Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/787

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Pozvicke : Henry Barrotv, Separatist "j-jj thority then claimed by the Council, it again outlined the jurisdiction of the Council in a liberal and not too definite manner, specially vested that body with a right to punish certain crimes which were particularly rife at the time, and, above all, placed its jurisdiction upon a lawful and permanent basis. ' ' In the fourth place, its purpose ' ' was probably to name a choice of judges and to give to a small committee, as did other statutes to other committees, the power of acting for the whole Council in certain matters." The two chief justices were members of the Star Chamber; but their right to sit in it "did not arise, as did the right of the other judges, from the fact that they were privy councillors." They owed their position "to stat. 3 Hen. VII., c. i, and in this fact is a partial justification of the current opinion that the court owed its founda- tion to that statute." The vital point of differentiation, therefore, be- tween the two bodies is the presence of the two chief justices in the Star Chamber. In the other three sections, the functions, the officers and organiza- tion, and the procedure of the court are respectively considered. These cannot be here analyzed. It must suffice to say that this excellent mono- graph enables us to appreciate as never before the vast significance of the Star Chamber in provoking the struggle for constitutional liberty dur- ing the Tudor and Stuart reigns. George Elliott Howard. Henry Barrow, Separatist, {ijjo i'-ijgj) and tlie Exiled Clutrcli of Amsterdam, [1^93-1622). By Fred J. Powicke, Ph.D. (London: James Clarke and Co. 1900. Pp. xlviii, 364.) The latest illustration of the renewed interest in Congregational origins recently manifested in England is this handsomely printed volume, in which a scholarly English Congregational minister sets forth the life of the most eminent of the martyrs for Congregational principles and discusses the fate of the e.xiled church of which he was a leader while it was still on English soil. Barrowe must always be reckoned among the most interesting of the early Separatists. His excellent social posi- tion, his dramatic conversion, his long imprisonment, his passionate responses to his judges and his fiery championship of the views for which he bravely died give to his story unfading picturesqueness. If he con- tributed little to the theoretic development of Separatist principles that Robert Browne had not already anticipated, his is a much more satisfac- tory career to contemplate than that of the ill-balanced and ultimately apostate earlier reformer. Dr. Powicke has felt the force of these con- siderations perhaps over-much, and is inclined to the conclusion that Barrowe, "rather than Robert Browne and John Robinson, deserves to be named emphatically the founder of English Congregationalism." But the author recognizes that "such a judgment may be questioned." Certainly many would dissent from it. Dr. Powicke has investigated anew such facts as are now accessible from which a sketch of Barrowe's life and work may be drawn. If he has VOL. VL — 51