Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brown, Stephen
BROWN, STEPHEN (fl. 1340?), theologian, a native of Aberdeen, was a doctor of theology and a Carmelite monk. He is mentioned as one of the twelve scholars of special reputation in Scotland whom Edward I is said to have invited to Oxford; and ‘certain collections of sermons, theological treatises, expositions, and letters are attributed to him. Brown's identity is, however, extremely doubtful; and the very date at which he is said to have flourished is hardly compatible with the facts related of his life. He has apparently been confounded with another Stephen Brown who was apppointed to the see of Ross, in the province of Munster, by a papal provision dated 22 April 1399 (C. de Villiers, Bibliotheca Carmelitana, ii. 767), and who, ‘having made the requisite declarations and renounced all clauses in in the pope’s bull which were prejudicial to the rights of the crown, was restored to his temporalities on May 6,1402‘ (H. Cotton, Fasti Eccles. Hibern. i. 352, 2nd ed. 1851). This confusion of the two persons has, in fact, been made by the historian of the Carmelite order (l.c.); and, to add to the difficulty, Bale describes Brown as bishop of Ross in Scotland, and Tanner, by an error easily accounted for, makes him bishop of Rochester ('Roffensis'). Since, however, the bishop of the Irish see is an historical personage, of whom even the armorial bearings are preserved (Cotton, l.c.), it is perhaps most probable that his earlier namesake is purely fictitious.
[Bale's Script. Brit. Cat xiv. 64 (vol. ii. 216 et seq.) ; T. Dempster's Hist. Eccles. Gent. Scot. ii. § 196, p. 107, ed. Bologna, 1627; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 131.]