Richard Barnes (1532 – 24 August 1587) was an

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priest who served as a bishop in the

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during the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

Early life, education and family

He was born in

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which was then a village near St Helens in south

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. He attended Farnworth Grammar School and then was admitted to

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

. Here he was elected a

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in 1552, and received his BA in 1553. This was followed by a BD and then a postgraduate MA in 1557. Finally he became a DD in 1579. Barnes was ordained a deacon on 24 September 1558 at

St Bartholomew-the-Great The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, sometimes abbreviated to Great St Bart's, is a medieval church in the Church of England's Diocese of London located in Smithfield within the City of London. The building was founded as an Augusti ...

by Peter Wall, Bishop of Clonmacnoise and a priest on 7 December by

Edmund Bonner Edmund Bonner (also Boner; c. 15005 September 1569) was Bishop of London from 1539 to 1549 and again from 1553 to 1559. Initially an instrumental figure in the schism of Henry VIII from Rome, he was antagonised by the Protestant reforms intro ...

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at his manor's chapel. After receiving Holy Orders he was made Minister of

Stonegrave Stonegrave is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. At the 2011 Census the population was less than 100 and so the details are included in the civil parish of Nunnington. By 2015, North Yorkshire Count ...

in Yorkshire. In 1561 he was appointed

Canon Chancellor According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

(and

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of the Laughton

prebend A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of t ...

which was annexed thereto) of

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, which offices he held until 1571. He married Fredesmund Gifford in the 1560s. Their daughter Mary was born about 1567; she married Richard

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of Hyde Hall in

Sawbridgeworth Sawbridgeworth is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, close to the border with Essex. It is east of Hertford and north of Epping. It is the northernmost part of the Greater London Built-up Area. History Prior to the Norman ...

. (Jocelyn was an ancestor of the Baronets Jocelyn of Hyde Hall, the Viscounts Jocelyn and the Earls of Roden by his second wife Joyce Atkinson.)

Episcopal career

In 1567 he was appointed

Bishop suffragan of Nottingham The Anglican Bishop of Nottingham was an episcopal title used by a Church of England suffragan bishop. The title took its name after the county town of Nottingham and was first created under the Suffragan Bishops Act 1534. Until 1837, Nottingha ...

and later, in 1570, was appointed

Bishop of Carlisle The Bishop of Carlisle is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Carlisle in the Province of York. The diocese covers the county of Cumbria except for Alston Moor and the former Sedbergh Rural District. The see is in the city of ...

. As bishop, he soon gained a reputation as someone dedicated to seeking out

recusant Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...

s. In 1575 he was translated to

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, as a result of the patronage of

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...

: his

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to that See was confirmed on 9 MayThe Injunctions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings of Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham, from 1575 to 1587: p. IX
(Accessed 1 February 2014) and he was enthroned at

Durham Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...

on 19 May. It seems that he was on bad terms with

Edmund Grindal Edmund Grindal ( 15196 July 1583) was Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. Though born far from the centres of political and religious power, he had risen rapidly in the church dur ...

, then

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...

. One possible reason for this is that Barnes disapproved of Grindal's refusal to suppress the prophesyings – which refusal had led to Grindal being suspended from office.

Whittingham affair

At the first Metropolitan Visitation of Barnes' tenure, in 1577, Edwin Sandys,

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers ...

, delegated his authority to Barnes. However, he met determined opposition from the

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William Whittingham William Whittingham (c. 1524–1579) was an English Puritan, a Marian exile, and a translator of the Geneva Bible. He was well connected to the circles around John Knox, Bullinger, and Calvin, and firmly resisted the continuance of the English li ...

, who refused to allow him in to the

chapter house A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole commun ...

. In retaliation, Barnes

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

Whittingham. Barnes later, during a legitimate episcopal visitation, described the diocese's affairs thus: :''...that Augiae Stabulum, the church of Durham ... whose stink is grievous in the nose of God and of men and which to purge far passeth Hercules' labours'' (BL,

Lansdowne MS. The Lansdowne manuscripts are a significant named collection of the British Library, based on the collection of William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne. The purchase of the collection by the British Museum was in 1807.''Dictionary of National Bio ...

25, fols. 161–2) However, the conspiracy against Whittingham was brought to an end by the dean's death in 1579.

Styles and titles

*1532–1558: Richard Barnes Esq. *1558–1561: ''

The Reverend The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. ''The Reverend'' is correctl ...

'' Richard Barnes *1561–1567: ''The Reverend'' Canon Richard Barnes *1567–1579: ''

The Right Reverend The Right Reverend (abbreviated The Rt Revd, The Rt Rev'd, The Rt Rev.) is a style applied to certain religious figures. Overview *In the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church in Great Britain, it applies to bishops, except that '' The ...

'' Richard Barnes *1579–1587: ''The Right Reverend'' Doctor Richard Barnes

References

Sources

*Foster, Alan, ''A History of Farnworth Church, its Parish and Village'', 1981. {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Richard 1532 births 1587 deaths Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Bishops of Carlisle Bishops of Durham Anglican suffragan bishops of Nottingham Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford People from St Helens, Merseyside 16th-century Church of England bishops