BARROWE, HENRY English Puritan and Separatist, was born about 155o, at Shipdam, Norfolk. He gradu ated from Clare hall, Cambridge, in 1569-70. About 1580 or 1581 he retired to the country, and was led by study to the strictest form of Puritanism. He came into intimate relations with John Greenwood, the Separatist leader, whose views (probably due in part at least to Browne's influence) he adopted without reserve. He was associate with "the brethren of the Separation" in London at this time. Greenwood having been imprisoned in the Clink, Barrowe came from the country to visit him, and on Nov. 19, 1586, was detained by the goaler at the instigation of Archbishop Whitgift. After nearly six months' irregular detention he and Greenwood were formally indicted (May 1587) for recusancy. They were ordered to find heavy bail for conformity, and they remained in prison for the rest of their lives. During his imprison ments he was engaged in written controversy with Robert Browne (down to 1588). He also wrote treatises in defence of separatism and congregational independency, the most important being : A True Description of the Visible Congregation of the Saints, etc. (1589) ; A Plain Refutation of Mr. Gi ff ord's Booke, intituled A Short Treatise Gainst the Donatistes of England (159o-91), and A Brief Discovery of the False Church (1590) . In 1590 it was resolved to proceed on a capital charge of "devising and circulating seditious books." They were tried and sentenced to death on March They were hanged early on the morning of April 6.
The opinions of Browne and Barrowe had much in common, but were not identical. Both advocated congregational independ ency. But the ideal of Browne was a spiritual democracy, towards which separation was only a means. Barrowe, on the other hand, regarded the whole established church order as polluted by the relics of Roman Catholicism, and insisted on separation as essen tial to pure worship and discipline (see further CONGREGATION