,1^2*88 2»fc THE LIFE AND DEFENCE OF THE CONDUCT AND PRINCIPLES OF THE VENERABLE AND, CALUMNIATED *-* EDMUND BONNER, BISHOP OF LONDON, IN THE REIGNS OF HENRY VIII., EDW AED VI., MAEY, AND ELIZABET^ ; IN WHICH IS CONSIDERED THE BEST MODE OF AGAIN CHANGING THE RELIGION OF THIS NATION. BY, A TRACTARIAN BRITISH CRITIC. DEDICATED TO THE BISHOP OP LONDON. Tendimus in Latium, We are going to Rome. Festina lente, On, slow. LONDON : SEELEY AND BUKNSIDE, 172, FLEET-STKEET. MDCCCXUI. HB<* DURHAM : PRINTED BY "P. HUMBLiC AND SON, SADDLER-STREET. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Dedication : Anxiety to obtain the patronage of the Bishop of London to the " Tractarian British Critics" — who are not Fadladeens - - - - - i -xv. Introduction : Object of the following work - - - - i.-ii. Reasons for concealing my name ... iii. Superiority of the education at Oxford over that of Cam bridge - - - - - - v. " Unprotestantizing" the National Church our great de sign - - - - - viii. Bonner as much a Saint as Becket - - - ix. * " The Sin of 1688" must be removed - - - x. Difference between the Tractarians and the Ultra-Protes tants on the teaching of the Church - - xii. * SECTION I. FROM THE BIRTH OF BONNER TO THE DEATH OF HENRY VIII. Birth of Bonner - - - - - - 1 Protestantism essentially unchristian - - 2 Stuart principles to be restored - - - - 3 Bonner admitted at Broadgate Hall, Oxford - - 4 Aristotle the favourite study of Oxford - - - 5 The Anti-Protestant seeks peace not truth - - - 6 Bonner takes his degrees in law - - - - 7 takes orders — appointed to several benefices - 8 attends Wolsey at Cawood - - - 10 wounded by the fall of Wolsey's Cross - - 1 1 recommended by Cromwell, after the death of Wolsey, to the notice of Henry VIII. - - - 12 appointed Secretary to Sir E. Karne, at Rome - 13 iv. TABLE OF CONTENTS. TAGE Bonner sent to the Pope at Marseilles — his boldness - 16 appointed to other embassies - - - 1 8 Bonner's bold reply to the King of France - - - 19 Monachism, or dissent unavoidable - - - 20 The Bible alone, not the sole rule in fundamentals - - 21 Blows which destroyed Anti-Protestantism - - - 22 The Tractarians agree with Bonner and Froude in many points - - 24 Bonner writes the Preface to Gardiner's book, de vera, obe dientia ... - - 28 The Church Catholic, not scripture, the guide of the people - 29 Bucer the adviser of the Reformers - - - 32 Bonner elevated to the Episcopate - 34 the representative of Christ • - - 35 The Bible an Ultra-Protestant book - - - 37 St. Paul an Ultra-Protestant - - - - 38 Three religious parties in England - - 39 Bonner the first Bishop who derived his episcopal authority from the' King - - - • - 41 Conduct of Bonner as a Bishop ... 45 Conduct of Bonner to Cromwell - - - 47 Retrogradation to be very gradual - - - - 5 1 Bonner's commission to try heretics - - - 52 zeal against heresy - - - - 53 Bishops, though our Saviour's representatives, ought not to curse and swear - - - - - 55 Bishops might whip by tradition - - - 56 Conditions on which the Bible was placed in the Churches - 57 Bishop Longland more severe than Bonner - - 59 Bonner's injunctions to his Clergy - - - 60 Preaching an inferior means of grace - - 61 Bonner not an Ultra-Protestant - - - - 62 endeavours to save Anne Ascue - - - 63 Form of Protestant recantation •• - - 67 Priests make the body, and they make the blood of Christ - 68 Bonner restrained the licentiousness of the press - - 69 Foxe's book of Martyrs must be prohibited - 71 Death of Henry VIII. - - - - - 72 TABLE OF CONTENTS. V. SECTION II. FROM THE ACCESSION TO THE fiEATH OF EDWARD VI., A.D. 1547-1553. Bonner and Gardiner more beloved by Froude and by his friends than Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, or Jewell ..... 73-77 — hated and opposed the Reformation - 78-80 Bonner's episcopal commission from Henry VIII. - - 81 Cranmer's archiepiscopal commission from Edward VI. - 82 public protestation against the oath to the Pope - 83 Bonner's opposition to Cranmer - - - - 84 Tractarians advocate prayers for the dead - - - 85 Archbishop Usher an Ultra-Protestant - - - 86 The soul of Henry VIII. needed Bonner's prayers - - 87 Rashness of the Reformation - - - - 88 Bonner imprisoned for. freedom of enquiry - - - 89 obeys Cranmer's injunctions - - - 90 hated the foreign reformers - - - 9 1 Rehgious anarchy of the day - - - - 92 Cranmer an Ultra-Protestant - - - -93 Bonner's faith preferable to Cranmer's - - - 95 The Clergy t&be paid.for praying for the dead - - 96 The first service book of King Edward - - - 97 The present liturgy a national punishment - - - 98 the language of servants - - 99 Bonner submits to, but dislikes the new changes - 101 Bonner's principles those of " Tract ninety" - - 103 Tractarianism must succeed - - - 104 The intimidation of Bonner the cause of the death of Joan Boucher - - - - - 106 Bonner commanded to abrogate masses - HO to preach at St. Paul's Cross - - 114 preaches on the corporal presence - - 115 Commission issued against Bonner - - 1 1 6 Bonner despises his judges - - - - 1 1 9 Bonner's first appearance before Cranmer - - - 120 Bonner ridicules his accusers - - - - 121 protests against the commission - - - 1 22 VI. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Bonner objects to the witnesses - - - - 123 Cranmer loses his temper - - - - - 124 Heresy a burnable offence - - - - 125 First service book of King Edward preferable to the second - 127 Cranmer denies that he is a heretic - - - 129 Bonner's defence of his sermon - - - - 130 Bonner refuses to plead further - - - - 131 A second reformation required - - - - 132 Becket a blessed Saint and Martyr - - - 133 Kings inferior to Bishops - - - - 1 34 Bonner indignant with Cranmer - - - - 135 Bonner comforts his chaplains - - - - 136 Firmness of Bonner compared with that of Hough - - 137 The Revolution of 1688 " a great sin" - - - 138 Bonner willing to suffer martyrdom - - - 139 The wretched Reformers to be hated - - - 141 Definition of orthodoxy and heresy ... 142 Rome not Antichrist ..... 144 Elijah, St. John, HUdebrand, Becket, and Innocent were all reformers - - - - - 145 Balaam's ass illustrates Ultra- Protestantism - - 146 Balaam a Protestant - - - - -147 Bonner in the Marshalsea .... 148 The second book of King Edward - - - 149 Illness of Edward - - - - -151 SECTION III. FROM THE ACCESSION OF MARY, JULY 6th OR 22nd, 1553, TO HER DEATH, NOVEMBER 17th, 1558. Accession of Mary - - - - -153 Bonner's chaplain preaches at St. Paul's Cross - - 156 Mary's toleration and gentleness - - - - 157 Bonner restored to his bishopric - - - - 159 Bonner's contempt of Ridley - - - - 1 6 1 Bonner not free from faults - - - - 1 62 Our reasons for defending Bonner are, that our objects and opinions are the same - - - - 1 63 Bonner defended by Froude - - - - 164 TABLE OF CONTENTS. PARR The objects of the Tractarians the same as those of Bonner - 1 65 Bonner hated the present prayer-book - . - 1 65 " Tracts" written against the prayer-book - - - 1 69 The Tractarians and Bonner would restore altars - - 1 70 The opinions of the Tractarians and of Bonner the same - 171 Priests make the body and blood of Christ - - 172 Bonner and the Tractarians hate the Ordination Service - 1 73 Communion Service - 174 Bonner, Ourselves, and Froude agree on the worship of Saints 1 75 Prayers for the dead ought to be restored - - 176 The word " altar" preferable to the word "table" - - 177 The Scriptures permissible in churches, though the Scriptures alone are " a trumpery rule qf faith" - - 178 Preaching to be cautious and guarded - - - 178 The atonement to be taught with reserve - - - 1 79 Bonner never preached the atonement prominently - - 1 79 did not value preaching - - - - 1 80 loved visible unity - - - - 181 hated the German reformers - - - 181 Italian fiddling preferable to German heresy - - 1 82 Bonner preferred Spaniards and Italians to Germans - 183 Bonner's and Mary's one only of four attempts to restore Popery - - - - - -184 The "poisoning system" recommended by Froude - - 184 The hateful Ultra-Protestants opposed to this system - 185 The best mode of changing the religion of a nation - 187 The five parts of the plan for changing religion — 1 . The religion of the ruler to be considered as a pious opinion only; without attempting to change the public faith 1 87 2. Change to be begun by influence - - - — 3. Change to be attempted by law - - - — 4. Reconciliation with Rome - - - - — 5. Change to be enforced by severity - - - — 1. The first attempt by Bonner and Mary to introduce the poisoning system - - - - 188 Bonner, as a pious opinion, deprecates preaching against Rome 191 2. Bonner next attempts to change opinion by influence — Pro testants to be treated with contempt - - 193 table of contents. PAGE James the Second governs for a time by influence - 194 Mary..uses influence before she begins the change in the public law - - - - - - -195 3. Bonner and Mary begin the third part of the "poisoning" system to change the national religion by few - 196 Popery to be always abused, if we hope to change Protestant ism to Popery - - - - - 197 Address to the clergy, and to the youth, of the University of Oxford - - - - - 198 The active minority always governs the inert majority of a country - - - - - -199 Mary, James the Second, Parsons, and ourselves, depend upon a House of Commons, to restore the antient faith ^ - ... 201 Bonner and the Convocation reject the present prayer-book 203 Bonner's chaplain describes the Ultra-Protestants - - 204 Speech of Weston in the convocation might now be printed as a " Tract for the Times" - 207 Bonner praises the speech of Weston 209 Conduct of Bonner before the reconciliation with Rome - 210 to his Ultra-Protestant prisoners 211 No Ultra-Protestants were burnt till after the reconciliation with Rome - 214 Bonner restores processions — visits his diocese - - 215 erases texts from church walls - 216 enforces auricular confession . 220 is comjnanded to enforce the law - 223 affirms that Priests make Christ 224 strikes a gentleman - 226 ¦ — issues thirty-seven articles of enquiry - 227 ¦ — adopts the same four standards of orthodoxy as the Tractarians - 228 considers the prayer-book a judgment on the church 229 and Gardiner hated the prayer-book - 231 considers the prayer-book schismatical - 233 4. The fourth stage of the Froudian or poisoning system — reconciliation with Rome — begun by Mary and Bon ner - - 234 TABLE of contents. PAGB Whether the Tractarians are moving towards Rome 236 Parsons, Mary, and James the Second recommended and commenced reconciliation with Rome - - 237 The parliament reconciled to Rome - 238 Courteous and gentle language to be used towards Rome on all occasions ¦ - ... 239 Reconcihation with Rome to be again anticipated - 240 Pole's speech at the reconciliation merely a " Tractarian ad dress" - - . - - 241 The parliament unanimously desire the reconcihation 243 Absolution pronounced by Cardinal Pole - - - 244 received by the parliament on their knees 245 Gardiner prays for Bonner - - - - 246 The clergy absolved from their schism by Cardinal Pole - 247 5. The fifth stage of the " poisoning" system — severity, begun by Mary and Bonner - 247 Church severity is not persecution - - - 248 Mary, Parsons, and James the Second adopt severity after the reconcihation with Rome - "251 Causes of the supposed severity of Bonner 254 Bonner upheld the " Unity of the church" - - 255 Protestantism proved to be worse than Paganism, and the consequent duty to " unprotestantize" the nation 257 Contract between Rome and England - - - 258 Contracts were always confirmed by blood - 259 Bonner only the chief servant at the altar on which the Pro testant sacrifices were offered - ' - 259 Analysis of the conduct of Bonner during the severities which foUowed the reconcUiation with Rome — 1 . The object of the Queen and Council ; 2. The stimulants to his zeal; 3. His gentleness ; 4. His supposed harshness ; and 5. The causes which prevented the success of the severities - - - 260 1 . Objects of Bonner and the Queen in their severities — how far the same as those of the Tractarians - 261 All Protestants are weak or vulgar 263 Bonner treated all Protestants as vulgar 266 X. TABLE of contents. PAGE We also, the Tractarians, despise them, and sympathize with Bonner in his contempt . - .268 " The unity of the church" the object of Bonner, Mary, and ourselves - ' - 269 Bonner and ourselves believe, that individuals are never right against the church - - 271 Ancestor of Mr. Newman burnt for Protestantism - 272 more Protestant than his descend ant - - 273 Contrast between the two John Newmans - 274 Ancestor of Dr. Hook burnt for Protestantism - - 276 Bonner questions the prisoners on the Eucharist - 278 The prayer-book not clear on the Eucharist 279 Bonner burns the Ultra-Protestants for their opinions on the Eucharist - - - - 282 Bonner and ourselves how far agreed on the Eucharist 284 Another object of Bonner to restore prayers for the dead 285 Bonner questions the Ultra-Protestants on prayers for the dead - ... 286 The Tractarians teach praying for the dead - 287 Bonner visits the dying Gardiner - - 289 Bonner prays for the soul of Gardiner - - 290 did not pray for Ridley and Latimer - 294 Whether Becket, to whom Bonner prayed, heard his prayers 295 Bonner's prayers for Gardiner, reflections on . 298 Vision resulting from Bonner's prayer for Gardiner 300 Bonner desires with us a better liturgy . . 301 derides the Ultra-Protestants for their attachment to the prayer-book - . - 302 an enemy to the schism, and prayer-book of Edward 304 2. Bonner's manner of his proceedings against the Ultra- Protestants - 306 Bonner is reprimanded for his gentleness - 307 the conscientious executioner - - - 308 reluctant to shed blood - . - 313 not the instigator of the burnings - 314 not responsible for the laws 322 Bonner's magistrates send him prisoners . 323 TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGR 3. He is unjustly called the bloody Bonner - - - 325 Bonner not to be blamed but the law - . . 326 4. Bonner, on the harshness imputed to - - 329 Bonner was often uncourteous - 330 opposed to the marriage of the clergy - 332 insulted by an Ultra-Protestant . - - 334 conduct of, in degrading Cranmer - - 336 zealous not cruel - - - - -339 burns seven Ultra-Protestants to prevent tumult - 340 threatens to burn more Ultra-Protestants - 342 rather uncourteous in his expressions - - 343 justified by the fathers, antiquity, tradition, and the canon law, in beating, whipping, caning, and flogging the young and ignoble Ultra-Protestants . 344 Bishops not being permitted to flog the Ultra- Protestants, a proof of the degeneracy of the present age 346 5. Bonner only desired, as we do, to " unprotestantize" the English nation . - 347 SECTION IV. FROM THE ACCESSION OP ELIZABETH TO THE DEATH OF BONNER, 1669. Elizabeth's injustice to Bonner - - 349 Bonner and the Bishops refuse to crown Elizabeth - 352 commanded to give up the robes used by the Bishops of London in crowning the Sovereign - - 353 EUzabeth commands the Convocation to make no new Canons — new definition of heresy - - - 354 Papal authority, &c, suppressed - - - 355 The prayer-book, &c, restored - 356 Bonner opposes the changes - - - - 357 objects to Ridley's leases - - 360 rejects the oath of supremacy - - - 361 Conference between Elizabeth and the Bishops - 362 Bonner again committed to the Marshalsea - - 364 Resolute conduct of Ehzabeth respecting the appointment of Bishops, &c, &c. ¦ ¦ 366 Bonner and his brethren oppose the Queen 368 reproved by Elizabeth - - " - 369 Xll. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGF Bonner's firmness and consistency 370 Bonner refuses to acknowledge Home to be the true Bishop of Winchester - " - - 372 anecdotes of 377 Death of Bonner - - - 378 He is buried privately - - 379 No monument yet raised to his memory - 380 Conclusion — A Life of Bonner required 381 Oxford in 1841 - - 382 DEDICATION. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND CHARLES JAMES BLOMFIELD, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. My Lord, I presume to dedicate the following pages to your Lordship, without previously soliciting permis sion to do so ; because I am most anxious to obtain the favor, approbation, and patronage of your Lord ship, to the opinions and labors of the " Tractarian " British Critics." Nearly ten years have elapsed since I and my brethren, lamenting the sad condi tion to which the Church was reduced by the detes table Ultra-Protestants of the day, resolved to en deavour to restore the pristine regard to external religion, to direct the public attention to the antient observances of the primitive Churches, to re-set the limb of the Reformation, to go back nearer to Rome, though without submitting to the Papal su- XIV. DEDICATION. premacy altogether, or fully embracing the articles of the Council of Trent. The time has not yet arrived, for our deciding how far we shall go ; but we have resolved to commence our progress back towards Rome, by adopting the principles of Bonner and Gardiner ; and of many other eminent, though much calumniated Prelates who opposed the present Prayer-book of the Church, the second Ser vice-book of King Edward ; on account of the omis sions which render it dissimilar to the venerable liturgies of antiquity. We have begun to wage war with our Prayer-book, because it has omitted prayers for the dead, the doctrine of an actual and undefinable sacrifice in the Eucharist, the use of altars, the exor cism of the devil from the infant in baptism, and the use ofthe chrism in the same sacred ceremony. I have pointed out the miserable state of the Prayer-book in these respects, in my Tracts and Reviews ; and I have considered in my survey of the conduct of Bonner, during the reign of the pious Mary, the best mode of once more changing the religion of the coun try. The venerable Bonner, your Lordship's pre decessor in the See of London, was most anxious to destroy the influence of the present Prayer- book ; to do away communion tables ; to restore DEDICATION. XV. altars, candles, vestments, and ceremonies which our wretched Ultra-Protestant innovators, I will not call them Reformers, abolished and destroyed. He was anxious to restore Prayers for the Dead, the actual Sacrifice, and the Holy Canon of the Mass. All these things, I and my brethren are eagerly desirous to restore. In all these points we agree with the venerable Bonner. Whether it be, that the name of Bonner is odious to your Lordship's episcopal brethren, or that they are not yet prepared to se cond our useful and reasonable projects, I cannot say ; but so it is that, in carrying out our plans, we have found ourselves opposed and thwarted by many, from whom we more pecuharly anticipated protec tion and defence. Anxious as we have been on all occasions to declare our veneration for the Bishops of the Church, to defer to their ofiice, to declare them to be the successors of the Apostles, and the representatives of Christ ; we have not found one Bishop ofthe Anglican Church, who has ventured to become our partizan, supporter, or friend. One wise American Bishop alone is said to be the only episco pal upholder of our projected changes, and our pro posed schemes of good. In these afflicting circum stances, I have thought it advisable to endeavour to XVI. DEDICATION. obtain, by one bold effort, the countenance ofthe suc cessor of the apostolical Bonner in the See of Lon don, and to solicit his candid consideration of our efforts. Though your Lordship, equally with Bon ner, is the successor of the Apostles, your Lordship up to this time resembles that illustrious Anti-Pro testant, neither in principles, temper, severity, zeal, nor energy. You have been contented with the pa tient administration of the discipline of the Church, without innovation or change. You have taught its doctrines without qualifying or doubting them. You have proposed no novel opinions, whether by reviving those that are obsolete, or introducing those that are unknown before. You have withheld your ex press condemnation, however, from us, though you have not publicly approved of us. Permit me then, my Lord, to beg you to read our Tracts, to study our Reviews, to ponder the pages of Froude, our great hierophant, and to become a convert to the revival of the primitive customs, practices, and institutions of the purer ages of antiquity. If your Lordship says that you are satisfied with the Church as it is, and demand by what criteria you may form your con clusions ofthe expediency, and utility, of the customs and doctrines we propose to revive ; I implore your DEDICATION. XVII. Lordship, not to be still guilty ofthe Ultra- Protestan tism which is contented with what is called the Refor mation ; and never with the miserable Ultra- Protestant to seek to know the expediency or the utility only of an ecclesiastical rite, ceremony, or ordinance. I beg your Lordship to consider with us, not whether it be useful or expedient ; but whether it be antient, and sanctioned by antiquity and tradition — whether it be sanctioned by that one beloved rule of Vincentius Lirinensis — " quod semper, quod ab omnibus, quod " ubique." If we can prove that any custom was engrafted upon the four earliest Liturgies of the Church, and was thus adopted always, by all people, and everywhere ; then, I trust, your Lordship will agree with me, that such custom, whether it be use ful and expedient or not, is of apostolic origin, and, therefore, it ought to be retained in all the Churches throughout all England. Your Lordship will ask, where such custom can be found. I and my brethren have endeavoured to prove that Prayers for the Dead, the actual Sacrifice, the Chrism, and many other things, though I cannot prove them to be certainly of Scriptural origin, may be defended upon these principles. There is, how ever, one antient custom, which I have not yet in fo XV111. DEDICATION. sisted upon in my Tracts and Reviews, which com bines all, every one of the criteria which I mention, and which I do therefore humbly trust your Lord ship will immediately cause to be revived in St. Paul's Cathedral, and in all the Churches of the Diocese of London. It is this — the custom of the Clergyman to kiss his congregation. We have Scriptural authority for its origin — " Greet ye one another with a holy kiss," (1 Thess. v., 26; 1 Peter v., 14.) We have the authority for this custom of the four holy antient Liturgies, which we believe, in spite of many undoubted innovations, to have been deduced from the Apostles, or from their immediate successors ; the very same Liturgies which teach us that there is an actual Sacrifice in the Eucharist, and which contain a prayer that " God will make the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ."