JOHN

See also:

• GREENWOOD, FREDERICK (1830-19o9)
• JOHN GREENWOOD (d. 1593)

GREENWOOD (d. 1593)  , English Puritan and Separatist (the date and place of his birth are unknown), entered as a sizar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on the 18th of March 1577—1 578, and commenced B.A . 1581 . Whether he was directly influenced by the teaching of Robert Browne (q.v.), a graduate of the same college, is uncertain; in any case he held strong Puritan opinions, which ultimately led him to Separatism of the most rigid type . In 1581 he was chaplain to Lord Rich, at Rochford, Essex . At some unspecified time he had been made deacon by John Aylmer, bishop of London, and priest by Thomas Cooper, bishop of Lincoln; but ere long he renounced this ordination as " wholly unlawful." . Details of the next few years are lacking; but by 1586 he was the recognized leader of the London Separatists, of whom a considerable number had been imprisoned at various times since 1567 . Greenwood was arrested early in October 1586, and the following May was committed to the Fleet prison for an indefinite time, in default of bail for conformity . During his imprisonment he wrote some controversial tracts in conjunction with his fellow-prisoner Henry Barrowe (q.v.) . He is understood to have been at liberty in the autumn of 1588; but this may have been merely " theliberty of the prison." However, he was certainly at large in September 1592, when he was elected " teacher " of the Separatist church . Meanwhile he had written (ISgo) " An Answer to George Gifford's pretended Defence of Read Prayers." On the 5th of December he was again arrested; and the following March was tried, together with Barrowe, and condemned to death on a charge of " devising and circulating seditious books." After two respites, one at the foot of the gallows, he was hanged on the 6th of April 1593 .