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.
","abstract_html":"<p>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.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Chetney, Sara"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"History and Archival Studies, MA","degree_level":"Open Access Master's Thesis","degree_discipline":"School of Arts and Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Joshua Goode"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:39:44Z","subjects":["Early Modern England","Puritans","Separatists","Capital Punishment","Elizabethan England","European History"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/104","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Joshua Goode"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Chetney, Sara"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-04-17T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["School of Arts and Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Open Access Master's Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["History and Archival Studies, MA"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Early Modern England","Puritans","Separatists","Capital Punishment","Elizabethan England","European History"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/104"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["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.
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"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/104"],"dc:subject":["Early Modern England","Puritans","Separatists","Capital Punishment","Elizabethan England","European History"],"dc:title":["Conformity, Dissent, and the Death of Henry Barrow, 1570-1593"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["School of Arts and Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Open Access Master's Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["History and Archival Studies, MA"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:39:44Z"}