Henry Barrowe

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Henry Barrowe & John Greenwood (Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Cambridge)

Henry Barrowe (* around 1550 in Shipdam, Norfolk , † April 6, 1593 in Tyburn , London ) was an English Puritan and separatist congregationalist .

Barrowe, whose family was related to Nicholas Bacon and probably to John Aylmer , Bishop of London , enrolled in Clare Hall , Cambridge in November 1566 and completed his BA in 1570. He then worked for some time at court and was from 1576 for a few years Member of Gray's Inn .

Around 1580/81 he came to a strict form of Puritanism through study and meditation . In a previously unknown manner, he contacted John Greenwood , the separatist leader, whose views he fully accepted. Although he did not live permanently in London at the time , he was in close contact with the Brethren of the "Separatists", at whose secret meetings his natural seriousness and fluency made him suspicious.

The brownists

The Congregationalist movement of the Brownists in England (and the Netherlands), founded by Robert Browne around 1581 and later headed by Henry Barrowe, wanted religious conviction and practice free from any external coercion. It therefore rejected any ecclesiastical organization that was superior to the individual congregation. That is why the office of bishop , which the Anglican Church retained after its separation from Rome, was rejected . Lay people and clergy were on an equal footing. Laypeople were also allowed to speak in the service. This was made possible theologically by Martin Luther's teaching on the priesthood of all believers and Johannes Calvin's church ordinance , which included church elders elected by the congregation members on an equal footing with the clergy and teachers in the management of the church ( doctrine of four offices ). Although Browne was influenced by Dutch Anabaptists , he kept infant baptism as a sign of the handing over of children to God and the church. Thus the children of the believers had part in the covenant with God and the other church members. Baptism and the Lord's Supper served the self-affirmation of the congregations. Barrowe and Greenwood adopted these views. The Brownists rejected any ritualized form of worship and any form of prayer. According to Browne's understanding, the church consisted of individual congregations (congregations, derived from the term congregationalism), which were constituted by the voluntary union of their members. They understood themselves to be bound by God through a covenant or contract (covenant) with him and with one another and as directly subordinate to God or Christ ( theocracy ; federal theology ). In contrast to the Puritans in the narrower sense, who remained within the Anglican Church but wanted to "purify" them of all "Catholic" structural elements such as the use of the Latin language in worship and liturgical vestments, the Brownists separated completely from the Church of England, hence the name Separatists. Their democratic church order required the election of pastors, teachers and church elders by the congregation, to whom they were responsible. Barrowe and Greenwood modified this model slightly. For them it was not the totality of the adult male parishioners who led the congregation. Rather, they chose the pastor, the teachers and the church elders, who then jointly led the congregation in a modified presbytery system, a representative parish democracy. Many separatists, persecuted in England, emigrated to the Netherlands, where John Robinson († 1625) reformed them. Later they were granted tolerance and influence in England as independents .

Last years in prison

When Barrowe, coming from the country, visited John Greenwood , imprisoned in Clink Prison on November 9, 1586, he was arrested and brought before Archbishop John Whitgift . Barrowe insisted on the illegality of the capture, refused both the public oath and payment of bail, and was thrown into the tower. After almost six months of imprisonment and various interrogations before the High Commissioner, he and John Greenwood were officially charged in May 1587 with negligence because he refused to attend the Anglican church service on the basis of a law that had actually been passed against the Catholics. Under stricter dungeons, they were required to pay a high bail as a sign of their conformity and to remain in Fleet Prison until further notice . Barrowe remained in prison for about six years - until the end of his life - sometimes under the strictest conditions. He was frequently interrogated, once on March 18, 1588 in Whitehall Palace before the Privy Council as the result of a petition to Queen Elizabeth I. Barrowe once took the opportunity to vigorously defend the principle of separatism by speaking to everyone rejected church ceremonies as idolatry and the bishops as "oppressors and persecutors".

During his imprisonment he was in heated discussion with Robert Browne (until about 1588), who had written a rudimentary address of allegiance to the authorities and therefore regarded the Barrowe as a renegade . In addition, he wrote numerous committed treatises in defense of separatism and congregationalism , the most important of which were:

  • A True Description of the Visible Congregation of the Saints . 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.

