Robert Barnes (martyr)

John Foxe says that Barnes was one of the Cambridge men who gathered at the White Horse Tavern for Bible-reading and theological discussion in the early 1530s.

Barnes departed from his prepared text to denounce lawsuits by one Christian against another - inside the parish church of Cambridge University's College of Lawyers.

At a time when King Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey were attempting to stop the smuggling of Martin Luther's books into England from the Continent, Barnes' remarks immediately drew suspicion.

[3] While at Wittenberg in the summer of 1531, Barnes was commissioned to ascertain the opinion of Luther and other continental divines on the divorce proceedings between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

A denunciation by Barnes of Bishop Stephen Gardiner in a sermon at St Paul's Cross launched a battle to the death between the Crypto-Lutheran, Crypto-Calvinist, and Crypto-Catholic courtiers in King Henry's council, which raged during the spring of 1540.

But a month later Cromwell was made earl of Essex, Gardiner's friend, Bishop Sampson, was sent to the Tower, and Barnes openly reverted to Lutheranism, but it proved a delusive victory.

In July, however, Cromwell was attainted, the marriage between the King and Anne of Cleves was annulled and Barnes was convicted of heresy and sentenced to execution by burning.