Background
Gilpin was born in 1517 in Kentmere, England, the son of Edwin and Margaret (née Layton), and grew up in the Kentmere valley. George Gilpin was his elder brother.
Gilpin was born in 1517 in Kentmere, England, the son of Edwin and Margaret (née Layton), and grew up in the Kentmere valley. George Gilpin was his elder brother.
Gilpin entered The Queen's College, Oxford in 1533, graduating Bachelor of Arts (B. A. ) in 1540, Master of Arts (M. A. ) in 1542 and Bachelor of Divinity (B. D. ) in 1549.
Gilpin was ordained in 1542. He defended Roman Catholic doctrines against the Protestant bishop John Hooper and Peter Martyr and in 1552 preached a sermon, before the ailing adolescent king Edward VI of England, denouncing the expropriation of church property. Gilpin became vicar of Norton, Durham, that same year and obtained permission to preach throughout the kingdom. Just before Mary’s accession he went to study on the European continent, returning in 1556 to be rector of Easington, Durham, and archdeacon of Durham. He frankly refused to accept either Calvinism or the anti-Reformation decrees of the Council of Trent. He was defended on a heresy charge by his great-uncle, the Catholic bishop Cuthbert Tunstall of Durham, a leading conservative during the English Reformation, who endorsed royal supremacy. Gilpin succeeded in avoiding a royal warrant for his apprehension in London and was spared further harassment after the death of Mary (November 17, 1558), whose persecution of the Protestants he had abhorred. He joined the majority of the lower clergy in subscribing to royal supremacy. He declined, however, several offers of promotion and concentrated on pastoral work throughout northern England - which was in great need of such work after the dissolution of the Cistercian abbeys there. That service earned him the title of Apostle of the North and the respect of the Puritans. Austere in private life, Gilpin in 1574 founded a grammar school at Houghton-le-Spring (where he was rector in 1558-1583), helped finance the education of poor scholars, and visited prisons. He remained celibate and retained other characteristics of the Catholic tradition, though many of his pupils became Puritans. Bernard Gilpin died on 4 March 1583 in Durham Market-place when an ox and cart ran him over.