Around 1590, the bishops were looking for other ways and means to convince or silence the renegades Barrowe and Greenwood. They therefore sent various Puritan clergymen to negotiate with them - in vain. Eventually the Church agreed to prosecute and prosecute her under the law for "capital crimes," the distribution and dissemination of seditious books.

On March 23, 1593, they were sentenced to death by hanging. The day after the verdict, she was taken to the execution, which was suddenly postponed. On March 31, there was another transfer to the place of execution, and after the rope had already been put around her neck, another delay. They were finally hanged on the morning of April 6th.

rating

The overall motive for all events remains partially obscure, but sources show that Lord Treasurer Burghley tried to save Barrowe's life and was disappointed with the actions of Bishops John Whitgift and others.

A third Puritan, John Penry , went undetected next to Barrowe and Greenwood until the Vicar of Stepney recognized him, whereupon he was imprisoned on March 22, 1593 and taken to Poultry Compter Prison , where Anglican priests tried to change his mind by them Penry's authorities John Wyclif and Martin Luther cited. But the latter stuck to his convictions and resisted bishops and clergymen. His request for a dispute with his interrogators in the presence of the Queen or the Privy Council was denied; he too was hanged.

meaning

After Barrowe took over the leadership of the separatist communities of Browne, their opponents for a long time called them Barrowists (Barrowists). Despite the strongest persecution by the English state church, they spread. Under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell , the army of the Independents defeated the mercenaries of King Charles I in the English Civil War . The Independents' draft constitution, Agreement of the People , of 1647 powerfully emphasized the equality of all people as a result of democratic tendencies . Tens of thousands of Congregationalists emigrated to North America to escape oppression, especially during the ministry of Archbishop William Laud . The church historian M. Schmidt: “North America, the classic country of congregationalism, received its basic congregational structure, which in an extraordinary power of the individual congregation pervades almost all evangelical 'denominations' including the Lutherans , through the great puritan immigration to New England ( as a result of Laud's church policy 1625-43). “The separatist congregationalists who founded the Plymouth Colony in 1620 ( Pilgrim Fathers ) applied the congregational democracy practiced in their parishes to the administration of the secular affairs of their community.

literature

  • HM Dexter: Congregationalism during the last three hundred years; The England and Holland of the Pilgrims . In: Catholic Enceclopedia . 1880
  • FJ Powicke: Henry Barrow, Separatist (1550? -1593) and the Exiled Church of Amsterdam, (1593-1622) . James Clarke and Co, London 1900
  • LH Carlson: The Writings of John Greenwood and Henry Barrow, 1591–1593 . Vol. 6, George Allen and Unwin, London 1970
  • B. Brook: Lives of the Puritans . Soli Deo Gloria Pubns, 1997
  • Barrowe, Henry . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 3 : Austria - Bisectrix . London 1910, p. 442 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Heussi : Compendium of Church History . 11th edition. Tübingen 1965, p. 380
  2. ↑ B. Lohse: Priesthood , in Religion in Past and Present , 3rd Edition, Volume V, Tübingen 1961, column 579
  3. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History , p. 325
  4. ↑ Clifton E. Olmstead, History of Religion in the United States , Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1960, pp. 64-65
  5. ^ M. Schmidt: Browne, Robert . In: Religion Past and Present . 3. Edition. Volume I, column 1423
  6. ↑ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States, pp. 18, 64-65
  7. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States , p. 64
  8. ↑ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History , pp. 380–381
  9. ^ W. Breach of values: Human rights . In: Religion Past and Present . 3. Edition. Volume IV, column 869
  10. ↑ M. Schmidt: Kongregationalismus , in the religion in the past and present . 3. Edition. Volume III, column 1770
  11. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick : Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Penguin Group, 2006, New York, NY, ISBN 0-670-03760-5 .
  12. ↑ Christopher Fennell: Plymouth Colony Legal Structure , 1998 ( histarch.uiuc.edu )
  13. ↑ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States , pp. 64-65
personal data
SURNAME Barrowe, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English puritan and separatist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1550
PLACE OF BIRTH Shipdam, Norfolk
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1593
Place of death Tyburn , London