{{short description|English Separatist Puritan (c. 1550 – 1593)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use British English|date=March 2012}} {{distinguish|text=Henry Barrow, father of the American outlaw [[Clyde Barrow]]}} [[File:EmmanuelCam2.jpg|thumb|Henry Barrowe (left) and [[John Greenwood (divine)|John Greenwood]], stained-glass windows at [[Downing Place United Reformed Church, Cambridge|Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Cambridge]] ]] '''Henry Barrow''' (or '''Barrowe''') ({{circa|1550}} – 6 April 1593) was an English [[Separatist Puritan]], or [[Brownist]], who was executed for his views. He led the [[London underground church]] from 1587 to 1593; spent most of that time in prison; and wrote numerous works of Brownist apologetics, most notably ''A Brief Discoverie of the False Church''.
==Life== Barrow was born about 1550, in [[Norfolk]], of a family related by marriage to [[Nicholas Bacon (Lord Keeper)|Nicholas Bacon]], and probably to [[John Aylmer (bishop)|John Aylmer]], [[Bishop of London]]. He matriculated at [[Clare College, Cambridge]] (then called Clare Hall), in November 1566, and graduated B.A. in 1569–1570.<ref name=horne/> Afterwards he "followed the court" for some time, leading a frivolous if not licentious life.<ref name=lobb>[http://www.wiscongregational.net/WCTSPapers/2000_03_16.pdf Lobb, Dr. Douglas L., "The Grand Idea: Is it Just a Dream?", a paper presented to the Wisconsin Theological Society, 16 March 2000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304033633/http://www.wiscongregational.net/WCTSPapers/2000_03_16.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> According to [[John Cotton (minister)|John Cotton]], Barrow gambled a lot and would boast of spending his winnings ‘in the bosoms of his courtesans’.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Journey to the Mayflower: God's outlaws and the invention of freedom|last=Tomkins|first=Stephen|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=2020|isbn=978-1473649101|location=London|pages=139}}</ref> He was a member of [[Gray's Inn]] for a few years from 1576, but was never called to the bar.<ref name="EB1911"/>
Early in 1586, Barrow was converted to puritanism by a sermon in a church he had been walking past. Eighteen months later he attempted to write a rebuttal of one of [[Robert Browne (Brownist)|Robert Browne]]'s separatist works, but instead was converted by it.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Journey of the Mayflower|last=Tomkins|pages=140}}</ref> Subsequently, he came into close relations with [[John Greenwood (divine)|John Greenwood]], the [[English Dissenters|Separatist]] leader.<ref name=lobb/> He became associated with the [[London underground church]], the illegal Brownist congregation that had been meetings secretly since the late 1560s.<ref name="EB1911"/>
Greenwood was imprisoned in [[The Clink]], and when Barrow visited him on 19 November 1587 he was detained by the gaoler and brought before Archbishop [[John Whitgift]].<ref name=waddington>[http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=857&chapter=144852&layout=html Waddington, John. "The Church in Southwark", Vol. 3. Chapter: No I in Robinson, John. ''The Works of John Robinson, Pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers, with a Memoir and Annotations by Robert Ashton'', London: John Snow, 1851]</ref> He insisted on the illegality of this arrest, refused either to take the ''ex officio'' oath or to give [[bail bond|bail]] for future appearance, and was committed to the [[Gatehouse Prison]].<ref name=horne/> After nearly six months' detention and several irregular examinations before the high commissioners, he and Greenwood were formally [[indictment|indicted]] at the Newgate Sessions in May 1588 under the 1581 Recusancy Act (originally directed against [[Roman Catholics]]). They were fined £260, then moved to the Fleet prison.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Journey to the Mayflower|last=Tomkins|pages=149}}</ref>
Barrow was subjected to several more examinations, once before the [[Privy Council of England|Privy Council]] at [[Palace of Whitehall|Whitehall]] on 18 March 1589, as a result of petition to [[Elizabeth I of England|the Queen]]. On these occasions he maintained the principle of [[Ecclesiastical separatism|separatism]], denouncing the prescribed ritual of the Church as "a false worship," and the bishops as oppressors and persecutors.<ref name="EB1911"/>
During his imprisonments Barrow was engaged in written controversy with [[Robert Browne (Brownist)|Robert Browne]] (down to 1588), who had yielded a partial submission to the established order, and whom he therefore counted as a renegade. He also wrote several treatises in defence of separatism and [[Congregationalist polity|congregational independency]], including:
*''A True Description of the Visible Congregation of the Saints'', &c. (1589) *''A Plain Refutation of Mr Gifford’s Booke, intituled A Short Treatise Gainst the Donatistes of England'' (1590–1591) *''A Brief Discovery of the False Church'' (1590).