* St. Peter's Liturgy, which is the Roman, Milanese, and Afri can : St. James's Liturgy, which is the Oriental : St. Mark's Liturgy, which is the Egyptian and Ethio pian : St, John's Liturgy, which is the Gallican, Ephesian, and Mozarabic ; all command the kiss of peace, as well as prayers for the dead. The eighth * See Mr. Palmer's work on Liturgies, and Tracts for the Times, G3-8, &c. DEDICATION. XIX. book of the Apostolical constitutions,* the earliest collected laws of the Church, commands the Deacon, at the time of the consecration of the bread and wine, to say to the people, " Salute ye one another with an holy kiss," and then the Clergy salute the Bishop : laymen, laymen : women, women : while the Deacons walk about and see that there be no tumult. The giving of the kiss of peace is alluded to by Chrysostom ;| by Cyril, of Jerusalem ; J by Justin Martyr ;§ fre quently by Augustine ; || and frequently also by Tertullian.^]" Tertullian tells us, that the kiss was given promiscuously, and without distinction, by men and women, though some scrupled to give the kiss on a fast day.** In short, there is no one antient ceremony which so entirely unites all the criteria of the propriety of its establishment among us. " It was an antient rite," says Bingham, " universally ob served in the Church." It combines in its favour, Scripture, tradition, antiquity, universality. It was observed by all the antient Christians, every where, * Lib. 8, c. II. f Hom. 3, in Coloss., p. 1388. X Cyril, Catech. Mybt., N. 2. § Just., Apol., p. 97. || Hom. 83, de diversis, T. 1 0, p. 556. ^f Ad Uxor., Lib. 2, cap. 4. ** See Bingham, book xv., cap. iii., sect, iii., and his references. XX. DEDICATION. at all times, in the purer and pattern ages of the Church. I trust, therefore, that your Lordship will not enquire into the usefulness, propriety, or expe diency of the custom ; but act upon our principles, and revive the custom, because it was antient and universal. If your Lordship will thus far be guided by our plans of endeavouring to restore the antient rites, and the external ordinances of the Church — if your Lordship will but issue an order, (for there is no law in our Church to the contrary,) that immediately after the prayer of the consecration at the Sacra ment, the Clergy, the men, and the women, the old and the young, shall all get up, go round the Church, and kiss each other — if the wise, reasonable, and or thodox principles of myself and my friends be thus far carried out by the Bishop of London ; then I shall not despair of hearing that he has followed the example of Bonner in endeavouring to restore the actual Sacrifice in the Eucharist, in condemning the modern Prayer-book, and in commanding pray ers for the dead. If we can but make a convert of your Lordship, we shall soon win the bench of Bishops, the Clergy, the orthodox, and eventually all the people, excepting always the contemptible Ultra-Protestant. DEDICATION. XXI. Unless we thus obtain some decided encourage ment on the part ofthe Episcopal heads ofthe Church, we cannot, I fear, hope to do away with the Prayer- book, and re-set the limb of the Reformation. There fore I make my present appeal to your Lordship. 1 cannot occupy your Lordship's time by describing the annoying and vexatious contents of the various letters I receive from the readers of my ninety Tracts, the sixty numbers of my Review, and my volumes of Froude's Remains. Some are filled with hatred, others with the sternest language of insult, reproach, and contempt. Some approve and bless us, others abound with irony and painful distress. Some use the language of grief, others of threatening and scorn. I cannot do more than allude to them. If your Lordship, however, will but patronize us, all that is odious and insolent will cease. I confess that we are anxious to be regarded by posterity, with affection and respect ; and I shall therefore only mention further, one calamity of which the prospect afflicts me. It is the declaration of some unknown correspondent, that he will brand myself and my brethren with a name which shall make us the scorn of our own day, and the sport, and laughing-stock of posterity. It is to save us from such a fate, that XXII. DEDICATION. I do most earnestly implore the intervention of your Lordship. Your Lordship, then, is aware that I and my brethren uniformly prefer the religion of our brethren of the Church of Rome, to the religion of those vile Ultra- Protectants. One of the members of that Church, a gentleman of whose religion in deed I never heard much more than that he was, as we are, a decided Anti-Protestant, published many years ago, a poem called " Lalla Rookh." It is not probable that your Lordship's graver studies have ever been interrupted by the perusal of this book, which I read when I was a young man. I venture, therefore, to tell you, that a certain character is in troduced in the preliminary account of the persons who take a part in the action of the poem, whose name is " Fadladeen." Fadladeen is represented as criticizing and condemning all that is animated, great, noble, or poetical, in the dullest of dull criticism. He is described as forming his opinions and conduct upon the sentiment of Sadi the poet—" Should the " Prince at noon-day say it is night; declare that you " behold the moon and the stars." The letter to which I refer, unkindly and rudely denounces me and my brethren, as the Fadladeens of theology and of the Church. " You dare not, you will not," says the DEDICATION. XXlli. anonymous writer, "judge of institutions by their*' " usefulness, of ceremonies by their fitness, of doc- " trines by their truth, and of men by their since- " rity. You seek only what the Church says — you " seek only what is antient, and you imagine it must " be adapted to the present age, because it was sanc- " tioned by antiquity. You are as unable to appre- " ciate the lofty motives, the pure religion, the holy " zeal, the undaunted courage ofthe men, who sought " only for usefulness and truth ; when they estab- " lished our ecclesiastical institutions, preserved a " certain number only of the more significant cere- " monies, embodied their doctrines into our articles "for their truth alone, and estimated and valued " their countrymen for their holy, sincere, and reso- "lute determination to establish that form of Chris- " tianity, which should be desecrated neither by the " unmeaning relics of antiquity, nor by the caprici- " ous novelties of modernity — You are as unable to " understand and value the greatness of heart of the " martyred compilers of the English Prayer-book, " as Fadladeen v/as unable to appreciate the tender- " ness, the gentleness, the harmony, and the sweet- " ness of the poetry of Feramorz. You and your " brethren," says our insulter, " may succeed for a XXIV. DEDICATION. '?time in dividing the Clergy of the Church of Eng- " land on the merits, or demerits of the useful or " useless innovations you propose to them. You may " remain in the Church and repent ; or you may " leave the Church and go down to the religious "vanity-fair of the old city of the Anti- Christian " Babylon. But the Reformers, Ultra- Protestant as " they were, by God's blessing upon their labours, " have so built the walls of our Jerusalem, that the " daughter of Zion despises the new schismatical " enemy, and laughs it to scorn. Go down, then, " to posterity as the revivers of a schism, and as the " Ultra- Anti -Protestant schismatics of the hour: " but this shall be the sentence of that posterity upon " you — That, whereas, all other schisms, and all " other schismatics, are known by some term derived " from the opinions they avow, or from the leader they " follow ; you who profess no new opinions, but " those that are obsolete, useless, or exploded ; and " to follow no leader, whose name can dignify your " folly — your schism shall be known, and your title " shall be derived, from their resemblance to the opi- " nions and to the character, which one of the most " decided Ultra- Anti-Protestants of the day has ima- " gined and depictured. Your schism shall be Fad- DEDICATION. XXV. " ladeenery, and yourselves shall be the sect of the " Fadladeens." — Here the letter ended. From this fate, I trust your Lordship will preserve us. I only know that, if anything will drive us downward more rapidly to Rome, than we are now going, it will be such unjust contempt as this. We do not desire, at present at least, to go so far as to Rome : but I warn those, who thus treat us, that they will be the cause of our joining the Church of Rome, if we should be induced to be reconciled to that " soothing," though sometimes severe, mother. We have not yet taken that step. If we do, I am sure that many would imi tate our example ; for our writings have been very in fluential, and they have prepared the way for a great change. If the dominion of His Holiness be ever re stored in England, such contempt as this will recoil on its Ultra- Protestant authors. If it should ever so be, that the Papal supremacy be revived among us, I am sure that the people will never forget that its best introducer, supporter, and friend, was your Lord ship's obliged and faithful friend and servant, "A TRACTARIAN BRITISH CRITIC." October 23rd, Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola. INTRODUCTION. Many of the misguided Ultra-Protestants, who have so long deceived both themselves and the people, by eulogizing the Reformation and the Revolution, have been accustomed to pronounce the character and conduct of Edmund Bonner, to be totally incapable of defence. These persons will profess to be surprized at the object of the following work. I shall not, however, be prevented either by their surprize, or their censure, from attempt ing to vindicate this distinguished Prelate, from the calumnies and misrepresentations of his numerous and unsparing enemies. To rescue, indeed, the name of a Bishop from unjust odium — to prove the absolute necessity of the supposed severities, by which he endeavoured to prevent the extension of the opinions of the foreign Reformers, among the deluded people of England — to justify the Catholic opinions 11. INTRODUCTION. he entertained, respecting both the giving the Scriptures to the people, and the folly of imagin ing that the ignorant mechanic and peasant, because he reads his Bible, or hears it read in the Churches, is able to form conclusions re specting God and the soul, which shall be right and acceptable to God — to vindicate the wise and holy decisions of Bishop Bonner, who endeavoured to restore to the country, that service of the Mass, which we, the Trac tarian British Critics, deem, in spite of mo dern popular prejudice, to be worthy of such restoration* — to defend, in short, the general conduct of a Bishop, whose opinions were nearly the same as our own, and whose prin ciples we generally approve ; might perhaps be expected from us, by those who have read our Oxford Tracts, and our Articles in the British Critic, or Quarterly Theological Review. Some of our number, it is true, will shrink from encountering the abundant prejudice which envelopes the name of Bishop Bonner. I am not one of them. I perceive that there is a very extraordinary agree ment between the conclusions and opinions of Bishop Bonner, and ourselves. Others * Froudc's Remains, vol. I., p. 387. INTRODUCTION. 111. may shrink from declaring this. I shall not. I am prepared to carry out my principles. We have already made a considerable sensa tion in the country. We have astonished some, and confounded others. Though the Bishops of Chester, Winchester, Durham, Ripon, Lich field, Ohio, Virginia, the Archishop, we grieve to say, and even the present successor of Bishop Bonner himself, have condemned the chief of our conclusions ; we have convinced many, ofthe expediency and necessity of so re forming our Church, that it shall again adopt the principles of the illustrious Bonner. If it be asked who I am — I answer in the words of the first of those Tracts which have produced so much controversy — " / am hut one of your selves, a Presbyter ; and therefore I conceal my name, lest I take too much on myself by speak ing in my own person — yet speak I must, for the times are very evil, yet no one speaks against them."* The knowledge of my name cannot be necessary to the more effectual reception of the Truths I wish to inculcate. From Tract 1 to Tract 90 — and in very many of the Articles in the British Critic, I have en deavoured to remove the evil of the times in * Tract 1, Sept. 9, 1833. IV. INTRODUCTION. which I live, and to speak against them. I shall continue these efforts. By shewing that Jewell, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, were, as bad as " irreverend dissenters,"* wavering apostates, rude preachers, and inconsistent religionists, I have, already, weakened the pillars of the Reformation ; and I shall now proceed to strengthen the principles to which these persons were opposed, by shewing that Bonner, the great enemy of them all, was nei ther an " irreverend dissenter," nor in any res pect like these men ; but that he was a learned civilian, a profound Canonist, a strenuous sup porter of the traditions and commandments of the Church, and worthy of as much appro bation as any other of his learned, grave, re verend, and episcopal coadjutors. The " Re formation is a broken limb," as my friend Froude says, " badly set"\ — and we require such sur geons as Bonner to break this limb again, and to set it once more, though the patient may suffer much in the operation. Not only, too, am I actuated by a just and holy zeal for the credit of the apostolic succession, and of * My dear friend Froude applies this name, justly, to Jewell. Remains, vol. 1, p. 380. j- Froude's Remains, vol. 1, p. 483. INTRODUCTION. V. the succession of those Bishops of London, who were very different men from the present and late occupiers of that See ; but I am jea lous for the honor and credit of the noble Uni versity of Oxford, of which Bishop Bonner was a learned and eminent member. The chief of the Reformers were Cambridge men. Wycliffe, it is true, was of Oxford, as were many others. But the principal portion of the disgrace of giving such men as Cranmer and Latimer to the world, proceeds from Cam bridge. The great difference between the religious and philosophical education which is given at Oxford, and that which is given at Cambridge, consists in this. At Oxford the tutors endeavour to bias the mind by authority — at Cambridge by evidence. At Oxford we have much of Aristotle, and less of Locke and Paley — at Cambridge the modern Christian metaphysicians are preferred to the antient Pagan. At Oxford we laudably endeavour to repress the exercise of private judgment : for the reasons which I have given already in the pages of the British Critic* — at Cambridge they so teach young men to think freely, that their tutors may be said to be responsible for * No. 59, July, 184-1. Article, Private Judgment. vi. INTRODUCTION. the very errors which result from the mistaken liberty. At Oxford we remember that " an act of private judgment is in its very idea an act of individual responsibility, and that this is a consi deration which ivill come with especial force on a conscientious mind when it is to have so fearful an issue as a change of religion— for — a religi ous man will say to himself ' If I am in error at present, I am in error by a disposition of Providence, which has placed me where I am : and if I change into an error this is my own act — it is much less fearful to be born at disadvantage, than to place myself at disadvantage'"*. We dare not, therefore, increase the fearfulness of Man's responsibility. We teach our young men, if they are born in error, to remain in error, rather than incur the risk of going wrong, if God has not placed them right at the time of their birth-f- — whereas, at Cambridge, the Tutors are prevented by no scruples of this kind, from inculcating on the minds of their pupils, that Christianity is so founded upon evidence, and the Church is so capable of defence because of its intrinsic value, that every man may be safely left to his own bold and free judgment, on the merits both of * British Critic, No. 51, page 105. -J- Ibid. INTRODUCTION. VII. Christianity, and of its institutions. They first teach what they believe to be truth ; they then teach their young men to reason for them selves ; and they thus increase responsibility, instead of lessening it. Bonner, as an Oxford divine, would have enforced the teaching which I recommend. Bonner would have said " that if he as a religious man were in error, by a disposi tion of Providence," he might go more wrong by endeavormg to change his opinion, than by remaining in his error. This was Bonner's conviction. The manner in which he acted upon that conviction, however conscientious I can prove him to have been, gives offence to modern Churchmen, and especially to the Ultra- Protestants. I and my friends hope, by steady perseverance as " British Critics," to change the common prejudices on these points ; and to restore as much as possible the opinions and practices of this venerable, and calumniated, Bishop. The time has ar rived when I must speak more plainly than I have hitherto done — " / am ready to endure, however I may lament, the undeniable and in themselves disastrous effects of the pending con troversy."* I have used the word, and I shall * British Critic, No. 59, p. 45. Vin. INTRODUCTION. not retract it — my object and that of my friends is to " unprotestantize the na tional church* / use an offensive, but for- cible word," to describe our great and noble de sign. " We cannot stand where we are ; we must go backwards or forwards ; and it will surely be the latter. It is absolutely necessary towards the consistency of the system, which certain par ties are labouring to restore, that truths should be clearly stated, which as yet have been but in timated; and others developed which are now but in germ. And, as we go on, we must RECEDE MORE AND MORE FROM THE PRINCI PLES, if any such there be, of the English Ref or motion. "f But if we unprotestantize the nation, we romanize, or papalize the nation : and our object, therefore, is, in other words, I will not deny it, though others may — our object is, to " restore the Antient Religion" — which Bonner professed and encouraged ; for which he used so much severity against the Ultra- Protestants ; and for which he died in prison. The sad circumstances, however, in which we are placed render it necessary to restore it by degrees. " Medicine is never so unpalatable as when sipped. Besides, it is in its * British Critic, No. 59, page 45. f Ibid. INTRODUCTION. IX. integrity only, and not in its isolated portions that Catholicism has promise of subduing the intellects, and engrossing the hearts of men, to the discomfiture of all rival claimants, and the preclusion of all inferior influences. At the present time any suggestion seems worth hazard ing, which, in minds to which it may chance to commend itself, may operate towards a consider ate estimate of the difficulties and temptations of those who differ from us."* Neither am I jealous only of the honor of the University of which Edmund Bonner was an illustrious member : I am anxious to prove that his holy zeal, Anti-Protestant opinions, animated severity, and uniform regard of the ordinances of the Catholic Church, render Bonner as certainly worthy of the sacred title of Saint, as those whom I have already called by that desirable name. He is undoubtedly as much a Saint, as Thomas Beckett. I have called this holy man a " blessed Saint and Martyr of the Most High" and I have expressed " my indignation, at hearing this blessed Saint slan dered" by Bishop Jewell, an Ultra-Protestant " Teacher of yesterday ;"f when he affirms, * British Critic, No. 59, page 45. f British Critic, No. 59, page 42. X. INTRODUCTION. with his prejudiced party, that " the true cause of Beckett's death was his ambition, vanity, and wilful maintenance of manifest wicked ness in the Clergy." I have also in the same page of my favorite Review boldly call ed the firm and zealous Hildebrand the " Pre decessor of St. Thomas of Canterbury in the same holy cause, another Saint of the Most High." No censure has been passed upon me for so doing. No Ultra-Protestant has raised his voice, or drawn his pen, against this bold step in our progress towards " un- protestantizing" the National Church. Whether this silence proceeds from astonish ment at our just decidedness, or from affect ed contempt, or from incipient approbation, or from deep and loathing anger and in dignation, I neither know nor care. This only I know, that I am resolved to proceed, till the Church of England adopts our princi ples, or excludes us from its communion. I and my friends are determined to go on till the " Sin of 1688"* is removed — till the " un- * The Revolution of 1688 is thus denominated by my dear friend, Dr Pusey, in his Sermon preached at St Mary's, Oxford. The effects of that sin, though it brought the Hanover Family to the throne, must be removed at all hazards. It is as I have said, the " Rebellion of 1688, when the Church sustained the great INTRODUCTION. Xl. churching" of " the Anglicans by the Protestant ism which has mixed itself up with their ecclesias tical proceedings," is done away — till the union of the Church and State, as an establishment, is no longer the subject of boasting. We are intent upon convincing the people that " to be a mere establishment is unworthy of the Ca tholic Church, and to be shut out from the rest of Christendom is not a subject of boasting."