Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Berington, Charles
BERINGTON, CHARLES, D.D. (1748–1798), catholic bishop, born in Essex in 1748, was educated in classics at Douay, and went to the English seminary in Panis to study philosophy and divinity D.D. 1776. He served on the English mission at Ingatestone Hall in his native oounty for several years. In March 1786 Bishop Thomas Talbot, vicar-apostolic of the midland district, petitioned the holy see to grant him a coadjutor in the person of Berington, who was accordingly appointed to that post. His brief to the see of Hierocæsaria, 'in partibus infidelium,' was dated 12 May 1786, and he was consecrated on 1 Aug. In 1788 Berington was elected a member of the catholic committee, which afterwards formed itself into the Cisalpine Club, He signed the 'protest' and otherwise identified himself with the proceedings of this self-constituted body, which seemed to reject the authority of the vicars apostolic as well as that of the court of Rome. In 1790 the catholic committee made strenuous efforts to obtain the translation of Berington to the London district on the death of Bishop James Talbot; but the choice of the holy see fell upon Dr. John Douglass. Several of the lay members of the committee went so far as to maintain that the clergy and laity ought to choose their own bishops without any reference to Rome, and to procure their consecration at the hands of any other lawful bishop. It was even proposed by them, after the nomination of Dr. Douglass, to pronounce that appointment 'obnoxious and improper,' and to refuse to acknowledge it. Berington, however, addressed a printed letter to the London clergy, resigning every pretension to the London vicarite, and thereupon the systematic opposition to Dr. Douglass was withdrawn.
Bishop Thomas Talbot died at Bristol on 24 Feb. 1795, and Berington succeeded 'per coadjutoriam' to the vicariate apostolic of the midland district. By the clergy who were loyal to the holy see Berington was held in greet dislike. The Rev. Robert Plowden, who was chaplain of St. Joseph's, Bristol, when Bishop Thomas Talbot died, went so far as to prevent Berington from saying mass in suffrage for the soul of the friend and prelate to whom he had been co-adjutor. It was rumoured that the other vicars-apostolic approved the conduct of Mr. Plowden, whose chapel was situated within the district of Bishop Walmesley (viz. the western district); 'but the holy see had never pronounced against Bishop Berington, and it was judged by calmer heads that in this case Mr. Plowden's zeal was not confined within just limits' (Brady, Episcopal Succession. iii. 217). The holy see, on the accession of Berington, required of him, as an indispensable condition for the dispensable condition for the dispatch of the extraordinary faculties usually conceded to vicars-apostolic, that he should renounce the condemned 'oath' and the 'blue books,' and his subscription to them. This 'oath,' it should be explained, formed part of the Relief Bill proposed by the committee, who, surrendering the names 'catholic' and 'Roman catholic, actually designated themselves 'protesting catholic dissenters;' and the 'blue books, containing the protestation, the oath, and other documents issued by the committee, were so called from being stitched up in blue or rather purple covers. A long correspondence between Berington and Propaganda ensued before the bishop could be induced to sign a satisfactory form of retractation. At last, after an interchange of letters for nearly three years, the bishop signed at Wolverhampton, on 11 Oct. 1797, the retraction which was required of him. The papers containing the faculties were sent from Rome, and reached the hands of Bishop Douglass on 5 June 1798; but Berington died without having received them. While journeying on horseback from Sedgeley Park to his residence at Long Birch, Staffordshire, he was taken suddenly ill, and his chaplain, the Rev. John Kirk, had only just time to give him absolution before he expired on the roadside, 8 June 1798. 'Endowed,' says Bishop Milner, 'with superior talents and the sweetest temper, he wanted the firmness required for the episcopal character in these times to stem the tide of irreligious novelty and lay influence, and so lent his name and authority to the oath and the "blue books," and to every other measure which his fellow-committeemen deemed these might serve.' And a writer in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' (lxviii. 622) describes him as 'a prelate whose amiable virtues gave an impressive charm to the truths of religion; a scholar of great classical taste, a man whose judgment was profound, whose manners were peculiarly conciliating, and whose hilarity of conversation rendered him the delight of society.
[Brady's Episcopal Succession in England, Scotland, and Ireland, iii. 178, 179. 215, 216-18, 223, 224; Catholic Progress, ix. 33. 36; Butler's Hist. Memoirs of the English Catholics (1822), iv. 4 seq.; Milner's Supplementary Memoirs of English Catholics. 53, 70, 72; Catholic Mag. and Review (1833), iii. 107: Husenbeth's Life of Bishop Milner, 28, 29, 56, 57, 61, 475; Gent. Mag. lxviii, 542, 622; Nichols's Illustrations, vii. 513.]