Career
At thirteen he was sent to the English College at Douai. Four years later he was removed and sent to Saint Gregory"s Seminary, Paris. On his return to England, he became chaplain at Ingatestone Hall, a few miles from his birthplace.
After travelling for two years with young Mr.
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.
Two other ecclesiastics were elected at the same time, Dom Joseph Wilkes, OSB, 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.
In the midst of these disputes Bishop James Talbot died, and endeavours were made by the Committee to secure the appointment of Berington in his place, so that he might reside in London and exert the influence attached to the position.
These endeavours failed, and Doctor Douglass was appointed Vicar Apostolic. Some of the more extreme laymen, however, maintained that they had a right to choose their own bishop, and called upon the Catholic body to disavow the prelate appointed by Rome, and to rally round Berington. But he published a letter in which he refused to have anything to do with these machinations.
Bishop Thomas Talbot died in 1795, and Charles Berington succeeded as Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District.
Again he appeared to have a career before him. Before giving him his special faculties, however, Rome called upon him to withdraw his signature from the Blue Books.
Foreign several years he demurred, being still under Cisalpine influence. At length, through the intervention of Monsignor Erskine, who was living in England as an informal papal envoy, Berington was induced to sign the necessary retraction, on 11 October 1797.
After some delay due to the disturbed state of Rome, his faculties were sent, but they never reached him, for he died suddenly of apoplexy while riding home from Sedgley Park School.