In this position his inclination towards liberal opinions became apparent, and his theses, prepared for the exhibition of his pupils, created such a stir that he thought it prudent to resign.
[3] He served next at St Mary's College, Oscott, then a lonely country mission, where his cousin, Charles Berington, who had been appointed coadjutor bishop, joined him.
The Midland District was the chief centre of these opinions, and fifteen of the clergy of Staffordshire formed themselves into an association of which Joseph Berington was the leader, the primary object being to stand by their bishop, Thomas Talbot, who was partly on that side.
His State and Behaviour of English Catholics (1780) contained more than one passage of doubtful orthodoxy; his History of Abelard (1784) brought into prominence the same philosophical tendencies which had before manifested at Douai; and his Reflexions, addressed to J. Hawkins, an apostate priest (1785 and 1788), were much criticized; while perhaps more than all, the Memoirs of Panzani, which he edited with an Introduction and Supplement (1793), gave him the reputation of being a disloyal Catholic.
He was respected by all who knew him, Catholic and Protestant alike, and after his death a slab was erected in his memory in the Anglican church at Buckland with an inscription written by his friend, John Bew, formerly president of Oscott.