* The Ultra-Protestant may believe that Eng land is the Canaan of God in the latter times ; and that the union of the Churches of the Holy Catholic Church of Christ, of which the prophets seem to speak, may be effected by the coming in of the nations to the Light, Liberty, Church, and Religion of England. We believe that such union will take place by the going down of England, back again, to many of the opinions, and to much of the dis cipline of Rome, which England has rejected. The Ultra- Protestant may absurdly make the real or the supposed faults of the Apostolical Succession a cause for a Christian's depending loss of Christian principle ; and wlien she threw, as it were, out qf her pale, Christ crucified (together with Kenn andKettlewell). A low tone of morals has ever since pervaded tier teaching." See my Tract No. 80, page 95. * British Critic, No. 59. Xll. INTRODUCTION. on his reason, his private judgment, and his own interpretation ofthe Scripture ; whatever be the decisions of the Church. He may believe nothing, unless he is convinced of its truth ; whatever be the authority which ap peals to him. But we, the Tractarian British Critics, teach the world — that, whatever be the past, real, or supposed faults of the Apostolical Succession, the present rulers of the Church may justly require the people, implicitly, to submit their reason, judgment, and scriptural conclusions, to their own divinely granted au thority. Both of us acknowledge that the au thority of the Church, like that of a parent, proceeds from Heaven : but the Ultra-Pro testant considers himself "as an adult and rea soning child, who is permitted to examine the truth of the teaching of his parents, while he confesses the parent's authority."* We consider both him and the people to be as infant children only, incapable of distinguishing between the truth or falsehood, of the teaching of the pa rent ; and as guilty, therefore, of great pre sumption, and crime, and blasphemy, if they dare to reject the parent's conclusions. Both * See Mr Townsend's Sermon at Birmingham, and the Notes, 1838. INTRODUCTION. xiii. the Ultra-Protestants and the Tractarians as sume the honorable name of Catholic : but the Ultra-Protestant receives nothing as Catholic which is not based on Scripture, as well as sanctioned by the customs and teaching of the earlier centuries. The Tractarian believes that some things are to be received as Catholic and of divine authority, on which the Scrip tures are silent, but on which the Fathers of antiquity are eloquent. Among the upholders of the Ultra-Protestant opinions are found few Popes, Archbishops, and Bishops, though they may sometimes be able to refer to an antient Pope — to Cranmer and Howley as Archbishops — to Jewell, Ridley, and others as Bishops. The Tractarian British- Critic notions, which I am advocating, were and are upheld by the later Popes, in their long Apostolical succession — by Bishops without number — by councils, traditions, and fathers, without end. We boast no Wycliffe, nor Luther, nor Latimer, nor Ridley, nor Cran mer, nor any of their wild followers. These we leave to the Ultra- Protestants of the day. We boast, and I boast, of the holy train of Popes, such as HUdebrand — of Archbishops such as Beckett — of Bishops such as the ve- XIV. INTRODUCTION. nerable Bonner, whose life I shall now record, whose character I shall now vindicate, whose actions, with some exceptions, I approve, and whose opinions I have been so long resolutely defending, and will defend. I invite the at tention of the Anglican Catholic, who is not an Ultra-Protestant, to the History of the Bishop of London, the calumniated, yet vene rable, Edmund Bonner. LIFE OF EDMUND BONNER. SECTION I. FROM HIS BIRTH TO THE DEATH OF HENRY VIII. About forty years before the enactment of the fatal measure, which separated* the Church of Eng land from the Church of Rome, by declaring the King, and not the Pope, to be the head ofthe Church in this kingdom — before the desperate remedy, and the fearful penalty of the Reformation which dis turbed the peace and infringed the unity of the Christian body,\ — while the repose of the Catholic * The Ultra- Protestants would tell us, that the Bull of Pope Pius in the reign of Elizabeth, in which those who were attach ed to the Pope and to the communion with Rome, were com manded to absent themselves from their Parish Churches, was the cause of the separation between the two Churches. But that Bull was only the punishment of the continued rejection of the dominion ofthe Bishop of Rome. I have already said in my favorite Review, that the union of the whole Church, under one visible head, is the most perfect state;* and I believe that the Bishop of Rome ought to be that visible head, because Rome is our elder sister, our mother, to whom we owe it that we are, what we are.j- Rome was our mother, through whom we were born to Christ.^ f British Critic, No. 59, p. 1. * British Critic, No. 59, p. 2. f Ibid, No. 59, p. 3. t Tract 11, p. 33. 2 PROTESTANTISM, ESSENTIALLY UNCHRISTIAN. Church was still preserved, in spite of the efforts of theWycliffite, Lollardite, Ultra-Protestants, who were controlled by the salutary severity ofthe Papal Canon law — before that baneful Protestantism which "is only the religion of corrupt human nature,"* and which is "essentially unchristian," f was known to the statute law of England, J — Edmund Bonner was born of poor but honest§ parents, at Hanley, in Worcestershire. Being a youth of good promise, he was sent to school, by Mr. Lechmore, an ancestor of Nicholas Lechmore, Esq., one ofthe Barons of the Exchequer in the reign of the Dutch Usurper ; who, under the plea of defending England from Popery, and arbi trary power, dethroned his father-in-law, founded the * British Critic, No. 59, p. 27. This is, on the whole, my favourite Number. f British Critic. No. 59, p. 29. J My friend Archbishop Whately endeavours to prove in his work on Popery that Romanism, and not Protestantism, is the religion of corrupt human nature. For this purpose he selects cer tain peculiarities of Romanism, and argues from them to prove his position. The good Archbishop, however, whom I value on ac count of his placing the observance of the Christian Sabbath on the decision of the Church, forgets, that the pride of human rea son, the sin of Protestantism, is much worse than any of the sup posed errors of the Church. If a man thinks as the Church thinks, he is safe. His own judgment may mislead him : and that is the greatest sin, which makes a man's danger greatest. § For the refutation of the story tbat he was illegitimate, see Note H., to the Article of his Life in the' Biog. Brit., to which and to the references therein to Wood's Athen. Oxon : New- court's Repertorium, Howe, Hollinshed, Burnett, Strype, Hey- lin, Foxe, Wharton, Collier, and Godwin, I direct the reader. OUR ANXIETY TO RESTORE THE STUART PRINCIPLES. 3 national debt, expelled the right line of the Stuarts, and so firmly established the principles of the Ultra- Protestants, who supported him ; that the advocates of the right of private judgment have actually succeeded in placing the Hanover family, for a whole century and a half, on the throne of England. I and my friends are exerting ourselves to overthrow these principles. Others, who do not fully, or generally, agree with us, are endeavoring to persuade the Hanover family to act upon the principles of the Stuarts. When suc cess has crowned our joint labors — when we have succeeded in reviving the influence ofthe old system, and in doing away with "the Sin of 1688" — when our principles are thoroughly carried out — we hope to see the antient dynasty restored, and the whole Ultra-Protestantism of the age entirely done away. Length of time cannot sanction usurpation. If we advocate the Stuart Principles, we ought not to rest till we repose under the shadow of the legitimate heir to the crown of England, the Duke of Modena ; and, till we revive, with the revival of the Stuart Princi ples, the Stuart Dynasty. This, however, is a di gression. My zeal carries me away. The anticipa tion of this great result of the labors of myself, and of my friends, must plead my excuse. Yet it is good to be zealously affected against Sin — especially against political Sin — and the zeal of my friend, Dr. Pusey, against that great Sin, " the Sin of 1688," is more peculiarly worthy of imitation by me, his unworthy admirer and follower. 4 BISHOP RIDLEY, A TRAITOR AND A RENEGADE. About the year 1512, Edmund Bonner was ad mitted as a Student at Broadgate Hall, now Pem broke College, in my own beloved Oxford. He was not a student at the College of the same name in that unfortunate University, the contemplation of whose principles and teaching makes a thorough Oxford man melancholy. He was not a student of Pembroke College, in Cambridge. He would then have been the fellow-student or the pupil of such Ultra- Protestants as that " traitor, renegade, and slave,"* Ridley — who succeeded him in the See of London ; and who had the presumption to tell the Anti- Protestant Queen Mary, that the word of God was better understood in the days of her brother * See Smedley's Lux Renata, (on Ridley) and his references to Dr. Lingard. Smedley describes the works of this candid, accurate, and faithful historian, in language which I quote, to shew how much prejudice we have to remove ; when even those who are not to be called Ultra-Protestants, can sometimes speak harshly of our dear brethren, who wish with us to see better days for England : — In softer temper, and less fiery guise, The grave historian to his task applies : Sleek, snug, and subtle, round about his hole He grubs, and worms the dirt up like a mole : Toils under ground, and from his covert rears The dark deposit of forgotten years. His dingy labors open and enlarge Tale, whisper, scandal, imputation, charge ; Blasts of suspicion, which reproof defy, Base fraud, lame slander, groundless calumny. Line 639, note,]}. 58. ARISTOTLE, THE FAVORITE STUDY OF OXFORD. O Edward, than of her father Henry.* The great Bonner escaped this danger. -He was educated at Broadgate Hall, now Pembroke College,f which was at that time a noted nursery for Civilians and Canon ists. J We consider this kind of education to be of peculiar value to a good theologian. It is in some respects superior even to the study of Aristotle itself. Like that, the favorite study of the Uni versity of Oxford, it is founded neither on Scrip tural, nor on Protestant, principles. As the study of Aristotle has no reference to the reasoning of a Christian on Christian principles : so the study of the civil and canon law may be conducted, without * See the account in that lying, slandering, malicious, "hate • fill, detestable, abusive, wicked, scandalous, horrible, and most Ultra-Protestant book, " The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe," — a book which has done more harm to the system we wish to restore ; and rendered more benefit to the Ultra-Pro testant cause, than any book in the language. We shall never establish Tractarianism, till Foxe's book be despised or for gotten See Uie account in Book 9, vol. 6, p. 35i,,(netv edition. ) f Collegium quod hodie Pembrochianum.dici tur, olim Latarum Portarum aulae nomine claruit. Cum vero Thomas Tisdale de Glineton, in usum R-eipublicae Literaria? pecuniaslegaverat qui bus Reditus ad alendos septem Socios, PaSe t6- f Tract 86, page 9. § Tract 86, page 16. 230 PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD TO BE RESTORED. selected.* We have, indeed, adopted the " very spirit of the captives who returned from Babylon to build the Second Temple. Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah begin their prayers, we say, with a con fession, the very words of which might be put into our mouths at the Reformation "^ An Ultra- Protes tant, in his loyalty, blindness, and ignorance, would call this an excellence, and say that as the language of the first Temple did not preserve the Jews from idolatry, neither did the language of the liturgies of Sarum and ofthe old Catholic ritual preserve the na» tion from what they call the idolatry of Popery — and that the language of repentance and humiliation is the bestpreservative of God's grace, the proof of this favor, and the protection against the possibility of relapsing into evil. There is no replying to men who reason in this strange manner ; and Heave them. We have said also of our present Prayer-Book, that by " omit ting prayers for the dead, we are in some degree dis united from the purer communion of those departed Saints who are now with Christ, as if we are unworthy to profess ourselves one with them" ;| and, in short, our great "object has been to shew that the services of our Church are characterized by a peculiar tone qf sadness and humiliation, and that we are made, throughout our Prayer-book, to use the language of those who have fallen away from the richer pri- * Tract 86, page 17. f Tract 86, page 18, X Tract 86, page 21. GARDINER HATED THE PRAYER-BOOK. 231 vileges, and inheritance of sons."* That is, we prove by the Prayer-book, that we have fallen away from the richer privileges of Prayers for the dead, the old services, the Latin petitions, and the Canon of the Mass. We have fallen away from the inheritance of such sons as Gardiner, and Bonner ; and such daugh ters, as Mary of England, and the de Medicis of France. If then we — we, the Oxford Theologians, who have been so long accustomed to this Prayer- book, that we might be supposed in common, even with the Ultra-Protestants, and with the people and church in general, to be blind to its defects — if we, the lights, and guides, of the present age, discover so many faults and deficiencies in the language, tone, spirit, and temper of the Prayer-book ; how much more abominable must it have appeared to the Ox ford Theologians of the age of Gardiner and of Bonner. Can we be surprized that Gardiner, even before the 20th of December, when the Prayer-book was commanded to be disused, expressed his indig nation in bolder terms than I, at present, dare to do, with all my eagerness to restore the antient Tem ple. Thou heretic, he said to the Ultra-Protes tant Clergyman, or Priest, or Parson, who had com municated joyfully, by his own confession, with his parishioners, according to the form in our present Prayer-book — thou heretic, said Gardiner, how darest thou be so bold, to use still that schismatical service, seeing that God hath now sent us a Catho- * Tract 86, p, 66. 232 THOSE WHO LOVE THE PRAYER-BOOK LOVE SCRIPTURE. lie Queen.* And when the Minister answered him in fhe language of St. Paul, after the way which you call heresy, we worship the living God — then, said Gardiner — this is the way with these heretics — these Ultra- Protestants, he might have called them. They always have nothing in their mouths, but "the Lord, "the Lord, and nothing but the Lord — the Lord " liveth — the living God" ; and Gardiner was right — those who love the Prayer-book most, will ever be known for their thus constantly calling their decisions the truths which are approved by the living God : and so long as individuals thus commend their souls and their consciences- to tbose conclusions, which they deem to be the will of God, without enquiring whe ther they be sanctioned by the antient Catholic ritual ; so long the Prayer-book will be loved, and the modern Tractarian, and the antient Papist, will be despised together. This must be altered. And as Gardiner thus expressed his indignation, so also did Bonner, the other Bishop of this period, in whom my friend Froude rejoiceth, no less desire to " root out the Reformation,"f and the clergy who favored it, from his Diocese. We are conscious of many beauties in our Liturgy, though we desire in it so many alterations ; more, indeed, than any even of its former enemies could have desired. Neither Bonner nor Gardiner could appreciate, nor value * Strype, Eccles. Mem. Mary, p. 68, ann. 1553. f The expression is in Strype. — Eccles. Mem. Mary. Folio edition, vol. iii, 1721, p. 138. ANTIENT RITUALS BETTER THAN THE PRAYER-BOOK. 233 these, and we must not be surprized, therefore, that as Gardiner used the language I have just related ; so Bonner also calls the ordinances both of Hen ry, and of Edward, " schismatical, and contrary to the antient order." This is our objection also. The Ultra-Protestant in the present day may use the same language, which Strype represents the foul- mouthed Bale, to use, in reply to Bonner — that the services of Edward were set forth according to the Scriptures of God, and agreeably to the order of the primitive Church. Bale knew, as well as I know, that those ordinances only of the primi tive Church are to be regarded, which the Church of Rome, and not which the Church of England, approves : and that we may establish any mass or ritual we please, if we make the observances of some of the earlier Churches, our Canons and laws. We select, from the primitive Church, those things only which became more permanent ; and, because they were permanent, obtained the approbation of Bonner, Gardiner, and their friends. These things we call the antient ritual : and these only which the Church of Bonner approved, we sanction, approve, and desire to see restored. This is our object. For this we defend Bonner, Gardiner, and their brethren. This we will endeavour to effect, by our Reviews, Sermons, Tracts, and volumes. And because we can not attempt the change by legislation, or by force ; we adopt with Froude, the poisoning system, and wait with holy patience, the result of our most Ca- 234 ROME APPROVES OF OUR TRACTARIANISM. tholic labors. We know that Rome approves of us. We hear the plaudits of the eternal city. We listen to the eulogies ofthe Vatican. We see our influence over the young : and we are comforted, under the censure of our own Bishops, the contempt of our own Church, the disgust of the people, and the loud, long, scorn of the hateful and miserable Ultra-Pro testants. The time had not yet arrived when the greater severities for which Bonner has been unjustly stigma tized, had commenced. No Ultra-Protestants were burnt till after the reconciliation of the Church of England to Rome, lt may be advisable to say some few words on this point, before we proceed to the consideration of those severities. IV. The fourth stage ofthe Froudian, or poisoning system, is to become reconciled to Rome. With respect to ourselves, we have said — " Till Rome moves towards us, it is impossible for us to move towards Rome.*" This we have said : but we are conscious, that by exalting in general terms the Catholic Church to be the one Society to which alone the promises of grace are given — while I call the "Church of England the ApostoUc Church,"^ and yet declare " that very Church to be in complete in its formal doctrine and discipline" ;% while I advocate, as I so often do, an actual sacri- * Tract, No. 75, page 23. \ Tract, No. 30, page 7. X Tract, No. 71, page 27. MR. TOWNSEND's PLAN OF UNION WITH ROME, AND OURS. ^35 fice in the Eucharist, and Prayers for the dead, and while I condemn also in one Tract, though I praise in another, the modern Church of England— I may seem to have moved already, and that with no in considerable progress, towards Rome. Rome most undoubtedly has not hitherto moved so much towards us, as we have moved towards them. This, however, is but another result of our principles. We must carry these out, wherever they lead us ; and recon ciliation with Rome is so decidedly one of our princi pal objects, that we are willing to make very great sacrifices, in order to attain to it. We are willing, therefore, in contra-distinction to Mr. Townsend, to seek for union with Rome, on that foundation which he has so earnestly condemned. All our hopes of reconciliation with Rome, must be established on one of these two principles — retrogradation towards Rome, or progression from Rome. Mr. Townsend would build on the latter. We have shown, in spite of our professions, that we are willing to build on the former. He would bring Rome to England ; we would carry England to Rome. He would derive experience from the past, to make us avoid Rome. We would learn from the past, to love Rome. He would have Italy learn from England. We would have England learn from Italy. He prefers the German Reformers in the reign of Edward who ex punged the Mass, and the Prayers for the dead from our services. We would prefer the Italian Refor mers in the reign of Mary, who restored them both. 236 THE TRACTARIANS MOVE TOWARDS ROME. He would derive instruction from the Puritan, and the Jacobin, as well as from the Scriptures, and the Church. We would derive it from the Church alone, of whose creeds and articles the Scriptures them selves form only a part. He would move further from Rome. We, if we move at all, would move as we have done, towards Rome — and our papal friends perceive our wish to do so — for they boast that " we are going back by degrees, till we shall resume all the doctrines and practices qf the antient Church, from which we have separated."