Calybute Downing was an English clergyman, a member of the Westminster Assembly.
Background
He was son of Calybute Downing of Sherrington in Gloucestershire, and Elizabeth Morrison née Wingfield who married in December 1604 at Tinwell, Rutland. He became a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1623, and proceeded Bachelor of Arts in 1626.
He then left Oxford and would seem to have been curate at Quainton, Buckinghamshire, where on 2 December 1627 he married Margaret, the daughter of Richard Brett the rector.
Career
He was baptised 27 October 1605 Saint Andrews, at Northborough, Northamptonshire. In 1630, having entered Peterhouse, Cambridge, he proceeded Master of Arts, and in 1637 LL. Doctorate.
In 1632 he was made rector of Ickford, Buckinghamshire, and about the same time of West Ilsley, Berkshire, and was an unsuccessful competitor against Gilbert Sheldon for the wardenship of All Souls" College, Oxford.
In 1637 he resigned West Ilsley for the vicarage of Hackney, London.
According to Anthony Wood, he aimed at a chaplaincy to Thomas Wentworth, and so wrote in favour of episcopacy. In 1640, preaching before the Artillery Company of London on 1 September, he stated that for defence of religion and reformation of the church it was lawful to take up arms against the king.
Wood adds that he became chaplain to Lord Robartes"s regiment in the Earl of Essex"s army. On 31 August 1642 he preached a fast sermon before the House of Commons.
And on 20 June 1643 he was appointed by parliament one of the licensers of books of divinity.
In 1643 he took the Solemn League and Covenant and was made one of the Westminster Assembly. He sided with the Independents. He resigned Hackney in 1643, and died suddenly in 1644.
Politics
Also a civil lawyer, he is now remembered for political views, which moved from an absolutist position in the 1630s to a justification of resistance to authority by 1640, within a contractarian setting.