Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Babington, Brute
BABINGTON, BRUTE (d. 1610), bishop of Derry, is said to have been a native of Cheshire. He was admitted into Christ's College in 1572, was B.A. 1575-6, and became a fellow in 1576. He was incorporated at Oxford 15 July 1578, on the same day with Gervase Babington. He was collated to the prebend of Bishopshall, in Lichfield Cathedral, 18 Sept. 1592. He was also rector of Thurcaston, Leicestershire, and Tatenhill, Staffordshire. On the death of Dr. Boleyn, Babington applied for the deanery of Lichfield unsuccessfully. On 6 July 1603 he complains to the Earl of Shrewsbury that the chancellor of the diocese, Zachary Babington, had obstructed his suit and dispossessed him of his divinity lectureship. In 1610 he was appointed to the bishopric of Derry, after some opposition from supporters of Dean Webb: resigning Thurcaston 8 Nov. 1610, but holding his prebend and Tatenhill in commendum. He was consecrated at Drogheda, and died in 1611, probably on 10 Sept. O'Sullivan tells the story that his death was ascribed to a divine punishment for his sacrilege in attempting to burn a statue of the Virgin Mary, which, however, remained unconsumed, while the perpetrators of the outrage were either struck dead on the spot, or, like the bishop himself, died a lingering death.
[Le Neve's Fasti, i. 590, iii. 316; Dyer's Hist. of Camb. Univ. ii. 65; O'Sullivan's Hist. Cath. iv. 13; Cal. State Papers (Dom. 1603-10), pp. 614, 641, (Irish, 1608-10) pp. 448, 487, 490; Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hib. iii. 316, v. 254 ; Lodge's Illustrations (1838), iii. 36; Talbot Papers, M. 97, 374; Ware's Bishops of Ireland (Harris), 292; Willis's Cathedrals, i. 427; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 211.]