* On this I shall make no remark. I only add that both Mr. Townsend and myself are agreed that union with Rome is de sirable when Rome changes : I shall wait with pati ence, till I see to what extent, and in what manner, he will recommend the changes he contemplates. But reconciled we must be, if the design of the gos pel, and the object for which the Holy Catholic Church was founded, shall ever be accomplished. Our plan has been to propose this reconciliation by the poisoning system ; and in this, whatever may be the indignation of Mr. Townsend, and of the Ultra-Protestants with him, we shall certainly perse vere. This system, indeed, is recommended to us by our friend Parsons. The reconciliation of the realm to God and his Church, that is to the Church of Rome, is the one great object of his Memorial :f and he gives some specific plans of proceeding, which * McGuire's words in the recent discussion in Dublin. f Parsons' Jesuits' Memorial, p. 21. JAMES II. AND MARY RECONCILE ENGLAND TO ROME. 237 I cannot enlarge upon at present, but which so ex actly resemble the "poisoning system," that I could almost imagine either that Parsons the Jesuit was a Tractarian, or that the Tractarians were Jesuits :* a suspicion which is very untenable, however frequent ly it may have been suggested. James the Second acted upon this principle of reconciling England to Rome. No sooner was he firmly established on the throne, by the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion, than he resolved to re-unite the two Churches. He requested from the Pope the appointment of a nun cio. He sent Caryl, in the year 1685, to the Papal Courts to learn from the Pope his willingness to re ceive England into communion : and when a favour able answer was returned, he nominated Lord Cas- tlemain as Ambassador Extraordinary in the name of the King and of the Catholics ofthe realm, to tes tify their canonical obedience, and to make their submission to the Holy See.f The fault of James consisted in his endeavouring to place his dominions in communion with Rome without their own consent, and without any change on the part of Rome, either in faith or discipline. With Mary the case was far dif ferent. The Queen resolved to reconcile England * See especially Chapter IV, on the manner in which schis- "maticks and heretics may be dealt withal at the next change of religion. f See the notes, pp. 46-47, to Parsons' Jesuits' Memorial, where extracts are given from Father Warner's MS. History of the period. Lord Castlemain was sent; — Obedientiam canonicam Jacobi, et Catholicorum Regni nomine testaturus. 238 MARY RECONCILES ENGLAND TO ROME. with Rome, and the attempt was made, and the de sign effected in the most legal and orderly manner. After the suppression of the rebellion of Wyatt, and the marriage with Philip of Spain, the Queen re solved, without demanding any change on the part of Rome, once more to reconcile the people to the Pope ; and to restore the antient union. Strict adhe rence to the forms of law characterized all her pro ceedings. A Parliament was summoned to meet in the middle of November. The "poisoning system" had been completely successful, liberty of conscience having been proclaimed, preaching being put down, the chief Ultra-Protestants being either silenced, banished, or imprisoned, though none had hitherto been burnt. Barlow, Jewel, and Scory had recanted ¦*— Elizabeth had conformed — the Second Prayer- book of King Edward had been abolished — the mar ried clergy were deprived — the Catholic Bishops restored — -the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, Cranmer and Ridley, had been declared by the Convocation of the Church of Eng land to be obstinate heretics.* The great wealth brought in by the Spanish marriage pleased the peo ple — the Queen's pregnancy was publicly declared, and all things being at peace, the favorable oppor tunity presented itself for affecting the reconcilia tion with Rome.f * March 14, 1554. \ The previous correspondence of Mary with Commendone, Pole, Julius III, and the slow and gradual steps by which the STRONG, BOLD LANGUAGE NEVER TO BE ADOPTED. 239 No proposition seems to be more true, than that England can only be saved, or ruined, by its Parliament.* The force of this maxim was felt at this eventful period. The Queen wrote letters to the Sheriffs, and other returning Officers, to take care that none were returned to Parliament but those who mean the true honor of God, and the prosperity of the Commonwealth. The "poisoning system" is al ways best carried on by courteous and gentle lan guage. We must never use bold, strong, forcible expressions, in matters of religion, when we desire to rebuild the first temple, and to overthrow the se cond. This is very Ultra-Protestant. " We and our dear husband," said the mild and gentle Queen, " profess and intend the true honor of God ; and therefore we wish you to return wise, grave, and Catholic men :"f and her request was complied with. A Parliament met, upon whom the Queen could depend : and if the mysterious Providence of God had not removed out of this life, nearly at the same time, Julius III., Gardiner, Mary, Pole, and Charlesr V., whose power supported the antient religion on the Continent ; if Elizabeth, too, had not soon come to the throne, the reconciliation with Rome would have been poisoning system in the reign of Mary was rendered successful, may be seen in Sharon Turner and his references. * The remark occurs in Montesquien's Spirit of Laws, among his eloquent observations on the government and greatness of England. t See the letter in Strype, E. M, 1554 ; and Burnet's ac count. 240 _. THE PARLIAMENT RECONCILED TO ROME. permanent, and England would have been as pious, peaceful, and submissive as a province of Spain or Italy. The Parliamentary returns convinced the Queen that she could safely execute her plans. Pole was invited, by public proclamation,* to come over to England, and there exercise his authority as the Legate of the Bishop of Rome. His answer was re turned within a week. The Parliament met on the twelfth of November, and was opened by the King and Queen in person. f The Cardinal landed at Dover, on the 2 1st or 24th, J and proceeded to Lam beth, the possessor of the Palace being in prison at Oxford, and three days after the Parliament met at Whitehall. John Foxe may vent his loathsome an ger against the reconciliation of Rome with England which was now about to be consummated. He may declaim, with his Ultra-Protestant friends, against the Queen, nobles, council, commons, and people of England, becoming the " vassal slaves and under lings of an Italian Priest, with whom the nation has no more to do than with the Caliph of Damascus."§. But if our "poisoning system" succeed, the day shall again arrive when the Commons of England shall once more return Members to Parliament who shall desire to be united to Rome, and another, and a more permanent reconciliation shall take place be- * November 10th, 1554. f Foxe, vol. 6, p. 567. X Stowe says .the 24th, Foxe the 21st. § Foxe's Sermon at St. Paul's Cross, on Good- Friday, 1578. CARDINAL POLE'S TRACTARIAN SPEECH. 241 tween the Churches. I have said, that " the Sa cramentum unitatis was shattered in that great schism of the sixteenth century, which issued in some parts of Europe, in the Reformation,"* and if I and mv friends are successful, we will restore that unity. Never did England see a nobler sight than now presented itself. The Queen, who had omitted from her laws and proclamations, the title of Supreme Head of the Church, because it clashed with the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, sate with her husband, under a canopy of state ; the Cardinal on their right hand, with the Peers and Commons of the realm before them. The Chancellor Gardiner introduced the Legate, with a short speech, as the Ambassador from the Apostolic See, upon one of the weightiest causes that ever happened in the realm, pertaining to the glory of God, and the universal benefit of the kingdom. The Cardinal then rose, and in a long, elaborate, careful speech, expressed his gratitude for his restoration to his country — re capitulated the past history of the introduction and establishment of Christianity in England, as con nected with the See of Rome — alluded to the dis sensions in Germany occasioned by the Lutheran schism — charged the Reformers with unworthy mo tives — and drew a sad and sorrowful picture of the calamities which had followed the innovations in re ligion in England. . He eulogized the Queen and her husband, and congratulated the nation on their * Tract 71, p. 29. 242 SPEECH OF POLE ON THE RECONCILIATION WITH ROME. love for true religion. God hath appointed, he said, the Queen to rule over you for the restitution of true religion, and for the extirpation of all errors, and sects. The extirpation of all errors and sects, I repeat the words, was the expression used by the Legate, to describe the object of the reconciliation with Rome. After some allusions to the Emperor, who, as David left the building of the first Temple to Solomon, had left the building of our first Temple, according to my favorite metaphor, to his son Philip, he proceeded to speak of the Pope, as the Vicar of God, with power from above, the power of the keys, who had delegated that power to him, which he now came there to exercise, and from which they must remove all impediments, by revoking and repealing the laws and statutes, which hindered the execution of his commission. As he had declared his de sign to be, the extirpation of all errors and sects, it might be supposed that he had in some measure lost sight of the " poisoning system." Pole, however, had too much of the spirit of his own Church, and of our Tractarianism, to commit such an error. He continued his speech, therefore, by adding : " this I protest before you. My commission is not of preju dice to any person. I come not to destroy but to build. I come to reconcile, not to condemn. I come not to compel, but to call again. My commission is of grace and clemency, to such as will receive it. Ponder, therefore, well what is to be done, in this weighty cause : and so frame your acts and your THE PARLIAMENT UNANIMOUS FOR RECONCILIATION. 243 proceedings, that they may tend to the glory of God, and to the conservation of your common wealth, safety, and quietness."* Here he ended— the Houses of Parliament, the Queen, the King, the Judges, the Councillors, and all the great men, believed him. The wretched Ultra-Protestants, we shall see, re fused to be reconciled to Rome, because Rome had not, would not, change ; and they soon suffered the consequences of their folly in rejecting the offer of Catholic unity. On the conclusion of the Cardinal's speech, the Chancellor, having first received the orders of the King and Queen, replied, that the two houses would deliberate apart, and signify their determination on the following morning.f On the next day the mo tion for the re-union was carried by acclamation. The Lords were unanimous. In the Commons, out of three hundred members, two only objected. A resolution was proposed and adopted to present a supplication to the King and Queen to intercede for them with the Cardinal and the Apostolic See ; with an unlimited submission to the .censures and sen tences which might be justly pronounced on them by the Church : but they pray to be exempted from them, by the clemency of the See Apostolic. The documents are preserved in Foxe : and if there be no merit whatever in his odious book, which has done * See the whole speech in Foxe, vol. vi, p. 569 — and Sharon Turner's note 7, p. 450, vol. viii. f Lingard. 244 POLE ABSOLVES THE NATION FROM HERESY. more than any other book in the language to prevent the submission ofthe people to the Church, it possesses this merit ; that it records proceedings which may serve as precedents to our ultimate and more permanent reconciliation, when the Froudian system shall have "poisoned" (I love my venerable friend's own words) the minds of the clergy and people of England. The language of the supplication and submission of the Senate to the Cardinal is most humble, and there fore most valuable, as a specimen of the manner in which, when the Ultra-Protestant leaven shall have ceased to leaven the lump ofthe nation, and till we un protestantize it, we may return to our dutiful allegi ance to the nation. When the supplication had been read, it was presented to the King and Queen. By them it was given to the Cardinal. The Legate (how beautifully the poisoning ceremonial was con ducted) first returned thanks to God — then declared his joy at his success — and concluded by giving his absolution, by the Pope's authority, to the repentant heretics, who had once received, but who now reject ed; the Bible and the Prayer-book of the Reformed Churchj the Protestant Church of England. " Our Lord Jesus Christ," said the exulting Legate, " ab- " solve you. We, by apostolic authority, absolve and " declare you and every one of you, and the whole " realm, from all heresy and schism, and from all "judgment, censure, and pain for that cause incurred ; " and we do restore you to the unity of our mother " the Holy Church, in the name of the Father, and THE ABSOLUTION RECEIVED ON THEIR KNEES. 245 " of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The Peers and Commons received this absolution on their knees. * Bonner, no doubt, was among them. When the ab solution was over, the magnificent assembly adjourn ed to the adjacent Chapel. The Te Deum was sung, and general joy and gladness for the reconciliation appeared every where to prevail. I cannot entirely pass by the letters of the King and of the Legate to the Pope on this joyful occa sion, with the processions and other tokens of tri umph which were commanded at Rome. The recon ciliation took place on the 30th of November, St. Andrew's Day, which was commanded to be hence forth called the "Feast of the Reconciliation." Their letters to the Pope were dated on the same day. We learn from the King's letter that the ceremony was not over till late in the evening : and he tells the Pope, that the Holy See had not a more obedient son than he, nor more desirous to preserve and increase the authority of the same. In the letter of the Car dinal we are told that the joy of the two Houses was enthusiastic. "After I had made my oration," he says, " and given the benediction, there was a great joy and shout, and many cried out Amen, amen." " Oh ! notable zeal of godliness," he exclaims, " oh ! antient faith!" and then he goes on to express his raptures in the language of many passages of Scrip- * I learn this from one ofthe Latin letters at the end ofthe folio edition of Calvin's Institutes. The circumstance is not mentioned by Foxe. 246 GARDINER RECANTS HIS PROTESTANTISM. ture, and affirms that under the influence of Mary, a nation was born in a day. On the following Mon day,* Gardiner preached before the Cardinal at St. Paul's Cross the celebrated sermon in which he as sured his congregation that Henry VIII. had made repeated efforts to procure the same reconciliation with Rome which had now been so happily effected. He regretted his own wavering, and exhorted all the people to seek with him the unity of the Catholic Church. "It is high time to awake out of sleep," was his text.f " Let us awake," he concluded, " who " have so long slept ; and in our sleep have done so " much naughtiness against the Sacraments of Christ, " and pulled down the altar, which even Luther had " not done." When his sermon was ended, he prayed for the Pope, and for Bonner as the Bishop of the Diocese, for the King and Queen, for the Commons, and for the souls departed lying in the pains of pur gatory.} The reconciliation, however, was not yet com pleted. The whole Convocation of the Clergy were commanded to attend at Lambeth, on the 6th of De- * December 2nd, 1554. j Romans, 13, &e. X This prayer is not included among the forms of bidding prayer lately published at Oxford ; though the Editor has in serted among them the prayer of Gardiner before King Edward in 1550. In that prayer the Chancellor did not pray for the souls in purgatory, but only bade the people to commend to God the souls departed in the faith of Christ Forms of Bidding Prayer, Oxford, 8vo, 18+0, page 82. BONNER UNJUSTLY CHARGED WITH. CRUELTY. 247 cember. The Cardinal addressed them, he forgave them all their perjuries, schisms, and heresies, and pronounced their absolution ; while they all humbly knelt before him. He again exhorted them, and congratulated them on their re-union with Rome, and their conversion to the Catholic Church, and he then permitted them to return. On the 3rd of Ja nuary, an act was passed abolishing the royal supre macy over the Church. The statutes for the punish ment of heresy were revived, to cement the union with Rome more effectually : and the reconciliation was at length perfected (after the Parliament had been dissolved, on the 16th of January,) by a general and solemn procession through the streets of Lon don, on the 25th, to return thanks to God for the re-conversion of the nation to the Catholic Church. One hundred and sixty priests, each dressed in a splendid cope, singing their litanies — eight Bishops, the Mayor, Aldermen, and the Livery of Lon don — the King himself!, with the Cardinal, attend ed ; while Bonner, the Bishop of the Diocese, car ried the Host, under a gorgeous canopy. The day was passed in rejoicing, bonfires were kindled at night ; and none seemed to mourn but the Ultra- Protestants, who were unable or unwilling, in their houses or in their prisons, to appreciate the advan tages of the reconciliation of the Church and nation, with unchanging and inflexible Rome. 5. I am now, therefore, brought to that part ofthe life of Bonner which has been most generally assail- 248 CHURCH SEVERITY IS NOT PERSECUTION. ed, and condemned by the Ultra- Protestants. He is charged with cruelty in the government of his dio cese, after the reconciliation with Rome. " He pro ceeded, however," says one of his biographers, " ac cording to the statutes which were then in force, and by the direction of the legislative power, and he needs, therefore, no apology on that score ; and as to his private motives, charity requires that we judge of them in the most favourable sense."* I have al ready observed that the fifth and last stage of the progress ofthe Froudian, or "poisoning system," by which a change is to be effected in the religion of a country, is severity : and the defence of the laws on which Bonner acted must be placed upon the absolute necessity of preventing resistance to the decisions and decrees of the Church. Those who are punished by the Church call the laudable severities which enforce union, persecution. The wiser Churchmen may call them the " sacrament of the prevention of heresy :" and it is utterly and totally impossible to uphold the principles ofthe Tractarian and Anti-Protestant school which commands the implicit and unlimited obedience of the conscience of the individual, whether with or without conviction, to the authority of the Church, unless we adopt this conclusion, that the refusal to submit to the Church must be punished by the Church. The only question is, to what extent, or in what * Dodd's Church History, vol. 1, folio edition, p. 494. Mr. Tierncy is publishing a new edition of this book, and is adding to it a large mass of materials. THE CHURCH IS ENTITLED TO PUNISH. 249 manner must that punishment be enforced? Of what nature is it to be, and by whom is it to be inflicted ? The full discussion of these questions would lead us too far from the subject more immediately before us. I shall only, therefore, say, that there are but two modes of legislation on this matter. One, adopted by the Ultra-Protestants; the other by the Anti- Pro testants. The former is, to distrust the policy which punishes opinions, when the public peace is not broken, and therefore to rescind the laws which enforce that policy. The other is, never to distrust the policy which punishes opinions, and never, therefore, to re scind the laws which the Church has once made : even though the punishments which the laws may sanction are not actually inflicted, because of the difficulty or opposition which may attend their execution. In the former case the judge confesses he may himself err. In the latter case the judge is the Church, and the Church cannot err. In the former case the punish ment of opinions, not politically injurious, ceases from principle. In the latter case it ceases from policy. Principle is unchangeable. Policy is mutable. The Ultra-Protestants, therefore, object to the antient Catholic, and to the modern "Tractarian British Cri tic" school of legislation, that the Church should change its policy into principle ; and resign alto gether the claim to inflict a temporal punishment upon the holder of any opinion whatever, unless a crime against the peace of society results from its continuance. They would leave the punishment of 250 BURNING FOR ULTRA-PROTESTANTISM MAY BE WRONG, errors to the Providence of God ; and the punish ment of crime, to the wisdom of man. Now I am not prepared to offend the whole community which has been so long imbued with the Ultra-Protestant no tions of what is called toleration, that I shall venture to affirm, however I may carry out my principles, that I would now burn the Bishops and Clergy who have opposed the system of the Tractarians, and that the laws, therefore, which Bonner executed were perfectly satisfactory. I really do think that burning a man for Ultra-Protestantism is wrong. I think it is very wrong. I should be unwilling to burn many persons whose wretched Ultra-Pro testantism provokes my scorn, and excites my deep contempt : but I must say, that if I and my friends can so far succeed as to bring the people and na tion through the four first stages of the Froudian, Poisoning, Tractarian, old Catholic system, (for they are in principle all one,) — if we can induce the people of England to go through these four stages in the change of their religion which I have already detailed, — if the pious opinions which we hold on the Sacrifice in the Eucharist, on the authority of the Church, on prayers for the dead, and on the defi ciencies of our existing Church and Prayer-book, can be so proposed by us, that the offence of maintain ing them shall cease — if we can extend them by influ ence, then establish them by law, then procure a re conciliation with Rome, though we alone change, and Rome does not change — then I cannot but believe that BUT PUNISHMENT FQR OPINIONS IS USEFUL. 