- Robert Barnes (martyr)
:"Robert Barnes is the real name of jazzman
Bootsie Barnes ":"For the Irish cricketer of the same name seeRobert Barnes (cricketer) "Robert Barnes (1495 –
July 30 ,1540 ), Englishreformer andmartyr , born about 1495, was educated atCambridge , where he was a member, and afterwards prior of the convent ofAustin Friars , and graduated DD. in 1523.He was apparently one of the Cambridge men who were wont to gather at the White Horse Tavern for
Bible -reading and theological discussion early in the third decade of the 16th century. At the Christmas Midnight Mass at St Edward's Church in 1525, Barnes gave an openly evangelical sermon proclaiming the gospel and accusing the Church of its heresies, now sometimes considered to be the first sermon of theEnglish Reformation . cite web|url=http://www.st-edwards-cam.org.uk/about.shtml|title=About St Edward's|publisher=St Edward King and Martyr] As a result, in 1526 he was brought before the vice-chancellor for preaching a heterodoxsermon , and was subsequently examined by Wolsey and four other bishops. He was condemned toabjure or be burnt; and preferring the former alternative, was committed to the Fleet prison and afterwards to the Austin Friars inLondon .He escaped to Antwerp in 1528, and also visited
Wittenberg , where he madeMartin Luther 's acquaintance. He also came acrossStephen Vaughan , an agent ofThomas Cromwell and an advanced reformer, who recommended him to Cromwell: "Look well," he wrote, "upon Dr Barnes' book. It is such a piece of work as I have not yet seen any like it. I think he shall seal it with his blood" ("Letters and Papers of Henry VIII").In 1531 Barnes returned to
England , and became one of the chief intermediaries between theEnglish government andLutheran Germany . In 1535 he was sent toGermany , in the hope of inducing Lutheran divines to approve of Henry's divorce fromCatherine of Aragon , and four years later he was employed in negotiations connected withAnne of Cleves 's marriage. The policy was Cromwell's, but Henry VIII had already in 1538 refused to adopt Lutheran theology, and the statute of Six Articles (1539), followed by the king's disgust with Anne of Cleves (1540), brought the agents of that policy to ruin.An attack upon Bishop Gardiner by Barnes in a sermon at
St Paul's Cross was the signal for a bitter struggle between theProtestant andreactionary parties in Henry's council, which raged during the spring of 1540. Barnes was forced to apologize and recant; and Gardiner delivered a series of sermons at St Paul's Cross to counteract Barnes' invective. But a month or so later Cromwell was madeearl of Essex , Gardiner's friend, Bishop Sampson, was sent to the Tower, and Barnes reverted to Lutheranism. It was a delusive victory. In July, Cromwell was attainted, Anne of Cleves was divorced and Barnes was burnt (30th July, 1540).Barnes was one of six executed on the same day: two, William Jerome and
Thomas Gerrard , were, like himself, burnt for heresy under theSix Articles ; three,Thomas Abel ,Richard Fetherstone andEdward Powell , were hanged for treason in denying the royal supremacy. Both Lutherans and Catholics on the continent were shocked. Luther published Barnes' confession with a preface of his own as "Bekenntnis des Glaubens" (1540).References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.