John Greenwood (divine)

[1] Whether he was directly influenced by the teaching of Robert Browne, 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.

Around September 1585, Greenwood embraced Brownism, renounced this ordination as "wholly unlawful," resigned from All Saints, and travelled to London to join the underground church.

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 on 8 October 1586,[2] along with 20 others, when their service was raided in the house of Henry Martin in the parish of St Andrew-by- the Wardrobe, and held in the Clink prison.

On 5 December 1592 he was again arrested; and in March 1593 he was tried, together with Barrowe, and condemned to death on a charge of "devising and circulating seditious books."