251 some great alteration would so be rendered neces sary, that the objectors to our pious opinions, should be punished with greater severity, than our present most deficient policy, will permit. The penalties, which Ultra-Protestants falsely call persecution, must inevitably follow the establishment of the old Ca tholic, new Tractarian system. I am confirmed in this view, both by the maxims of my friend Father Parsons, and by the result of the experiment of the divinely righted James the Se cond, whom we banished for the enforcement of this very policy ; when we committed " the great sin of 1688, and banished Christ crucified, with Kenn and Kettlewell, from the Church."* After the reconciliation with Rome shall have been ef fected, says Parsons, the change in religion may be completed by the establishment of a " Council of Reformation," which, avoiding the odious name of Inquisition, shall take care that the laws be en forced :f and when they resign their office, they shall * Tract 80, p. 95, \ My candid and learned friend Dr. Lingard, has shewn the immense difference between the Spanish Inquisition and the English tribunals ; and is justly indignant at the attempt of Hume to prove their similarity. The difference between them consisted in this — that in England the heretics were sent by the Magistrates to the Ordinary, and then burnt. In Spain the Magistrates burnt them, without so sending them. The simi larity between them consists in the burning only. Queen Eliza beth indeed, says Dr. Lingard, and not Queen Mary establish ed the Inquisition, when she appointed the Court of High Commission.* * See Lingard's History of England, vol. viii, p. 266, note 10. 252 SEVERITY FOLLOWS RECONCILIATION WITH ROME. leave some " good and sound manner of inquisition" (still avoiding the name), which shall prevent the repassing of the people into their former errors — Parsons is doubtful,* whether to advise the forma tion of the Spanish Inquisition, whose rigour was strongly disliked by some ; or of the Italian Inquisi tion, which was less severe. He concludes, however, that nothing could be done well, unless the diligent, and exact " manner of proceeding, adopted in Spain," be also followed in England :f and he ad vises that some high Court of Papal Delegates con stantly reside in England, to give greater authority to the Court of Inquisitors, or enquirers into here tical pravity. He speaks of the decision with which they must act, when they find, what he calls the for mer " sweet means" to be unavailing to reclaim the beretics ; and he recommends many other most useful provisions, till all the laws made at what time soever by any Prince or Parliament, in pre judice to the Catholic Roman religion, be revoked and abrogated ; and till all the old laws against heresy and heretics be restored to their full autho- rity.J The ill-used James the Second attempted to follow in its outlines the same plan. After his re conciliation with Rome, he endeavoured to com mend his pious opinions, not merely by influence and law, but by the incipient severity, which, the * See the Jesuits' Memorial, p. 70, and pp. 98-99, &c, &c. \ Page 99. X Page 107. JAMES II. DESIRED THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE. 253 ungrateful people, whose good alone he affirmed that he consulted, refused to permit to be successful. The bigoted jury acquitted the Prisoner-Bishops whom the King, before they were found guilty, had sent to the Tower. All his plans were thwarted before he could carry out his principles. The very " extinguishers took fire,"* before he could establish his courts of papal delegates, who might have suc ceeded his Council of Reformation, the Court of High Commission. The only instance in which the Froudian, or "poisoning system," of changing the * It is possible that this expression may not be intelligible to every reader. I refer to a Persian tale, which has been versi fied by a modern poet, of the Anti- Protestant Religion. A cer tain King of Persia hated light ; but the fires proceeding from the ground in Persia banished the darkness he loved, gaye light to his people, and prevented his sleeping in peace. He commanded large extinguishers to be made and placed over the fires. The depth of darkness which followed convinced him that the fires were extinguished, and that the hateful light would return no more. Sadly was he disappointed. He was aroused from his first sound sleep by his people rushing into his palace to inform him that the light was larger and clearer than ever, for the extinguishers had all taken fire. — I pass over the interpretation given by Moore to the fable. He applies it to the Holy Alliance. I apply it to King James, and to all who would govern the souls of men on his principles. The light is the religion which unites freedom to enquire, with prayer to arrive at right conclusions from the Holy Scriptures and from the instructions of the Church. The extinguishers are the agents who are used by absurd and unjust authority, to put out that light. The extinguishers, the Popish Priesthood, will, one day or other, all take fire.* * Moore's Fables for the Holy Alliance. 254 CAUSES OF THE "BLITHENESS" OF BONNER. religion of the country was fairly tried, through all its stages, including the fifth, was in the reign of Mary ; under the active influence of such magis trates as Bonner. The time had arrived when this last act of the system was attempted, and we must now consider both the agency of Bonner, and the result of the experiment. I feel some difficulty in commencing this part of my vindication of Bonner, because of the unfortu nate prejudice which attends the very mentioning of his name. We all remember the lines of Cowper — " Persecuting zeal made royal sport, " With tortured innocence in Mary's Court ; " And Bonner, blithe as shepherd at a wake, " Enjoyed the show, and danced about the stake."* The hatred against the memory of Bonner proceeds from that characteristic of his zeal in the fifth stage ofthe "poisoning system," for which Cowper here calls him the "blithe Bonner." This blitheness was only the cheerfulness of active zeal, conscious that he was but carrying out his principles, and enforcing by severity that authority of the Church over the consciences and souls of the Ultra- Protestants, which we " Tractarian British Critics" advocate and ad mire. We approve the principle ; though we cannot at present openly venture to express our admira tion of the manner in which this fifth stage of the process of converting the nation was attempted. * Cowper's Expostulation. BONNER DESIRED THE "UNITY OF THE CHURCH." 255 Burning a man for his opinions, is so universally obsolete, that I cannot oppose the general senti ment : and I confess, therefore, that the zeal of the "blithe Bonner" was frequently displayed in a man ner which I could wish to have been otherwise. Yet who will not feel indignant at the obstinacy ofthe self-willed objectors to the reconciliation which had now taken place. Not only had the Houses of Lords and Commons, the Clergy in the Con vocation, the Queen, and some part of the populace of London, expressed their satisfaction ; but the whole continent, excepting the provinces where the great schism had extended, hailed with rapture the re conversion of England. Never was the Froudian or "poisoning system" more laboriously carried out, to induce the Ultra- Protestants also to change, with the mass of the people. No object, which the Chris tian can desire next to his own salvation, ought to be dearer to him than that very object which all who planned and effected this reconciliation, were most eager to accomplish — the unity of the Catholic Church : and this was declared both by Pole, the Queen, and the Chancellor, to be the only great point for which the change was made. The speech of Pole before the King, Queen, and both Houses of Parliament, which we have already considered elo quent, affectionate, pious, beautiful, and persuasive, the very model of a Froudian or "poisoning" harangue, was ended with the expression — "the unity of Christ's Church."* The proclamation of the Queen, * Foxe, vol. vi, p. 571. 256 GARDINER DESIRED THE "UNITY OF THE CHURCH. commanding bonfires to be kindled, anthems to be sung, and processions to be made by the people, to express their joy more evidently, uses the very same expression — that the whole realm was re stored to the " unity of the Church."* It calls upon them to rejoice for the reconciliation and uniting of the realm to the rest of Christendom. When the Chancellor, as soon as it Was believed to be conve nient, after the reconciliation had been completed, summoned before him the first Ultra-Protestant, who was burnt under the revived laws against heresy ; he began his expostulation with him by asking him if he would consent " to unite himself to the Catholic Church."f It was impossible to carry the Froudian or " poisoning system" further. The modern doc trine of toleration was then unknown : and if the en forcement of submission had been longer withheld, the strange notion would have seemed to be sanc tioned that the whole world might be wrong, and the Ultra-Protestants be right — that England was better than Italy — that this island was set apart from the Continent to be the depository of God's peculiar truth, in the midst of an universal apostacy — that England was to the papal world, what Judea had been to the heathen world. The time, therefore, for severity had arrived. Bonner, as we shall see, was stimulated to the more stringent enforcement of the law by the repeated edicts and letters of the Queen * Strype, Eccles. Mem, An. 1554, p. 167. X Foxe, vol. vi , p. 593. PROTESTANTISM WORSE THAN PAGANISM. 257 and council. His great fault was, that in his desire of unity, he forgot courtesy ; in his loyalty to the Queen, he exceeded the strict letter of the law ; in his Anti- Protestant piety, he imbibed too much the spirit and the temper of those churchmen who re solved to defend, by severity, the influence they had obtained by the plans which the infidel Gibbon calls "fraud"; but which we denominate by the softer word ofthe Froudian or "poisoning system."* Bonner agreed with our friend, Gabriel Gifford, the Arch- Bishop of Rheims, that Protestantism is much worse than Paganism ;f and he desired as earnestly as we desire, to extirpate the very name of Protestant, as the characteristic of the Church, the laws, and the liberties of England. We desire, as I have said, to " unprotestantize," that is to papalize, to Romanize, to Catholicize, the people of England : and we will never rest, till we have either effected this object, or deserted as victims and martyrs, the Protestant Church itself. I have said, and I will abide by my determination, " if the profession of the antient * The words of Gibbon, I believe, are, " Rome defended, by violence, the empire it had obtained by fraud." \ See the fourth chapter of his treatise, De Justa Reipub- licae Christianae in reges impios, et Hereticos, authoritate, &c, &c. — Antwerp, 1592. Among other reasons for his believing the Protestants to be worse than the Pagans is, that both Turks and Pagans pray for the dead, which Protestants do not. — Chap, iv. Sec. 5. As to Calvinism, he proves it to be much more detestable than Paganism. Mere Protestantism is only worse " deterius" ; but Calvinism is " longe detestabilius Pa- ganismo," Sec. v. 258 CONTRACT BETWEEN RECONCILED ROME AND ENGLAND. truth be persecuted in our Church and its teaching forbidden, then doubtless, for a season, Catholic minds among us would be unable to see their way."* I express myself obscurely. The obscurity is in tended. Those who know us best, understand us thoroughly. We will change the present Church of England, or we will resign our stations in its temples. And now the great schism between Rome and England was ended. The unity of the Church was restored. Rome had conquered by its perse verance. England, wearied out by the controver sy, submitted in fatigue, by deferring to the au thority which promised peace, as the result of unity. The contract was thus formed between the Bishop of Rome, and the Church and State of England. The conditions of that contract were the same as Rome still proffers, but which we have not again accepted since Elizabeth broke the contract which was thus framed by her sister. These conditions were — on the part of Rome's forgiveness ; on the part of England — the resignation, both of its Pray er-book and of the independance of its Episcopal Church ; the returning of the Scriptures to the cus tody of the Church to be granted out to the commu nity as the Church pleased ; the extinction of that source of all Ultra- Protestant presumption — the de mand to uphold conclusions on religion which the Church did not sanction, with the implicit reception * British Critic, No. 59, p. 134. CONTRACTS ALWAYS CONFIRMED BY BLOOD. 259 of all that Church received and taught. Rome yielded nothing. England gave up everything. Rome demanded the utter and total abolition of all that the Church of England in its Senate and Con vocation had decided to adopt as the reformed creed and discipline. England consented to the demand ; and so was the contract completed. And as a cus tom prevailed among the antients to confirm their contracts by the blood of a sacrifice, so was it found impossible to cement this mighty reconciliation, and to confirm this contract, without those necessary sacri fices, of which the policy is only now doubted ; because the consequences in England, though not in Spain and elsewhere, were unsuccessful. Bonnef, as the Bishop of London, was one of the principal servants at the altar on which these unavoidable sacrifices were of fered. The severities which were commended by the united high contracting parties were executed by Bonner, as the chief ecclesiastical magistrate of the time. They continued, if we date from the 28th of January, 1555, when the Court of Bishops and other Commissioners, to try causes of heretical pravity, was first opened at St. Mary Overie's Church, and when Rogers, the Protestant "Martyr," as he is absurdly called, was brought before them — till the 17th of No vember, when the Queen died — three years, nine months, and twenty days. The severities which mark ed the whole of this period have been confusedly re lated by Foxe, Strype, and Burnet. The details have been rendered so painfully interesting by one, 260 froude's ADMIRATION OF BONNER justified. and so strangely slurred over by another ; so little care has been taken to observe the chronological or der of the narratives, or to distinguish between the power which commanded the severities, and the au thority which enforced them ; that I feel it to be ne cessary to the more perfect vindication ofthe patriotic Catholic Bishop Bonner, to analyze the history of this period in such manner that his character and conduct may be thoroughly understood, and the ad miration of my dear friend Mr. Froude be more fully justified. We will arrange, therefore, the events of the interval between the first meeting of the Courts to try heretics, and the death of the Queen, under these divisions : — 1. — The object ofthe Queen, Council, the Court of Commissioners, and Bonner. 2. — The manner in which Bonner was stimulated to enforce the law with severity, by the repeated proclamations of the Court, by the letters of the King and Queen, and by the urgent remonstrances of the more zealous enemies of the Ultra- Protestant cause, 3. — The gentleness with which he received and expostulated with the prisoners. 4. — The harshness with which he is said to have treated them, and the inconsistency which conferred upon him the name of " Bloody Bonner." 5. — And the causes which prevented the success of the labours of Mary to restore the unity of the Church. By pursuing this method, we shall avoid, bonner's proper objects in HIS severities. 261 with Lingard, the confusion and horror of the long succession of revolting executions, which the obsti nacy of the Ultra-Protestants, or mere Protestants, rendered indispensable. By thus bringing the nar rative of the conduct of Bonner so far down as the end of the reign of Mary ; we shall not only more effectually vindicate the memory of this calumniated Bishop, but be enabled to derive an unanswerable argument in defence of the "poisoning system," which we are so quietly, slowly, calmly, persevering- ly, and most effectually adopting against the mo dern Church of England. ' I. With respect, then, to the object of the Queen, the Council, the Court of Bishops and Commission ers to try causes of heretical probity, and of the illus trious Bishop Bonner, of whom we are speaking, I am bound in candor to confess, that their objects were in principle, though not in detail, our own. They were briefly these : — 1st. To suppress the op position of religious individuals to their measures, by representing such persons as the enemies of God, the Church, and Christianity. 2nd. To uphold the " unity of the Church," by giving higher places to Rome and its Bishop, than were granted to them by the Reformers under Edward. 3rd. To restore the doctrine of the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ in the communion. 4th. To inculcate the propriety of prayers for the dead. 5th. And to de stroy the love of the people for the second Prayer- Book of King Edward. — These, as I have before 262 bonner's opponents were the enemies of god. said, were Bonner's objects. These are ours. It may seem unnecessary to prove that they had pre cisely the same objects in view as we profess. I have already referred to the passages in my own tracts and reviews, to prove the nature of our own designs, I will briefly refer to the articles exhibited by Bonner to his prisoners, to identify his, with ours. The first object was to suppress the opposition of religious individuals to their measures, by re^ presenting such persons as the enemies of God, the Church, and Christianity, Those persons much mistake the policy,, both of Rome and the Tractarians, who imagine that they hope to carry the "poisoning system" into effect, by beginning with institutions. Institutions are only the embodied laws and discipline which have been gradually established among communities, by the influence of individual minds upon the general mass, If we desire, therefore, eventually, to overthrow an institution, we endeavour to cover its principal up holders with reproach and infamy. We do not, there fore, at once propose to the British public, whom we are endeavouring to "poison," the overthrow of our existing Prayer-Book, Church, and Ecclesiastical discipline. We suggest certain changes, and we stigmatize those who withhold assent to those changes, by the names of " Evangelical, Methodistical, low Church, mere Protestant, Protestant, Ultra-Protes tant." We speak of them as if they were ungentle- manly in demeanor, unworthy of notice, ignorant of ALL PROTESTANTS ARE WEAK OR VULGAR. 263 antiquity, perverters of Scripture. We deem them to be weak in intellect, deficient in judgment, betrayed by fancies, misled by groundless imaginations. If they are calm in argument, we will call them deficient in zeal. If they are energetic and active, we smile at their want of candor. If any one epithet has been considered to be a title of honor, and is, therefore, most frequently used against us with success ; we will more peculiarly deride that word, and double our contempt against all who use it. This is the case with the word "Protestant." We cannot deny that, though we share the title with the Quaker, the Methodist, and the hateful low Churchman, we are ourselves still " Pro testant ;" because we have not at present ceased to disapprove, some at least of the conclusions of the Church of Rome. This word, however, is so gene rally used to describe the objections of our people to the opinions which they hold in common with Rome ; but which the Church of England has either omitted or condemned, that we feel we can make but little progress in the "poisoning system," unless we can change the word " Protestant," from being a title of respect and honour, into an epithet of reproach and contempt. For this reason, we uniformly repre sent every writer, author, or controversialist, who ad mires the word Protestant, as utterly unworthy of our notice : and we have so far prospered, that we have many encouraging proofs of our success.* We de- * Among others, I may mention that most decisive proof which took place at Durham. The very first division in the 264 ungentlemanly to be a protestant. nominate all who oppose us, (as Cardinal Borromeo, another Saint ofthe Most High, recommends,) in ge neral terms, as wretched persons, Latitudinarians,* and so totally absurd as to be undeserving of atten tion. This plan was pursued with success in the reign of Mary. The Court, the Church, the Government, the higher classes, changed with the change, in the Sovereign* Those more active partizans, whose zeal had been rather political than religious, remained in quietness under the revived laws against heresy. Cecil, for instance, as Strype relates, retired in peace to his house at Burleigh, near Stamford, conformed to the times, and received the visits of Cardinal Pole, lt became, under the frown of the Sovereign, as ungentlemanly to be a Protestant, as it would have been for an Herodian or Pharisee, to have been a disciple, when Christ was betrayed by Judas, and surrendered to the soldiers of Rome. It is on this account that we love the arguments so frequently Convocation of the new University in that city, referred to the use of the word Protestant, in an address to the Queen. The word was omitted, by a majority of two to one. The Ultra- Protestants, Dr. Gilly and Mr. Townsend, were outvoted. * Cardinal Borromeo, in his Rhetorica Ecclesiastica, recom mends the clergy, in their sermons, when they preach against heretics, never to mention their arguments, lest they throw scruples into the minds of the people. Let them say, generally, that all heretics are wretched persons ; but I deem it more use ful, that ecclesiastical orators should pass over, in silence, their pernicious opinions, as confuted and exploded by the most learned men in all ages.