Conformity, Dissent, and the Death of Henry Barrow, 1570-1593
This thesis explores the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the executions of London Separatist leaders Henry Barrow and John Greenwood on 6 April, 1593. Occurring after a lengthy prison term punctuated by official examinations conducted by authorities, the executions took place only after...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Others |
| Published: |
Scholarship @ Claremont
2017
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/104 http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1117&context=cgu_etd |
| Summary: | This thesis explores the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the executions of London Separatist leaders Henry Barrow and John Greenwood on 6 April, 1593. Occurring after a lengthy prison term punctuated by official examinations conducted by authorities, the executions took place only after the men had been twice reprieved, performed so early as to avoid a crowd yet still in the appointed place of public execution. Focusing on Henry Barrow and the London Separatists, this thesis explores how a national climate of fear and violence led to a greater crackdown on religious dissidents, and argues that the strange circumstances of Barrow’s execution might be attributed to a reluctance to punish a fellow Protestant in the same manner as a Catholic recusant, and the great differences of opinion among both ecclesiastical and temporal state officials regarding the punishment of religious dissent. Though Conformist officials and authoritarianism would ultimately triumph over Puritan efforts to speed reform in the Church of England, the case of Henry Barrow illustrates the fractured state of opinion which was present even among the highest reaches of government. |
|---|