Richard Baines (* ~ 1544; † ?) has shaped Christopher Marlowe’s image for posterity like no other. Even during his lifetime, Baines caused a disturbance that did not subside even after his death. His biography can only be reconstructed in fragments and to this day it is not clear who Richard Baines really was.
He was probably born around 1554. Despite years of effort, no one has yet been able to establish either the exact date or place of his birth. Nothing is known about his family either. In the autumn of 1568 he enrolled in Christ’s College, Cambridge, presumably as a pensioner, and received his BA in 1572/73. He then transferred to the Caius, from which he graduated with an MA in 1576. In 1578 he went to the English College in Rheims, where he became a deacon in May 1581 and was ordained priest in September. Sometime before the end of May 1582, those in authority in Rheims learned that something was wrong with Baines. He was denounced by a fellow student unknown to us today and made a detailed confession. Baines admitted to having discovered a number of contradictions in Catholicism that convinced him that many dogmas and rites were just ridiculous fantasies. He was also promised a lot of money as soon as he revealed information about the college in England. To this end, he planned to leave Reims with a companion and, if necessary, poison the food or the communal well. He also made a suggestion about Mary Stuart which suggests that Baine’s real task would have been to find out to what extent the college authorities were involved in a possible French invasion of Scotland. (Francis Walsingham had learned of such a plan in 1581, in which William Allen, the head of the college in Rheims). The reaction on the part of the college is remarkable. Baines was detained first in the city jail and then in the college building. His confession was printed and appeared in a Catholic propaganda pamphlet in England before he was released at the end of spring 1583.1 A man who held such unorthodox views on church and religion, who wanted to betray Catholicism for filthy lucre, who made insinuations about the political intrigues of the Scottish Queen and, to top it all off, even wanted to poison the entire college, was simply allowed to go home after signing a confession. This is probably one of the most extraordinary examples of Christian forgiveness.
If Baines had originally been sent out as a spy by the English side, his employers were less than enthusiastic, for they initially had no further use for him.2 He did not reappear until 1592 in Flushing, where he met Christopher Marlowe. Both accuse each other of counterfeiting to Governor Robert Sidney. Sidney sent Baines and Marlowe to Lord Burghley. Unfortunately, it is not known what happened afterwards.3
In late May or early June 1593, the Privy Council received a statement signed by Richard Baines, the so-called Baines note. In it, he accuses Christopher Marlowe of numerous blasphemous, atheistic and subversive views that he is said to have repeatedly expressed to him and others.4
In December 1593 a Richard Baines was hanged at Tyburn.5 Another Richard Baines became rector at Waltham, Lincolnshire. A position he still held in 1607.6
