Who is Friar Barnardine in the play, The Jew of Malta?

When Abigail needs to make her last confession, it is Friar Barnardine who is available. When she tells him that her father needs to be converted and must repent for the murders of Mathias and Lodowick, the friar betrays his vows and divulges the information to Friar Jacomo. Barnardine sees the conversion of Barabas as a way to get all the Jew's money for his monastery. He is motivated less by religious zeal and more by greed. In the end, Barabas and Ithamore also murder him. But more importantly, his actions suggest that Catholic priests are corrupt, something that reflected much of the public's opinion in Renaissance England.