* * See the original passage in Sharon Turner, vol. 8, p. 4M. NO NOBLEMEN BURNT BY BONNER. 2G5 derived by our brethren ofthe Church of Rome, from the number of the noble and antient families, who have never become Protestant. We wish that all the sacred feelings of the old Stewartine loyalty, and of attachment to ancestry and pedigree, shall be all united against Protestantism ; and that it shall be ungentlemanly to be a Protestant, and gentlemanly to be an Anti-Protestant. We shall have made great progress in our "poisoning system," if we can enlist chivalry and gentlemanliness on our side ; for the English are an aristocratical people, and many of them would rather err with a patrician, than be right with a plebian. Dr. Lingard, therefore, observes, with equal force and truth, that when the reconciliation with Rome had been once effected, and the influence of the Queen and the Court had restored the antient religion — " though it cannot be doubted, that among " the higher classes there were some who retained an " attachment to the doctrines which they professed " under Edward, and to which they afterwards re- " turned under Elizabeth : yet it will be useless to " seek among the names of the sufferers for a single " individual of opulence, rank, or importance. All, " all, of this description, embraced, or pretended to " embrace, the antient creed. The victims of perse- " cution, who dared to avow their real sentiments, " were found only in the lower walks of life,"* that is, they were vulgar, unrefined, ungentlemanly, * Lingard's History of England, vol. vii, p. 282 Octavo Edition— 1823. 266 BONNER HATED PROTESTANT VULGARITY. plebian people. They were, what we endeavour to represent the " Ultra-Protestants" uniformly to be. Bonner acted on the same principle. He, Gar diner, Weston, and other judges, addressed the pri soners, with few exceptions, as if they were too ig noble to receive the courtesies which were due to gentlemen. To this cause I impute the several ex pressions recorded by the odious John Foxe, which are neither gentle, to persuade the prisoners to re cant ; nor harsh and severe, in indignation at their obstinacy and folly : but which are merely uncour teous in contempt at their vulgarity and rudeness. " Have them away, have them away !" said Bonner to his attendants, when two young and wretched husbandmen, John Ardley and John Simson, were brought before him to be condemned.* — " Thou art weary of painting, and hast studied divinity, and so hast fallen, through thy departing from thy vo cation, into heresy," he said to Robert Smith, f a yeoman of the guard, at Windsor. — " The obsti nate fool," he said of Phillpotts, when he endea voured in vain to persuade him to recant.J — Anony mous letters were sent to Bonner, in which he was called "the common cut throat, and general " slaughter slave to all the Bishops. 1 will keep out " of your butcher's stall as long as I can. I do per- " ceive by your great fat cheeks that you lack no * Foxe — New Edition, vol. vii, p. 89. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 347. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 649. BONNER CONSIDERED PROTESTANTS AS UNGENTEMANLY. 267 " lamb's flesh yet, and be like you are glutted with " supping so much blood :" with many similar illi beral and rude expressions. It was in allusion to these and similar letters, that Bonner remarked, on the trial of R. Smith, I know they call me " bloody Bonner."* And it was not possible that he could esteem such Ultra-Protestants otherwise than as un gentlemanly, and inferior persons, and burn them, therefore, with less reluctance. He denied his blood- thirstiness, when another called him a "blood-suck er, "f and sentenced the speaker, a man of no rank, nor reputation, to be burned, without any mark of resentment at his insolence and vulgarity. When that poor ignorant pretender to the possession of ex clusive truth, Ralph Allerton, whom Bonner had once saved from the fire, by kindly persuading him to recant, had relapsed into his errors, Bonner in deed seems to have lost his temper at the vulgar fel low's obstinacy — "Thou whore-son, rebel, and prick- louse, thou," he called him ; " dost thou find a pro phecy in Daniel concerning us."J The miserable fellow had gone about the country preaching against Popery : yet his vulgarity offended Bonner more than his heresy. " He is a glorious knave — whore son, prick-louse," said the Bishop. Allerton was probably a tailor : and it could not be endured that a recanting, relapsing tailor, should dispute with his * Compare p. 349 and p. 712, vol. vii. f Foxe, vol. vii, p. 746. X Foxe, vol. viii, p. 407. 268 THE TRACTARIANS DESPISE VULGAR PROTESTANTISM. own Bishop, the true, worthy, evident representative, not merely in succession, but in zeal, doctrine, and language, of the Holy Apostles. I could quote other expressions to his prisoners, which appear to me to savour neither of gentleness nor of severity, but of contempt and scorn only, at tbe vulgar, Protestant, low Church piety ; which clothes its personal religion in the language of quoted texts, or enthusiastic or pas sionate expressions : and thus censures, by its very devotion, the decisions of the antient Church. From the time when he called the bystanders, who hissed him at his trial before the Commissioners, in the reign of Edward, " woodcocks,"* to the day when after his deprivation, in the reign of Elizabeth, he retorted the sarcasm on the stranger who insulted him in the streetsf ; his whole conduct implied the most lofty disdain for the opponents of the Church of Rome. He entertained for the heretics of his day, the same contempt and scorn which I and my brethren feel for the Reformers, the low Church, and the Ultra-Protestant. I sympathize with Bon ner in his generous aversion, and on this account, among others, I vindicate and honor his memory. * Collier doubts whether our respected Bishop said of the witnesses, that one talked like a goose, and another like a wood cock. He only believes that he swore once in answer to Sir Thomas Smith.— Collier, vol. ii, p. 278, ed. 1714. f The anecdote is — That a stranger met and saluted him with — " Good-morrow, Bishop Quondam,'' to which Bonner as promptly replied — " Farewell, knave Semper." BONNER AIMS AT THE " UNITY OF THE CHURCH." 269 The one great design of the Queen, the Council, and of Bonner, was to uphold that "unity of the Church" which was now identified with submission to Rome. I am not quite prepared, as I have said, to purchase the "unity of the Church," at present, with this price. I have said, that " till Rome moves towards us, we " cannot move towards Rome ;" but as we are daily moving towards Rome, I am not prepared to decide whether friendship with Rome is not worthy of pur chase at some greater sacrifice than we have already made. Implicit submission to Rome, in all its faith, discipline, and supremacy, we are certainly not yet willing to grant ; and if there can be unity on no other terms, that desirable object is, assuredly, at a great distance ; and Mr. Townsend's opinion ap pears to be more defensible, that Rome must change before the Catholic Church be again one, holy, united body. But our object is unity; and in every act of Mary's Council, in every proclamation of her Govern ment, in every paper of accusation against the Ultra- Protestants of the day, the "unity of the Church," in the form of submission to Rome, was continually kept in view, as the one principal object of the re conciliation with the Holy See, and the severe laws which followed it. This was the request made by the Chancellor Gardiner to the first who was burnt ; " Are ye content to unite yourself to the faith of the " holy Catholic Church with us — the Lord Cardinal " has come — the Parliament hath received his bles- " sing — such an unity — such a miracle hath not been 270 INDIVIDUALS ARE NEVER RIGHT AGAINST THE CHURCH. "seen." And the Proto-Martyr of England, in the reign of Mary was burnt, in spite of his declaration that he never could, nor did dissent from the Catho lic Church, because he would not partake ofthe unity of the Church of Rome, purchased by the submission of England.* " Will you come into our Church," said Gardiner, "with the Bishops and the whole " realm, and arise out of error and schism ?" " I "will prove to you," said the Proto-Martyr, "that " all I have taught is true and Catholic." " It shall " not, may not, ought not to be granted to you to " prove it," was the answer : " for you are but a " private man, and may not be heard against the de- " termination ofthe whole realm": and our language, I must confess, is the same to all those who with this man, appeal as individuals, to their own notions of the Catholic Church, and to their own declaration that the laws of man may not and cannot rule the word of God.f I must acknowledge that both I and my friends are unwilling, with Bonner and Gardiner, to believe that any individual can be right against the Church, the Bishops, the Government, the Parliament, the So vereign, and the Convocation ; all of whom, in this instance, had sanctioned the " unity of the Church," which this one Ultra-Protestant condemned. The " unity of the Church" was the point most insisted upon by Bonner, in his first address to the Clergy and Laity of his Diocese, after their reconciliation to j — _ ? Foxe, vol. vi, p. 593, new edition. Foxe, vol. vi, p. 597. BONNER'S ADDRESS ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 271 Rome. This address is loved by me and my friends, as expressing most fully and explicitly our own senti ments on the subject of heresy, schism, and unity. " Whereas this noble realm of England, dividing it- "self from the unity of the Catholic Church," it begins, " and from the agreement in religion with " all other Christian realms, &c, &c, therefore we " require all to be restored to the unity of the " Church."* In nearly all the articles of Bonner, as I have said, which were drawn up as the indict ments against the prisoners who were burnt, the vio lation ofthe "unity of the Church," as it was effected by submission to Rome, was one of the principal. This was the crime of Causton and Higbed,f that they had departed from the Catholic faith in which they had been born. They had dared to think for themselves, and to depart, with Cranmer and his co adjutors, from the " unity of the Church." " Do " you believe, as the Catholic Church believes ?" was one question to Pigot, Knight, and Lawrence.^ " Thou hast not believed, and dost not believe," said Bonner to Simson and Ardley, " that the faith and *' religion which both the Church of Rome, Italy, " Spain, England, France, Ireland, Scotland, and " all the Churches in Europe do believe and teach ; " but thou dost believe them to be false, erroneous, fl and naught."* Those are heretics, was alledged * Foxe, vol. vi, p. 709. f Foxe, vol. vi, p. 730. X Foxe, vol. vi, p. 738. § Foxe,, vol. vii, p. 87. 272 MR. Newman's ancestor, a martyr. against Hall and Wade, who believe not as our Holy Mother Church believes.* — " I object to you," said Bonner to Derick and Carver, " that you offend " against the Catholic faith of the Church. "t — The very crime, and repressed in the very words which we urge against the Ultra- Protestants, who make the Catholic Church teach that only which they believe. "Ye do refuse," said Bonner to the seven, who were afterwards burned together in one fire, " to be recon- " ciled again to the unity of the Church."J — " You " have fallen from the Universal Church of Christ," said Brokes, the Papal delegate, in the opening of this bitter harangue to Cranmer at his trial.§ " Phi- " lip and Mary," he added, " pereeiving how this " noble realm of England hath been brought from " the unity of the true and Catholic Church, have " requested the Pope, as its Supreme Head, to judge " thee."|| — " We never refuse," said one, " to be " reconciled and brought to the true unity of the Ca- " tholic Church of Christ ; but we do refuse to be re- " conciled to the religion now established in Eng- " land."^[ When John Newman, an ancestor, I be lieve, of my illustrious friend at Oxford, but who I think, was more of a Protestant than my friend, defended his refusing to be reconciled to the Church * Foxe, vol. vii, p. 318. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 324. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 716. § Foxe, vol. viii, p. 46. || Foxe, vol. viii, p. 50. f Foxe, vol. viii, p. 152. NEWMAN THE MARTYR MORE PROTESTANT THAN HIS SON. 273 of Rome ; he professed to have been convinced by the teaching of the preachers for seven years, in the time of King Edward, that their view of the Catholic Church was correct. I cannot learn from my friend's books, whether he agrees most with his martyred ancestor, or with Bishop Bonner. But of this, I am sure, that John Newman, of Maidstone, in the reign of Mary, who was burnt by Bonner, at Tenterden,* was much more of an Ultra- Protestant, than his des cendant John Newman, of Oriel College, Oxford, Vicar of St. Mary's ; and, I am sure also, that the opinions of John Newman, who was burnt, on tran substantiation, are further from the doctrines of the Church of Rome, and I must say also, are more in telligible, than the opinions of the Oriel John New man, on the same subject, lately published : but I hail it as one peculiar sign ofthe times, that an Ox ford teacher, clergyman, and (till he actually be comes a member of the Church of Rome) a Protes tant clergyman, should rejoice the hearts of my brethren of Rome ; by endeavouring to reconcile the abjuration of the doctrines of transubstantiation, with some other novel, not clearly defined, notion of the same doctrine. The modern John Newman is a more voluminous theologian than his ancestor. The faith of the latter shone bright in the fire of his mar tyrdom. The faith of the former, as a Protestant, gleams obscurely in the smoke of his writings. The latter appeals to Scripture — the former to the Church * Foxe, vol. vii, p. 335, and vol. viii, p. 243, 274 THE TWO JOHN NEWMANS CONTRASTED. and to the Scripture. The modern Oxford John Newman, speaking theoretically, assures us that the Church of Rome alone, amid all the errors and evils of her practical system, has given free scope to the feelings of awe, mystery, reverence, devotedness, tenderness, and other feelings which may be espe cially called Catholic* The former Maidstone or Tenterden John Newman, understood experimen tally, the real meaning of these kind and courteous words. Free scope was given to his feelings of awe, when he gazed, with mournful firmness, on the fire which burnt him. Deep was the feeling of mystery, which Rome inspired, when he endeavoured to com prehend the doctrine of the sacrament, and the pos sible connection between the truth of transubstantia tion and the faggots of Smithfield. The feeling of reverence, he certainly did not experience so singu larly, as his descendant of Oriel : neither was the devotedness of John Newman, senior, to the Church of Rome, equal to the devotedness of the modern John Newman, junior. With respect to the feelings of tenderness with which Rome inspired John New man, senior, he certainly did not at all understand the tenderness which bound him to the stake,' set fire to the faggots, and consumed him to ashes ; but with re spect to the feelings of tenderness with which Rome inspired John Newman, junior; he possibly imputes that to Rome which he may owe to the Ultra-Protes tant laws, which he so thoroughly despises : for he * Newman's letter to Dr. Jelf, pp. 27 and 28. WHICH JOHN NEWMAN IS THE PROTESTANT ? 275 may be assured that the tenderness which Rome now displays to the Protestants, who hate the word "Pro testant," and pay court to Rome, without marrying that Lady, is very different from the tenderness it might exert towards them, if the strong hand of the Protestant laws did not direct and regulate the manifestation of its love. The first John New man found the difference between the Church of England reconciled to Rome, and the Church of England unreconciled to Rome, to be so great, that he died at the stake on account of that difference. The second John Newman assures us, that " Popery " being a corruption of the truth, must be so like " the truth it counterfeits, that the resemblance of " his doctrines to Popery cannot be the proof of any " essential approximation to the same. It would, on " the contrary, be an argument against his doctrines, " if they did not resemble Popery. For if they bore " no likeness to it, Ultra-Protestantism could never "have been silently corrupted into Popery."* The force of this learned, ingenious, candid, and convinc ing argument, to prove to us that the doctrines of the Protestant and Papistical Church of England resembled each other ; and, therefore, if they did so, that a man must have been absurd to have been burnt for his opinions — while the poor martyr es teemed the difference between them to be as great as that of life from death, darkness from light, or * Introduction to the third volume of Newman's Sermons. Oxford, 1837. T 276 ANCESTOR OF DR. HOOK BURNT FOR PROTESTANTISM. God from Satan ; did not satisfy the first John Newman, for he went to the stake, and was burnt. Neither did it satisfy the ancestor of another emi nent modern theologian, Richard Hook, the next martyr to John Newman,* who suffered about the same season, and for the same matter, at Chichester. He, too, in spite ofthe apostolical succession, could not perceive that the authority of the Church was to be employed in preserving the "Unity of the Church," when the uninspired Church taught doc trines which the individual believer in the Gospel of Christ was convinced were contrary to the inspired Scriptures of God. Neither the Newmans nor Hooks of the reign of Mary were convinced that to submit to the authority of the Church, unless they believed the Church to speak the truth, was a proof of Chris tian meekness.f " The unity of the Church," said Bonner, " makes me burn Newman and Hook." If another reconciliation with Rome were again to take place, by the submission of the Sovereign, the Se nate, the Clergy, and the Convocation to the Papal mandate, commended by the blindness or eloquence of a Papal Legate ; and if other Bonners should arise among us to enforce by severity the laws which are enacted in such tenderness, and from love to the "unity ofthe Church," we may at least congratulate ourselves on one anticipation. If all such Newmans and Hooks * Foxe, vol. viii, p. 339. f See Newman's Sermon on Submission to the Church, vol. iii., p. 223. PAST AND PRESENT NEWMANS AND HOOKS CONTRASTED. 277 as lived in the reign of Mary were to become so changed that they are as unable to perceive the great difference between the Church of Rome and the Ed wardian, or existing Church of England, as the mo dern Newmans and Hooks of the reign of Victoria.; then the laws to burn heretics might be again re vived with perfect harmlessness and safety : for the fires of Smithfield, of Saffron Walden, and of Chi chester, could never again be kindled, not for want of persecutors to burn, but for want of victims to en dure the burning. I could refer to other proofs that the enforcement of the unity of the Church by submission to Rome was one great object of all the Anti- Protestant party ; and that both they and the Ultra-Protestant party con sidered the difference between Rome and themselves to be as great as between happiness and misery : but I wish to prove that the other objects of Bonner, the affirmation of a sacrifice in the Eucharist, the offering of prayers for the dead, and thex condem nation of the Service Book of King Edward, the mo dern Prayer-Book, because of the manner in which the first of these doctrines was taught, and the second omitted — are the same with those ofthe " Tractarian British Critics," and that on these accounts also we are justified in defending the calumniated Bonner. With respect to the doctrine of an actual sacrifice in the Eucharist, it can, I think, be proved that no one victim was burnt, no one prisoner was accused of Protestantism or heresy, without this charge being 278 BONNER ENFORCES THE TRUTH OF THE EUCHARIST. implied, or expressed, as one of the articles of their indictment ; that they disbelieved in the actual sacri fice of the body and blood of Christ in the Holy Communion. This was done before the Articles of the Creed of Pope Pius were drawn up ; that is, be fore the Council of Trent had ceased to sit. This doctrine was held in the reign of Henry VIII. It was rejected in the reign of Edward the Sixth, when the articles of the existing Church of England, as we now hold them, were drawn up partly against this very doctrine. It was revived in the reign of Mary, and rejected again by the restoration of those Articles, in an abridged form, in the reign of Elizabeth, to be once more advocated by me and by my brethren in the present day. We agree with my dear friend, Dr. Pusey, that the Eucharist is the true commemorative sacrifice, representing to God the death and passion of his Son* — that in the Eucharist a sacrifice is made by the Church to God — that this sacrifice was pre dicted by Malachi, as that which the Gentiles should offer — and that it is enjoined in the words " do this, " or sacrifice this, in remembrance of me." This we affirm to be the doctrine of the early Church, and this we affirm to be our doctrine.f The Thirty-nine Articles, therefore, were intended to exclude from the Church of England those who held the doc trine of an actual sacrifice in the Eucharist ; before the Council of Trent, in the Creed of Pope Pius, af- * Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, p. 140, f Tracts, No. 81, p. 4. PRAYER BOOK NOT CLEAR ON THE EUCHARIST. 