Richard BARNES (Bishop of Carlisle and Durham)

Died: 1587

One of Edmund Grindal's chaplains, canon and chancellor of York, and after holding the see of Carlisle for seven years was translated to Durham. In 1571 Grindal issued his injunction for the substitution of "cups" for chalices; the number of cups of that date in the diocese of Carlisle shows that Barnes enforced this injunction in his own see. At Crosthwaite, in Cumberland, the church was still, in 1571, in possession of a large number of vestments and a quantity of plate, which had escaped the commissioners of Edward, or had been restored by the commissioners of Mary. Bishop Barnes issued a most peremptory injunction to the churchwardens and others, ordering all the plate to be sold before 1 Dec, the vestments to be sold or cut up to cover cushions, and that with the proceeds fine linen cloths, for the communion table, and a covering of buckram, fringed, were to be got before Christmas, and also two fair large communion cups with covers, one fine diaper napkin for the communion and sacramental bread, and two fair pots or flagons of tin for the wine.

We thus have Bishop Barnes's directions as to the altar furniture necessary for one of his largest churches. Similar injunctions by him probably lurk in other parish chests. He also held the first recorded visitation of the cathedral under the statutes of Henry VIII; in it he ordered certain minor canons, suspected of papism, to recite on certain days in St. Mary's Church, Carlisle, in an audible voice, during divine service, after the Apostles' Creed, the English Confession, entitled "A Declaration of Certain Principal Articles of Religion". He also enjoins a newly appointed Theologiæ Prelector of the cathedral to preach ad Clerum every year, as well as at other times.

Translated in 1577, to Durham, where both he and his brother, the Chancellor, greatly distressed the people, and disgraced themselves, by their vices, extravagancy, and oppression.

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