BARROW or BARROWE, HENRY (d. 1593), church reformer, was the third son of Thomas Barrow, Esq., of Shipdam, Norfolk, by his wife Mary, daughter and one of the co-heiresses of Henry Bures, Esq., of Acton in Suffolk (Visitation of Norfolke (1563) in Harleian MS. 5189, f. 31). He matriculated at Cambridge on 22 Nov. 1566, as a fellow-commoner of Clare Hall. He proceeded B.A. in 1569–70 (Athen. Cantab. ii. 151). He became a member of Gray's Inn in 1576 (Gray's Inn Reg., Harleian MS. 1912, f. 10). At this time he lived, according to many authorities, a careless life about the court. John Cotton (of New England) states, on the authority of John Dod the Decalogist, that ‘Mr. Barrow, whilst he lived in court, was wont to be a great gamester and dicer, and after getting much by play would boast, vivo de die in spem noctis, not being ashamed to boast of his night's lodgings in the bosoms of his courtizens’ (Ath. Cant. ii. 151). But in the midst of this profligacy a fundamental change took place. He was walking in London one Sunday with one of his evil companions, when on passing a church he heard the preacher speaking very loudly. On the whim of the moment he went in and listened, in spite of his companion's sneer. After hearing the sermon Barrow was so profoundly altered that, in Bacon's words, ‘he made a leap from a vain and libertine youth to a preciseness in the highest degree, the strangeness of which alteration made him very much spoken of’ (Spedding, Life of Bacon, i. 166; see Young, Chronicles, 434). Forsaking the law, Barrow gave himself up to a study of the Bible, and of theology as it rested on that basis. He came to know John Greenwood, who had been deeply impressed by the remarkable books of Robert Browne, the founder of the ‘Brownists,’ and they similarly affected Barrow.
Whilst pursuing his theological and ecclesiastical studies, Greenwood was arrested on Sunday, 19 Nov. 1586, and Barrow went to visit him at the Clink. He was admitted by Shepherd, the keeper of the prison, but only to find that he too was arrested. There was no warrant or pretence of legality other than that it was done in obedience to the expressed wish of the primate, Whitgift, that he should be apprehended whenever and wherever hands could be laid on him. He was thrust into a boat and taken the same afternoon to Lambeth. Here he was arraigned before the archbishop, the archdeacon, and Dr. Cosins. He protested against the illegality of his arrest without a warrant, but the protest was disregarded. The Lambeth dignitaries tried to entrap him into a crimination of himself under oath. Failing that, they sought to hush up matters by exacting bonds that he would henceforth ‘frequent the parish churches.’ He would enter into no such bonds nor admit the jurisdiction of such a court, and was remanded to the Gatehouse. Eight days after (27 Nov.), Barrow was again taken to Lambeth before ‘a goodlie synode of bishops, deanes, civilians, &c., beside such an appearance of wel-fedde priestes as might wel have beseemed the Vaticane’ (Examination, 7), when a long sheet of accusations of opinions judged erroneous was presented against him. He at once acknowledged that ‘much of the matter of this bil is true, but the forme is false,’ yet refused to take any oath, requiring rather that witnesses against him should be sworn. This perfectly legal requirement was denied him, and Whitgift, losing his temper, broke out: ‘Where is his keeper? You shal not prattle here. Away with him! Clap him up close, close! Let no man come at him; I wil make him tel an other tale yet. I have not done with him’ (ibid. 8). He was transferred to the Fleet prison along with Greenwood. Two other examinations followed. The last, in which Lord Burghley took a prominent part, is printed by Professor Arber from Harl. MS. 6848, in his ‘Introductory Sketch to the Marprelate Controversy,’ 1879, pp. 40–8.
Barrow and two fellow-prisoners wrote in prison a full and authentic account of their treatment at the hands of the legal and ecclesiastical authorities. The work is entitled: ‘The Examination of Henry Barrowe, John Grenewood, and John Penrie, before the High Commissioners and Lordes of the Counsel, penned by the Prisoners themselves before their Deaths’ (1593). Barrow, with Greenwood and Penry, his fellow-prisoners, wrote this and other books, in the closest possible confinement, had them taken away in slips and fragments and shipped to the Low Countries by Robert Bull and Robert Stokes to be printed at Dort by one Hause, under the supervision of Arthur Byllet. Among the compositions written by Barrowe and his friends under such difficulties were:
- ‘A Collection of certaine Sclanderous Articles gyuen out by the Bishops against such faithfull Christians as they now vniustly deteyne in their Prisons, togeather with the answeare of the said Prisoners therunto: also the Some of certaine Conferences had in the Fleete, according to the Bishops bloudie Mandate, with two Prisoners there’ (1590). This work includes ‘A Briefe Answeare to such Articles as the Bishopps have