279 firmed the doctrine to be that of the existing Church of Rome — and, therefore, it is that another of my dear friends, the late Professor Keble, is right when he observes, " that persons imbued with Catholic principles, are, in some points, staggered by the tone and wording of the articles."* No mistake is so great as the imagination that the formularies of the existing Church of England were drawn up in oppo sition only to the Council of Trent : and I fear, therefore, that I cannot quite agree with my brother who wrote Tract 90, that the Articles may be signed by those who disapprove of the Council of Trent only. None ought to sign them, who believed in the doctrines which were held by the accusers and Anti-Protestant burners of the Marian victims : and my friends, less bold than I am, in the carrying out of their principles, will not act consistently till they leave the Communion which they cannot deny to be Protestant, and form a Communion of their own : and I rejoice to hear my dear friend Keble boldly affirms that the time has come, when we must retire as the non-jurors did from the Church, and form ano ther Communion, unless we can obtain a dispensation from explaining the Thirty-nine Articles in the sense in which they are held by the Bishops who oppose our present interpretation — or if we do not form al- * See the case of Catholic Subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles considered : with especial reference to the duties and difficulties of English Catholics in the present crisis — in a letter to Judge Coleridge — by the Rev. John Keble, pp. 6-7. 280 BONNER'S QUESTIONS ON THE EUCHARIST. together a new Communion, we must retire into a diocese where we may teach them in our own, and not in the generally received sense.* It certainly does not seem to me (as one anxious to follow out my principles, and not to disguise them) to be pos sible for any Christian who believes either that there is an actual sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, or that prayers are to be offered for the dead, or that the Prayer-book of King Ed ward is an inadequate liturgy for the devotions of the people ; to remain in the present Church of Eng land, which was reformed by the rejection of the two first, and by the adoption of the last of these ; at the risk, or at the expence of the lives of the Ultra- Pro testant Reformers ; whom, in common with the Church of Rome, both before, during, and after the Council of Trent, we despise, deride, and abhor. I am sure that I shall be supported in this opinion, by all who consider the exceedingly energetic language in which my dear Bonner, and his coadjutors, uni formly urged upon their absurd victims^ the doc trines which he, and I, and my brethren, now ap prove ; but which the martyrs, if I must call them so, with the present Church, in which we still linger, condemned and opposed. All these, from Rogers or Matthews, the translator ofthe Bible, the first who was burnt in Smithfield, to the last who was burnt at Smithfield, and to the last who were burnt at Canterbury, immediately before the death of Mary, * Keble's Letter, pp. 27-31. ULTRA-PROTESTANTS ON THE EUCHARIST. 281 were questioned on the subject, not of Transubstan tiation, as the Council of Trent defined it ; but of the sacrifice of the body of Christ, as the Catholic Church received it, and as the existing Church of England condemns the doctrine. " Do you believe," said the Bishop of Carlisle,* to Rogers, the proto martyr, " that in the sacrament is the very body and " blood of Christ ? What is our doctrine of the sa- " crament ?" " False," quoth the martyr.f " Do " you believe," said Bonner, to Holland, the last who was burnt at Smithfield, " that after the words, of " consecration, there remaineth the body of Christ, " really and corporeally under the forms of bread " and wine ? — wilt thou confess the real and corpo- " real presence of Christ's body in the sacrament ?" Much conversation followed : at length said Holland, " I believe the mass, transubstantiation, and the wor- " shipping of the sacrament, to be mere impiety, and " horrible idolatry :"J and the Ultra- Protestant was burnt. So also, with the last who were burnt at Can terbury. " They were adjudged to the fire," says the hateful Martyrologist, " for believing the body " of Christ not tobe in the sacrament of the altar :"§ and it would be tedious to go through the list, and extract the same accusations in the indictments, or the same sentence pronounced against the delin- * Aldrich. f Foxe, vol. vi, pp. 598, 599. X Foxe, vol. viii, p. 478. § Foxe, vol. viii, p. 534. 282 BONNER BURNS THE ULTRA-PROTESTANTS FOR quents. " He did not believe," was a part of the sentence against Rogers, " that in the sacrament of " the altar is substantially and really the natural body " and blood of Christ."* "Thou deniest the verity of " Christ's body and blood in the sacrament of the " altar," said Bonner to Causton and Higbed, before he burnt them.f " Is it true that ye speak against " the true presence of Christ's natural body in the " sacrament of the altar ?" said Bonner, to Pigot, Knight, and Lawrence, J and they were burnt. "Thou "art of opinion," was alleged against the fanatic who struck the Priest as he was holding the cha lice—" that in the sacrament of the altar, after the " words of the consecration, there is not really, " and truly, and in very deed, contained, under the " form of bread, the very true and natural body " of our Saviour," — and for this, as well as for his indefensible assault, William Flower was burnt.§ " He believeth that the substance of material bread " and wine doth remain in the sacrament of the altar, " after the consecration," was the charge of Bon ner against Wats.ll1 " He believes," said the Earl of Oxford, when he sent a prisoner to Bonner, — " that in the sacrament ofthe altar, under the forms " of bread and wine,, there is not the very substance * Foxe, vol. vi, p. 601. f Foxe, vol. vi, p. 731. X Foxe, vol. vi, p. 738. § Foxe, vol. vii, p. 72. || Foxe, vol. vii, p. 120. THEIR OPINIONS ON THE EUCHARIST. 283 " of Christ's body and blood, but only the substance " of material and common bread and wine ;"* and the prisoners were burnt. " He hath maintained " heresy, against the blessed sacrament ofthe altar," said Bonner of Philpotts, and he pulled off his cap with reverence, " he would not allow the real pre- " sence ofthe body and blood of Christ in the same,"f and the learned, eloquent, and unanswerable theolo gian was consigned to the flames. " Ye have affirmed," said Bonner to seven criminals who were afterwards burned in one fire, " that in the sacrament ofthe altar " there is none other substance, but only material " bread and wine ; and that the substance of Christ's " body and blood is in nowise in the said sacrament " of the altar."J " How say you, sirrah," said Bon ner to another whom he burnt, " after the words of " consecration, be spoken by the priest, there remain- " eth no bread, but the very body of our Saviour Jesus " Christ, God and man, and none other substance " under the form of bread."§ Then followed a con versation on the nature of Christ's body, resembling former conversations on accidents and substances, and the various unintelligibilities which, from Rad- bert to Newman, now of Oriel College, Oxford, have characterized the disputants on this topic. All these I omit, as well as my dear Bonner's illus- * Foxe, vol. vii, p. 140. f Foxe, vol. vii, p. 630. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 716. § Foxe, vol. viii, p. 410. 284 BONNER AND OURSELVES AGREED ON THE EUCHARIST. tration of the nature of the change in the Eucharist, from a piece of beef being of the same nature, though part was eaten at his table and part was sent to the cook to be made to resemble bread.* I am un willing to condemn the representative ofthe apostles, — I can only say that I comprehend his illustration with the same facility as I comprehend the illustra- tration of my brother Newman. Both were equally clear, and equally worthy of the high reputation of Ox ford theologians, whether in antient or modern days, who endeavour to make the doctrine in question clear to the simple Christian. Both Bonner and Newman, and I, his brother Tractarian, are thus all agreed ; and are all equally anxious to induce the belief among the people, of an actual sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, made by the priest in the sacrament of the altar. " Why, indeed," as my friend Froude observes, " why should we hesitate to say that the "priest makes the body and blood of Christ ;" — and why, therefore, I add, shall I and my brethren he sitate to say that as they are there, so also are they offered, as an actual sacrifice, in the sacra ment of the altar. If this be Popery— we are not Protestants. We are Papists ; and our position, as my friend Keble says, is a " very delicate one indeed." \ Another object of Bonner, of his coadjutors, of the Queen, the Government, the Council, and the * Foxe, vol. viii, p. 410. X See Keble's Letter to Coleridge. BONNER RESTORES PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD. 285 Clergy, was the restoration of the prayers for the dead, which I have shewn, in my Tracts, to have been common to all the antient liturgies, without one exception ; though I confess that it does not appear to be supported by the Scriptures, either of the Old or of the New Testament. We are most anxious to restore this practice. It is sanctioned by tradition. It was taught in the first Prayer-book of King Ed ward, and we have urged many arguments which I shall not here repeat, to convince the people of its antiquity, and — I was about to say of its usefulness : but as this is rather difficult, I shall only say, of its adaptation to the affections of human nature, and of its gratifying the imagination, though without commend ing itself to the reason, which derives its instruction from the inspired revelation ofthe written Scriptures, and not from the uninspired opinions ofthe unwritten tradition. So it is, however, that we both advocate the doctrine that the " dead in Christ obtain addi tional joys and satisfactions from the prayers oftheir brethren:"* and if this also is Popery, I confess that we are Papists : though indeed it is not necessary to make this confession in the present instance, for our not praying for the dead is an omission only. The Church of England "nowhere restrains her chil dren from praying for their departed friends."^ " Will you have nobody to pray for you when you " be dead," said Bonner to Hawkes, whom he burnt. * Tract, No. 81, p. 7. f Tracts, vol. 3, p. 22. 286 bonner's questions on prayers for the dead. "No, surely," was the answer, "unless you prove "the doctrine by the Scriptures": an answer which Gardiner declared in another instance deserved the fire ; for he who professed his belief in the Scrip tures only, announced himself to be a heretic, and was only fit for damnation. " Will you not grant " the prayer of a righteous man to prevail," rejoined Bonner. " Yes !" was the answer, "for the living, " not for the dead." " Not for the dead !" exclaimed Bonner, in contempt and surprize.* Hawkes was burnt, and never, I must say, did the Ultra-Protestant cause produce a nobler victim. " Give us a token, " when you are burning in the flames," said one of his Ultra-Protestant friends, "whether the pain be so "great that it is not possible therein to keep the mind " quiet and patient." " I will do so," said the suf ferer, " if the rage of the pain be endurable, and may " be borne, I will lift up my hands above my head " towards heaven before I die." And he did so. When his powers of speech had ceased : when his skin had shrivelled like burning parchment on his writhing body, and his fingers had been consumed by the fire ; he lifted up the stumps of his arms, made an effort to clasp the wreck of his limbs together, and thus, like the witnesses whom St. Paul enume rates — " He quenched the violence of fire." There was a sense in which the old promise was fulfilled ; " when thou walkest through the fire, I will be with "thee, and the flame shall not kindle upon thee." But I am talking like an Ultra- Protestant. * Foxe, vol. vii, p. 103. the tractarians teach praying for the dead. 287 "What say you of prayer for the dead ?" said Gar diner, to another who was burnt. " Is it not meet " that if a man's friend be dead, his friend commend " his soul unto God. Is it not meet that prayer be " made unto God, for his soul." The answer was such as the Protestant only could give.* "Thou " hast taught," said Bonner, to another, " that pray- " ers to Saints, or prayers for the dead are not avail- " able, and not allowable by God's word, or profit- " able in any wise ; and that the souls departed do " straightways go to heaven or to hell":f and so, as in the former case, I could collect many instances from the old martyrologist, to prove that the restoration among the people of the doctrine that prayers for the dead were advisable and useful, was as much one ob ject with Bonner, as it is with us the Tractarians of the present day ; but I pass them all by to beg the attention of my reader to the illustration of the value of the doctrine, as well as to Bonner's zeal for its establishment, afforded us by the historian Strype.J On the 16th of October, Ridley and Latimer, the two Bishops in whose actions and memory the Ultra-Protestants of England have ever boasted and rejoiced, were brought to the same fire in Oxford. Their last words are well known — " Be of good "cheer, brother Ridley, and play the man ; we "shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, * Foxe, vol. viii, p. 543, f Foxe, vol. viii, p. 313. X Eccles, Mem, Mary.— -An. 1555, Nov, p. 229. 288 DEATHS OF RIDLEY, LATIMER, GARDINER, contrasted. " in England, as I trust shall never be put out :" and, " Oh, Father of Heaven, receive my soul !" were the last words of Latimer, as he seemed to bathe his hands in the flame ; and died an old and worn-out man, with little sense of pain. " Lord " have mercy upon me — let the fire come to me — I " cannot burn — mercy — I cannot burn," were the last words of the longer tortured and more deeply suffering Ridley, and so they both died ; and the effects of their martyrdoms have not yet ceased from among us, On the day of their death, or three days after, Gardiner is said to have anxiously expected the news of their execution, and to have rejoiced, be fore he dined, that the reconciliation with Rome was strengthened by this additional and splendid sacrifice. On that same day, however, the sentence was pro nounced, though by no human voice, that the soul of Gardiner, as well as the souls of Latimer and Ridley, should be summonod to give up its account to God. The dart of death struck his body, and the excruciating pains he endured were longer in duration, and possibly not altogether less intense in their agony, than those of his brother Bishops at the stake. But with respect to the comfort which they had in their souls, the arrows of the Almighty seem ed fixed in the spirit of Gardiner ; while the con solations of Heaven had dropped, as the dew of the morning, making calm the souls of the sufferers at Oxford ; amidst the exploding gunpowder on their necks, and the burning faggots round their parched BONNER VISITS THE DYING GARDINER. 289 and shrivelled bodies. Even if the expression " I " have sinned with Peter, but with Peter I have " not repented," be not certainly imputed to him with truth, a worse proof of the absence of the com forts of the Gospel from the soul of the dying Chan cellor was given by his speech to the visitor who began to speak to him in his agonies on the free justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ the Saviour. " Do not open that gap," said the wretched wealthy, successful persecutor. He found no com fort in that doctrine, and no words of hope, or faith, or confidence, are reported of his bed of death. Thus his last hour approached, and Bonner visited Gar diner, and saw that sad sight ; but what passed between them is known only to themselves and their God. So Gardiner lingered till the twenty- eighth day after the death of Ridley and Latimer ; and till the separation of his soul from his body, at midnight, on the 13th of November : and then " the high gifts and strong claims of the Church of Rome, and its dependence on our admiration, re verence, love, and gratitude,"* more especially and peculiarly appeared. The Protestants, on the death of their friends, mourn for their loss, but they leave their souls to God. We, the Tractarians, in common with the Church of Rome, mourn also for their loss, but commend their souls to God, "by our prayers for the additional joys and satisfactions"^ in their new * Tract, No. 24, p. 7. f Tract, No. 81, p. 7. 290 BONNER PRAYS FOR THE SOUL OF GARDINER. state of existence. This Bonner did. On the 14th of November, the mass of requiem was sung for Gardiner by Bonner, Bishop of London, the other Bishops, Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen being pre sent. Bonner, yes Bonner, prayed for the soul of Gardiner ! ! ! What was his prayer ? If we look to the services of the Church of Rome, and my friend Froude says that he " can see no other claim which the Prayer-book has on a layman's deference, as the teaching of the Church, which the Breviary and the Missal have not in afar greater degree,"* we shall find that the souls of the faithful are not commended to God only. God alone is not requested to deliver them from the power of the enemy. He is intreated, in the common mass for the dead, by the intercession ofthe Blessed Mary, ever a Virgin, and of all the Saints, that the souls for which the pe titioners prayed, may be admitted to the enjoyment of eternal happiness.f Bonner then prayed to the Saints to intercede for the soul of Gardiner. To whom then did he pray ? I see them ! I see them ! Rome has elevated them to the throne on which John saw but the one intercessor. Rome has placed them there as the joint intercessors or mediators with the Lamb that was slain. Rome has placed on that throne of the Mediator, since the days of John, other Mediators, other Saints, intercessors * Froude's Remains, vol. 1, p. 402. X See the Missal published by Keating and Brown, 1815; p. 518, &c, &c. BONNER PRAYS TO THE SAINTS FOR GARDINER. 291 with God for the souls of the faithful. Hildebrand, Becket, and Innocent are there raised by Rome on the throne of the Lamb of God, as joint intercessors to the Father with Christ. We, the Tractarians of the Church of England, will endeavour to keep them there ; and to persuade our countrymen to adopt our pious opinion, that those blessed Saints of the Most High are to be honored and invocated. And I see them, — I see them on the throne of the Mediator. One difference only distinguishes them from the Saints who are described by St. John. Like those Saints, "they have come out of great tribulation ;" but it is the tribulation they inflicted, not the tribulation they suffered. Hildebrand, Innocent, Becket, the men whom we, the Tractarians of Oxford, in the year of our Lord 1841, in this Protestant England, have deno minated "the blessed Saints ofthe Most High," divide with Christ, the one Mediator of the New Testament, the throne of the many Mediators of the Church of Rome. They listen to the prayer of Bonner for the soul of Gardiner. The soul of Gardiner has returned to the God who gave it. The soul of Gardiner most certainly needed all the prayers his earthly friends could offer : and all the intercessions which even Hildebrand, Innocent, and Becket could make for him. The free pardon by the blood of the cross gave him no comfort, as he was dying ; and the Church of Rome alone, in the absence of such comfort, can compensate for its loss, by the prayers of the living for the dead, and by the intercession of other Me- 292 CHARACTER OF GARDINER. diators than the Crucified. His soul needed their pray ers. As his garments may be said to have been black ened with the smoke, and his face reddened with the lurid ness, of the flames he had kindled ; so his soul was black with the guilt, and his conscience was spotted with the blood of the victims he had slain for God's honour, in the name of the Church. Never did soul pf man leave the visible world for the invisible, which more certainly required all the aid — which Christ has not given ; but which we, the Tractarians, sanction ; and which Rome offers to its children. Gardiner was dying ! the wavering Gardiner ! neither true Protes tant, nor true Papist — neither constant in error, nor stedfast in truth — neither a friend to the Pope, nor the enemy to Christ — false to King Henry, and omitted in his will — a dissembler to King Ed ward — a double per jured murderer in the reign of Mary — the principal negociator ofthe divorce of Henry from Catherine* — the enemy ofthe Protestant- German influence at Ra tisbon, f where he was supposed to be secretly re conciled to Rome — the adviser of Henry in the affair of Lambert — the instigator of the Act of the Six Articles, under which the Papist and Protestant were burnt with equal impartiality! — the opponent ofthe translation of the Bible, in the reign of Henry§ — and yet the declarer, in the reign of Edward, that the Holy Scriptures contained sufficiently all doc trine required, of necessity, for eternal salvation; and that nothing is to be taught, as required of necessity * 1528-1533. f 1538. X 1539' § 1542 CHARACTER OF GARDINER. 