Charles Berington

Charles Berington (b. at Stock, Essex, England, 1748; d. 8 June 1798) was an English Roman Catholic bishop who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District from 1795 to 1798.

Life At thirteen Berington was sent to the English College at Douai. Four years later he was removed and sent to St. Gregory's Seminary, Paris. According to his cousin, Joseph Berington, he did little better at Paris than at Douai, though he succeeded in taking his doctorate at the Sorbonne in 1776. On his return to England, he became chaplain at Ingatestone Hall, a few miles from his birthplace. After travelling for two years with young Giffard of Chillington, on his return, Berington was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Thomas Talbot, Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District, becoming at the same time Titular Bishop of Hiero-Caesarea.

The Midland District, one of the four into which for ecclesiastical purposes England was then divided, was at that time the stronghold of Cisalpinist opinions. With these Charles Berington was in full sympathy, in consequence of which, in 1788, he was elected a member of the Catholic Committee, who were then agitating for the repeal of the Penal Laws, for which end they were unfortunately willing to minimize some of their Catholic principles. Two other ecclesiastics were elected at the same time, Joseph Wilkes and Bishop James Talbot, Vicar Apostolic of the London District, though the latter's appointment was merely nominal, for he never attended the meetings. Berington took a leading part in the disputes which followed between the Committee and the bishops, and though his sympathies were chiefly with the former, he exerted a restraining influence on them, and was ever trying to bring about an understanding between the two contending parties.