Background
His father Edmund Skinner was rector of Pitsford, and Robert succeeded him in 1628.
His father Edmund Skinner was rector of Pitsford, and Robert succeeded him in 1628.
He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford in 1613, and graduated Master of Arts
In 1614. He was vicar of Launton from 1632. In 1634, Oxford University granted him a Doctor of Divinity at the request of William Laud, without the formalities, a move criticized by John Prideaux. In the 1630s Skinner was known for his sermons before Charles I asserting Arminian doctrines.
He became bishop of Bristol in 1636.
In 1641, he was translated to become Bishop of Oxford, but was imprisoned shortly afterwards with the fall of Archbishop Laud, in the round-up of Laudian bishops who were taken to the Tower of London. Released on bail he resided at Launton, and under the Commonwealth he continued to ordain priests there, using Ralph Bathurst as a deputy.
In 1663 he was made bishop of Worcester.