resigned his post as Master of St John's to become Bishop of Chichester in 1670, and then of Ely in 1675.