Perhaps Henry Barrowe,--a lawyer of Gray's Inn, and in his young days a courtier,--of all men in the reign of Elizabeth, propounded the clearest views of Congregationalism. He strongly objected to forms of prayer, especially the Common Prayer Book; to the sacraments, as administered in the Church of England; to the ecclesiastical laws and canons; to the idea that the establishment was a true church; to the extent of the Queen's ecclesiastical supremacy, and to the abolition of the judicial law of Moses. He denied that it was lawful for any private person to intermeddle with the prince's office, and to reform the State without his good liking and licence; but he virtually admitted the right of private Christians to share in the regulation of ecclesiastical matters: for he expressly contended that the government of Christ's Church belongeth not to the profane or unbelieving, neither could it, he said, without manifest sacrilege, be set over parishes as they then stood in confusion, no difference being made between the faithful and unbelieving, all being indifferently received into the body of the Church; but over every particular congregation of Christ he concluded that there ought to be an eldership, and that every such congregation ought to aim at its establishment.[442] [Sidenote: 1593.] In 1592 a Church was formed in Nicholas Lane. Spies were on the look out, and a wary doorkeeper admitted the little congregation as they stealthily dropped in one by one. Mr. Francis Johnson and Mr. Greenwood were of the number. The first of these rose and prayed for half an hour, and, opening his Genevan Bible, discoursed to the assembly on the constitution of primitive brotherhood. The brethren formed themselves into such a communion, and gave to each other the right hand of fellowship. Mr. Johnson was chosen pastor, after which he baptized seven persons. "But they had neither godfathers nor godmothers; and he took water and washed the faces of them that were baptized." He afterwards broke the bread, consisting of five white loaves, which, with a cup of wine, were distributed amongst the members by Mr. Bowman and Mr. Lee, who had been elected deacons: after which a collection was made for the poor.[443] Not only in Nicholas Lane, but in Aldgate and Smithfield, were gatherings of this description, and especially in Islington, where meetings of persecuted Protestants had been held in Mary's reign. As the dew sparkled on the grass, as the birds twittered on the hedges, and as the sun bathed the landscape in golden light--the memories of the congregation in the Islington woods would go back to Roger Holland and his brother confessors, who on that very greensward, and under the shadow of those old trees, had studied their Bibles, and then been burned for doing so. [Sidenote: _Barrowe and Browne._]