BROWNE, THOMAS. - English physician and writer, b. in London on 19 Oct. 1605, d. in Norwich in 1682. In his mind he combined science and superstition, faith and science, preciousness of style and minute erudition, modernity and the Middle Ages. An admirer of Dante, he believed himself invested with a universal mission of salvation.
To this end he made use of the results of his completed studies at Montpellier, Padua, and Leiden, giving in the Religio medici (1643) expression to his religious conscience and an interesting document of psychological observation. The book enjoyed singular success, but owing to a certain ambiguity it was placed on the Index. In the Pseudodoxia epidemica B. attempted to dispel popular errors, while he himself believed in the influence of witches, two of whom he had condemned to death in 1664. The gardner of Cyrus and Urn Burial attest to his skill as a stylist and his taste as a scholar. The Christian morals were published posthumously. He belonged to the Reformed Church.