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BARNES, ROBERT (1495-1540)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 413 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

BARNES, See also:ROBERT (1495-1540) , See also:English reformer and See also:martyr, See also:born about 1495, was educated at See also:Cambridge, where he was a member, and afterwards See also:prior of the See also:convent of See also:Austin Friars, and graduated D.D. in 1523. He was apparently one of the Cambridge men who were wont to gather at the See also:White See also:Horse See also:Tavern for See also:Bible-See also:reading and theological discussion See also:early in the third See also:decade of the 16th See also:century. In 1526, he was brought before the See also:vice-See also:chancellor for See also:preaching a heterodox See also:sermon, and was subsequently examined by See also:Wolsey and four other bishops. He was condemned to abjure or be burnt; and preferring the former alternative, was committed to the See also:Fleet See also:prison and afterwards to the Austin Friars in See also:London. He escaped thence to See also:Antwerp in 1528, and also visited See also:Wittenberg, where he made See also:Luther's acquaintance. He also came across See also:Stephen See also:Vaughan, an See also:agent of See also:Thomas See also:Cromwell and an advanced reformer, who recommended him to Cromwell: " Look well," he wrote, " upon Dr Barnes' See also:book. It is such a piece of See also:work as I have not yet seen any like it. I think he shall See also:seal it with his See also:blood " (Letters and Papers of See also:Henry VIII. v. 593). In 1531 Barnes returned to See also:England, and became one of the See also:chief intermediaries between the English See also:government and Lutheran See also:Germany. In 1535 he was sent to Germany, in the See also:hope of inducing Lutheran divines to approve of Henry's See also:divorce from See also:Catherine of See also:Aragon, and four years later he was employed in negotiations connected with See also:Anne of See also:Cleves's See also:marriage. The policy was Cromwell's, but Henry VIII. had already in 1538 refused to adopt Lutheran See also:theology, and the See also:statute of Six Articles (1539), followed by the See also:king's disgust with Anne of Cleves (1540), brought the agents of that policy to ruin.

An attack upon See also:

Bishop See also:Gardiner by Barnes in a sermon at St See also:Paul's See also:Cross was the See also:signal for a See also:bitter struggle between the See also:Protestant and reactionary parties in Henry's See also:council, which raged during the See also:spring of 1540. Barnes was forced to apologize and recant; and Gardiner delivered a See also:series of sermons at St Paul's Cross to counteract Barnes' invective. But a See also:month or so later Cromwell was made See also:earl of See also:Essex, Gardiner's friend, Bishop See also:Sampson, was sent to the See also:Tower, and Barnes reverted to Lutheranism. It was a delusive victory. In See also:July, Cromwell was attainted, Anne of Cleves was divorced and Barnes was burnt (3oth July 1J40). He also had an See also:act of See also:attainder passed against him, a somewhat novel distinction for a heretic, which illustrates the way in which Henry VIII. employed See also:secular machinery for ecclesiastical purposes, and regarded See also:heresy as an offence against the See also:state rather than against the See also:church. Barnes was one of six executed on the same See also:day: two, See also:William See also:Jerome and Thomas Gerrard, were, like himself, burnt for heresy under the Six Articles; three, Thomas See also:Abel, See also:Richard Fetherstone and See also:Edward See also:Powell, were hanged for See also:treason in denying the royal supremacy. Both See also:Lutherans and See also:Catholic] on the See also:continent were shocked. Luther published Barnes' See also:confession with a See also:preface of his own as Bekenntnis See also:des Glaubens (1540), which is included in See also:Walch's edition of Luther's Werke xxi. 186. See Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. vols. iv.-xv. passim; Wriothesley's See also:Chronicle; See also:Foxe's Acts and Monuments, ed. G.

See also:

Town-send. See also:Burnet's Hist, of the Ref., ed.

End of Article: BARNES, ROBERT (1495-1540)

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