page_title: Jacob Barnet affair
section_title: Oxford
hierarchical_section_title: Jacob Barnet affair / Oxford
caption_attribution_description: English: The door of the cell in the Bocardo Prison where Thomas Cranmer was held before his execution in 1556; one of the Oxford Martyrs. It is now preserved in the Saxon bell tower of St Michael at the North Gate Church, Oxford, which is adjacent to the site of the prison.
context_page_description: The Jacob Barnet affair occurred in 1612 when a Jewish teacher by the name of Jacob Barnet was arrested and imprisoned by officials of the University of Oxford for changing his mind about being baptised.
context_section_description: Barnet's personal qualities, as well as his erudition, meant that he was liked and respected by scholars at the university. While at Oxford, he decided to be baptised as a Christian, and told Casaubon of his decision; Casaubon told the Vice-Chancellor, who (like other members of the university) was pleased with Barnet's decision.  Preparations were made for Barnet to be baptised at a grand service in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin.
  Barnet, however, did not attend the ceremony, having decided against converting; he left Oxford on foot. According to the 17th-century Oxford antiquarian Anthony Wood, Arthur Lake, the Warden of New College, Oxford, sent pursuers after Barnet on foot and on horseback; Lake was one of the "learned Doctors" of the university whom Wood said had been "deceived" by Barnet's "tricks".  Barnet was apprehended and taken back to Oxford, where he refused to be baptised. He was then detained in the unpleasant conditions of the Bocardo Prison. In the meantime, William Twisse, who was to preach at the service, changed his sermon to address Barnet's change of heart, demonstrating (according to Wood) "God's just judgment upon that perverse nation and people, whom he had given up to a reprobate sense even to this very day."
caption: A Bocardo Prison cell door
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