Others were written in conjunction with his fellow-prisoner, Greenwood.<ref name="EB1911"/> These writings were entrusted to friends and sent to the [[Netherlands]] for publication.<ref name=waddington/>
By 1590 the bishops had sent several [[conforming Puritan]] ministers to confer with these controversialists, but without effect. In 1592 Greenwood, Barrow and John Penry gained a temporary reprieve and began meeting at a house in the Borough and formally constituted the Southwark Independent Church.<ref>[http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200159/history_of_southwark/1015/pilgrim_fathers "Pilgrim Fathers", Southwark Council] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924104250/http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200159/history_of_southwark/1015/pilgrim_fathers |date=24 September 2015 }}</ref>
Barrow and Greenwood were returned to the Clink in 1593.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.clink.co.uk/history-of-the-clink.html |title="History of the Clink", The Clink Prison Museum |access-date=15 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205001028/http://www.clink.co.uk/history-of-the-clink.html |archive-date=5 February 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> It was resolved to proceed on a capital charge of "devising and circulating seditious books". As the law then stood, it was easy to secure a conviction. They were tried and sentenced to death on 23 March 1593. The day after the sentence, they were brought out as if for execution and [[respite (law)|respited]]. On 31 March they were taken to the gallows, and after the ropes had been placed about their necks, they were again respited. Finally, they were [[hanging|hanged]] early on the morning of 6 April. There is some evidence that Lord Treasurer [[William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|Burghley]] endeavoured to save their lives and was frustrated by Whitgift and other bishops.<ref name="EB1911"/>
==Views==
The opinions of Browne and Barrow had much in common, but were not identical. Both maintained the right and duty of the Church to carry out necessary reforms without awaiting the permission of the civil power; and both advocated congregational independency. But the ideal of Browne was a spiritual democracy, towards which separation was only a means. Barrow, on the other hand, regarded the whole established church order as polluted by the relics of Roman Catholicism, and insisted on separation as essential to pure worship and discipline.<ref name="EB1911"/> Barrowe also differed from Robert Browne regarding church governance, preferring placing it in the hands of elders rather than the entire congregation, as he distrusted too much democracy.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=New Scaff Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge |editor-last=Jackson |editor-first=S.M. |chapter=Barrow (Barrowe), Henry |date=1908 |volume=I |page=491 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/newschaffherzog00unkngoog/page/n522}}</ref>
Barrow has been credited by H. M. Dexter and others with being the author of the [[Marprelate Tracts]]; but this is not generally accepted.<ref name=horne>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041111173053/http://www.thetintypeshop.com/church/Library/Horne/Chapter4.htm Horne, C. Silvester. "A Popular History of the Free Churches", Fifth Edition, James Clarke & Co., London, 1903]}}</ref>
==References== <references>
<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Barrowe, Henry |volume=3|pages=442-443}} This in turn cites: * [[Henry Martyn Dexter|H. M. Dexter]], ''The Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years''. * F. J. Powicke, ''Henry Barrowe and the Exiled Church'' * [[Benjamin Brook|B. Brook]], ''Lives of the Puritans''. * [[Charles Henry Cooper|Cooper]], ''Athenae Cantabrigienses'' (1861), vol. ii.</ref>
</references>
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100614101527/http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/367/367barrow.htm Excerpts from "A Brief Discovery of the False Church"]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrowe, Henry}} [[Category:1550s births]] [[Category:1593 deaths]] [[Category:English separatists]] [[Category:Executed people from Norfolk]] [[Category:People executed under Elizabeth I]] [[Category:16th-century Puritans]] [[Category:People executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging]] [[Category:Protestant martyrs of England]] [[Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge]]