JOHN PENR V A ND THE MAR TIN
MARPRELA TB CONTRO VERS V

WE must not suppose that the great mass of the people in that laughter-loving Elizabethan age were reached by the pamphlets and the solemn reasonings of the Separatist prisoners. To Barrow and Greenwood their religious convictions were precious as their own life-blood, and even
more so. It was a matter of life and death
to them whether there was a New Testament







eldership and discipline in the Church and
whether prayers were read or extempore.
These matters had a civil bearing also, and,
just because they seemed to threaten the
peace of the realm, bishops exercised tre-
mendous powers in the High Commission
against schismatics, and magistrates became
expert theologians on the bench. But even