293 to be believed, but that which is concluded and proved by Scripture* — the constant opponent of the supremacy of the Pope,f in his book " de Vera. Obe dientia" — the affirmer that the confession not the per son of St. Peter was the rock on which the Church was built — that "feed my sheep," was equally addres sed to all the Apostles — that Peter was the chief of the Apostles, as the foreman only of the Apostles — that the power ofthe keys was given equally to all the Apostles — Gardiner! for fourteen years together, the uniform, zealous, earnest, and forward opponent of Papal supremacy J — -the objector also to the antient ceremonies, to monkery, and to images — and yet the approver of the Communion-book of King Edward, and the retractor of all this when Mary came to the throne — Gardiner, the adviser, as Chancellor of the kingdom, ofthe revival ofthe antient laws against heresy and the exiles — He, Gardiner, was now about * See this and other Ultra-Protestant Confessions of Faith, by Gardiner Foxe, vol. vii, p. 83. -j- When he was made Bishop, (1540), he took an oath that the Bishop of Rome had no authority, jurisdiction, or power, within this realm. But he must have taken this oath with re ference to the temporal, not the spiritual power of the Pope : for even my friend, Mr. Newman, acknowledges that the Pope has seme power, that -is some spiritual power, within these realms ; or he could not have subjected himself to the rebuke of Mr. Golightly, for leaving out the words " temporal or spi ritual," when he quoted the oath, denying the jurisdiction of the Pope within these realms. X See the quotations, proofs, and references, in Foxe, vol. vii, p. 595. 294 BONNER DID NOT PRAY FOR RIDLEY AND LATIMER. to die, and the name of Christ gave no comfort to his soul. But Bonner prayed for his soul — he prayed with as much benefit for that soul, as Hil debrand, Innocent, and Becket interceded, for its salvation. Never did the soul of a sinner require more certainly the offering, by his friends, of the prayers for the dead, if such prayers could, by pos sibility, bless him. Never did such a friend as Bonner, pray for the soul of such a friend as Gar diner. But if the prayers of the living for the dead, benefitted the dead, — if, as my friend Froude says — "those people are injudicious who talk " against Roman Catholics for worshipping Saints " and honoring the Virgin Mary,"* — if Hilde brand, at the request of Bonner, interceded, toge ther with the Virgin Mary, for the soul of Gardiner, where were now the souls of Ridley and Latimer ? Who interceded for them ? What Saints mediated for them ? Hildebrand would not pray for them ! In nocent would not implore God for them! Thomas of Canterbury would not mediate for them, though he was an English Saint. If the feelings of earth are taken by the soul to Heaven, and if the feelings of earth, therefore, remain with those whom Rome has canonized, Thomas Becket would have interceded for Gardiner, much more than for Ridley and Lati mer. Gardiner had commanded the image of Bec ket, at the commencement of the same year, to be * Froude, vol. i., p. 294. WHETHER BECKET HEARD THE PRAYERS OF BONNER. 295 replaced over the gate of St. Thomas of Acres,* in the habit of a Bishop, with his mitre and crosier. Ridley and Latimer had taught that the worship of Saints was to be abolished, and tbat Henry did well to remove the body of Becket from his shrine, and to command the adoration of his worshippers to cease. The teaching of Latimer and Ridley so in fluenced the benighted Ultra-Protestants in spite of the edict of the Anti- Protestant Gardiner, that, within two days after the Image had been replaced on its pedestal, the two fingers, which were held up in blessing, were broken off, and, the next night, both his neck and his crosier were broken. Again the Image was set up, again it was defaced. Men were punished on suspicion. Proclamations were pub lished — rewards were offered for the discovery of the iconoclast. All was in vain. The people were imbued with the impious opinions of Ridley and Lati mer ; and if the proverb be, indeed, true, that some actions are so flagrant they would vex a Saint, then we may believe that Becket was vexed with Ridley and Latimer, and pleased with Gardiner; that he would listen to the prayers of Bonner, and leave Ridley and Latimer, without his intercession, to the mercy, for which the Saint would not pray.f To * Mercers' Chapel, on the site of which Becket was born. — Fuller's Worthies, p. 203. X See Strype Eccl. Mem, 1554, Feb. 14, chap. 26. I do not approve of Strype 's language, though I refer to him. " On the same day," he says, "in which Robert Farrar, Bishop of St. Davids, was burnt in his own Diocese, the Image of the old ab rogated Saint, Thomas Becket, martyr for thc Pope, but traytor 296 TRUE SAINTS ALWAYS HAVE REAL TASTE. intercede also for such men as Ridley and Latimer would be contrary to good taste. So Froude thought. Why do you praise Ridley f he enquires of his friend.* And my friend, Dr. Wiseman, who is called the Bishop of Melipotamus, assures us, in his Lectures on the Offices and Ceremonies of the Holy Week, that all true Saints, (and we acknowledge Becket to be such) ever were, and, therefore, are, men of real taste.f Not only so — Prayers for the Dead, and the belief in the intercession of the Saints, are defended as a part of the Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints. But with Ridley and Latimer, Hildebrand and Innocent, Bonner and Gardiner, there could be no Communion of Saints. I dare not say more. The veil of death parts me both from the damned, and from the undamned ; and I will not debase my intellect by speculating on the condition in the unseen world of the perse cutor, and of the victim, who returned to the God inflicting, or suffering, the cruelty of the flame, and the stake. May the controversies of earth perish with the bodies of earth ; — but Ridley and Latimer to the King, was set up in stone over the gate of St. Thomas, &c., &c." It moves my indignation, as I have said in my Tracts, " to hear the Saints of the Most High thus spohen of." Directly that Cardinal Pole succeeded Cranmer, he replaced the name of Becket in its antient places. See the passage in Strype, chap. 37. * Froude's Remains, vol. i., p. 394, X See Wiseman's Lectures on the Holy Week, 1 vol. 8vo, p. 79. Dolman, 1839. PRAYERS TO CHRIST PREFERABLE TO PRAYERS TO SAINTS. 297 prayed for themselves, as Christ prays, as St. Ste phen prayed, when he was dying, to the King of Kings,.and Lord of Lords — and I cannot but believe, whatever may be the utility of prayers for the dead, and of the intercession of the Saints, that the souls of Ridley and of Latimer, were quite as safe with God ; as the soul of Gardiner after the prayers of Bon ner, or the intercession of Hildebrand and Becket. I speak with great deference. Rome may rejoice, as it does rejoice, that 1, and my friends, are endea vouring once more to reconcile the people of Eng land to the opinions of Bonner and Gardiner that prayers for the dead, and the intercession of Saints, may be useful : and we will still endeavour to com mend this system to our countrymen. But I find it difficult to persuade myself, and, therefore, to per suade others, that the prayers of Ridley and Lati mer, who prayed from the withering flame to the Son of God for mercy ; did not obtain from the Lamb of God, all and perhaps more abundant blessings, than the soul of Gardiner obtained from the prayers of Bonner, or the intercession of Hildebrand. And if it be so, then the conclusion follows, that the examples of Ridley and Latimer are preferable to those of Bon ner and his Tractarian followers ; and that it may be better so to believe and live, that we be able to commend our parting spirits in peace to the God who made us, and to the Saviour who redeems us ; and to seek no other hope, and no other Redeem er, than to depend for any part of God's mercy 298 REFLECTIONS ON BONNER'S PRAYER FOR GARDINER. on the prayers of our brother, or the intercession of any Saint whatever. I feel that I cannot get rid of my old Protestant Church of England feelings in this matter. I must retrograde still further, and approximate still nearer to Rome, in my heart, as well as in my arguments, before I leave my soul to the prayers of my friends on earth, or to the Saints in Heaven ; instead of committing it wholly, solely, and exclusively, in humble hope and prayer, to Him who died, that I might live, " where there is the fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore." "But Bonner prayed," says the historian, "for the soul of Gardiner." I read, and having read, I pon dered on the subject. I laid aside my pen. It was time to retire to rest. The matter on which 1 had written, still remained on my mind ; and in my sleep, " in deep sleep," when deep sleep came upon me, the impression of the thought continued, and avision pass ed before me. I was in the spirit, methought, with him of Patmos ; when in the sublimities of the apo calypse, the heavens opened upon him. I saw the throne of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, as the Lamb that was slain ; as the one Sacrifice, the Intercessor which pleaded there for the pardon of the sins of man. He had trodden the winepress ofthe wrath of God alone; and of his own people, the best and dearest to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God, there were none on that throne with him. Still I gazed, till I saw the number which no man could number, from all kindred, and nations, THE HEAVEN OF ROME AND OF SCRIPTURE CONTRASTED. 299 and tongues, cast their crowns before God ; and I heard their solemn gratitude peal through the Courts of Glory — " Not unto us, oh, Lord ! not unto us, but to thy name, be the praise of our salvation, from the sins and from the sorrows of earth." They were before the throne of Christ. They bent at their appointed dis tance before that throne; but they were not Mediators with Him. — " But a change came o'er the spirit of my dream." Another Heaven, than the Heaven of the apocalypse — the Heaven of the Church of Rome was before me. One Intercessor no longer stood between God and man. The mercy-seat of Christ was possessed by other Mediators and other Inter cessors. Rome had commanded them to be there, and a long train of the canonized, the holy and the un holy, the spurious and the dubious, of Hermits and of Popes, of Confessors and of Martyrs, shared the throne with the Son of the Living God. They did not cast their golden crowns before Him. They wore their crowns of glory, as the Brother-Media tors ; aye, and as the Mother-Mediator, and as the Sister-Mediators, with Christ the Lord. So had Rome commanded. Dominic and Francis, Hildebrand and Innocent, Becket and the Virgin, with nameless thousands more, were all Mediators together. The Virgin, the blessed Virgin, methought, blushed amidst the glory of Heaven, at the company in which Rome had placed her. She turned from the aspirations and praises of her votaries, when they called her " Queen of Heaven," and when they prayed to her, and not 300 VISION OF BONNER PRAYING FOR GARDINER. to Christ — as the bruiser ofthe serpent's head. She bent before the throne of her Redeemer and Prince. " My soul," she said, " doth magnify the Lord alone, " my spirit hath rejoiced, and it shall rejoice, in God " my Saviour. — My soul abhors the prayers and the " praises which are given to me and not to Him. This " only lessens the felicities of Heaven, that the believ- " ers in the religion of my God and Saviour should " give to me the blessed Virgin the homage which " is due to the bruiser of the serpent's head alone." I saw in my vision that the blessed Virgin fled from the society in which Rome had placed her, towards the bright glory which shone above her. Dominic and Francis, Hildebrand and Innocent, Becket and Borromeo, Aquinas and Bonaventura, remained on the throne of the Mediator. Suddenly a voice was heard from England. The soul of Gardiner, redo lent with the blood of Ridley and Latimer, appeared among the spirits of the newly dead. The voice was the voice of Bonner. The prayer was the prayer of Bonner. It implored Becket and Hildebrand, Inno cent and Dominic, to intercede with God and Christ for the soul of Gardiner. Other voices ascended with the voice of Bonner. Mary and Philip, and Pole and Story, who boasted that he " threw the faggot in " the face of a Psalm-singer at the stake, and pricked "his mouth ashe then and there commended his soul " to God" — were heard to pray with Bonner, to the Saints of Rome, to Dominic and Becket, to Hilde brand and Innocent, that the soul of Gardiner might BONNER AND THE TRACTARIANS ON THE LITURGY. 301 share their glories ; and be with them partakers of that Heaven, " from which they had banished the " souls of the Protestants." Neither was this all. Still I seemed to listen : and other voices from Eng land and Oxford were heard. The voices of prayer to the Saints whom Rome had placed on the throne of the Mediator had ceased to rise from the Church of England, and from its best child, Oxford : but still I listened — and though no voice arose from the Church, methought I heard a faint whisper from Oxford, in this my own day, that " the satisfactions ofthe souls departed may be increased by the pray ers of the living," and — I awoke — and it was not a dream. The next object, which we hold in common with Bon ner and ourselves, is the substitution of abetter Litur gy than the present. Our friend Froude considered our present Communion Service as a judgment on the Church ;* and he, with others of our friends, would " gladly consent to see our Communion Service re- " placed by a good translation of the Liturgy of " St. Peter ; a name which he advises his corres- "pondent to substitute for the obnoxious phrase of " Mass-book ;"f and our brother Newman calls the Canon of the Mass, that " sacred and most precious " monument of the Apostles, which our Reformers (whom Froude calls " snobs," and " such a set," J) * Froude's Remains, p. 410. X Froude's Remains, p. 387. X Froude, p. 393, &c, and p. 484. 302 BONNER DERIDES THE ULTRA-PROTESTANTS " received whole and entire from their predecessors ; " but the Reformers mutilated the traditions of fif- " teen hundred years."* Froude says also, as I have before quoted, that " the Prayer-book has no greater " claim to our deference than the Missal, and the " Breviary, in a far greater degree" :\ and I shall not repeat again my own preference of the glory of the first or unreformed temple, to the diminished glory of the second or reformed present service. Now in all this our opinions are identical with those of Bonner, and the Government of his day — and I should indeed, therefore, be a hypocrite if I did not boldly say so. I will select a few of the expressions in which the illustrious Bonner, in common with the Puritans, the Papists, and the Tractarians condemn ed the existing services of the reformed Church of England — " Because, (he says in his articles against one ofthe Ultra-Protestants whom he burned,) "the " service of the Church, in the days of King Ed- " ward, was alleged to be abominable, heretical, schis- " matical, and altogether naught :" he, therefore, the said delinquent, openly affirms, " that the present " service (restored under Queen Mary) is also abo- " minable, heretical," &c. % In the proclamation of the 13th of June, 1555, by the King and Queen, re straining the publication of all books and writings, tending against the doctrine of the Pope, after the * Newman's Reply to Faussett, pp. 46, 47. X Froude's Remains, vol. 1, p. 402. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 121. FOR THEIR ATTACHMENT TO THE PRAYER BOOK. 303 enumeration of the works of Martin Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Latimer, Hooper, Coverdale, Tyndale, Cran mer, Frith, and many others, — it is commanded that none presume to write, print, sell, keep, or cause to be written, &c, &c, the Communion Book, or Book of Common Prayer, and Administration ofthe Sacra ments, set forth by the authority of Parliament, to be used in the Churches of this realm in the reign of Edward the Sixth* "I object to you," (said Bon ner to others, who were burnt) " that you have en- " deavoured, to the utmost of your power, to restore " the English Service and Communion in all points, " as it was used in the latter days of Edward the " Sixth." t That is, he objected, as I and my friends object, to the second Service-book of King Edward. " I call upon you," (said Bonner to Philpott) " to " answer to the Catechism set forth in the schis- " matical time of King Edward."| The Reformers, indeed, did as much for the second Service-book of King Edward, our present Prayer-book, (with some few subsequent alterations,) as for any other object. " God be thanked," said Rowland Taylor, (in his reply to Bourn, who questioned him on the subject of the Prayer-book, in the presence of Bonner and * Foxe, vol. vii., pp. 127-28. See the same proclamations also in Strype (p. 250) and Burnet ; both of whom, throughout the whole of their histories, acknowledge themselves, I grieve to say it, principally indebted to the stores of John Foxe. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 324. J Foxe, vol. vii, p, 648. 304 BONNER AN ENEMY TO THE SCHISM Gardiner,) "for the whole Church Service, set forth " by the most learned men of the nation, under the " authority of Parliament, in the reign of Edward." That " Book was never reformed but once ; and by " that one reformation it was so fully perfected, that " no Christian conscience could be offended with the " same."* Bonner, on the contrary, published a book of Homilies for his diocese, and declares in the preface, that in the time of the late outrageous and pestiferous schism, in this Church and realm of Eng land, all godliness and goodness was abolished, and the Catholic doctrine of the Church was named Pa pistry, f With which of these do my friends most fully agree ? Which of them shall I advocate, but Bonner the burner, and not Taylor the burnt ? When charges were to be adduced against Gibson, — "I " ask," (said Bonner) " whether the said Gibson " ever affirmed that the English Service-books of " Edward the Sixth were good, and godly, and to "be observed and kept."! "I charge the same " Gibson," he said, " with affirming that the Book " of Common Prayer, set forth in the reign of Ed- " ward, was good and godly. "§ " Thou hast allowed " the religion and service of the latter years of Ed- " ward the Sixth," he said to another, whom he burnt.|j " Ye have been very desirous," was one * Foxe, vol. vii, pp. 685, 686. X Strype, Eccles. Mem., p. 265. X Foxe, vol. viii, p. 439. § Foxe, vol. viii, p. 437. || John Rough. Foxe, vol. viii, p. 445. AND PRAYER BOOK OF KING EDWARD. 305 accusation against the seven who were burned in one fire, "that the Communion and Prayer-books of King " Edward be again restored."* " We acknowledge," (said six other Ultra-Protestants who were also burnt) " that we should be content to receive the Sacrament " as it was ordered in King Edward's days."t "Thou " hast taught," (was the charge by Bonner, against six others who were brought before him, J) " that the " English Service-book in the time of King Edward, " was and is Catholic, and alone to be received in " this realm": § and I could prove, from many other indictments, that the approbation of the reformed Prayer-book, the second Prayer-book of King Ed ward, against which my beloved friends, in our Tracts, are so eloquent, was one great crime of the delin quents, whom the Government and Bonner pursued with so much severity, after the reconciliation of England with Rome. We, the Tractarians, do not love this book. Bonner and his brethren did not love it. We both dislike the book for the same rea sons. I do not, therefore, hesitate, as I would defend my own conclusions, to defend in them the conclu sions of Mary, Bonner, Gardiner, and the Anti- Pro testants of their day. Our opinions and conclusions, in many most important points, wherein we both dif fer from the Ultra-Protestants, are identical with * Foxe, vol. viii., p. 470. f Foxe, vol. viii., p. 480. X On the 6th of March, 1557. § Foxe, vol. viii, p. 312. 306 MANNER OF BONNER S PROCEEDINGS. those of the Anti- Protestant Bonner and Gardiner : and I will not, therefore, be ashamed to vindicate the pious opinions which are common to us both, and to declare my own wish, and that of my friends, that the more express doctrine of an actual sacrifice was re stored, that prayers for the dead were permitted, and that the whole of our present Prayer-book was re modelled on the plans of the Liturgy of St. Peter. These were the wishes of Bonner. These are the wishes of myself, and my friends. 2. Let us now consider the manner in which Bon ner endeavoured to effect these great objects both of himself, Gardiner, the Queen, and the Government. It is said that he was rather more severe, than a Christian Prelate ought to have been, in prosecuting his favourite wish of subduing the opposition of the Ultra- Protestants, to the reconciliation with Rome. I cannot say that I approve of any severity that can be avoided : neither is it to be denied that our an cestors were, in many respects, exceedingly severe. Neither will I deny that I regret to have read many expressions of Bonner to some of the prisoners — but I am still fully prepared to vindicate him generally from the charge of cruelty, and of needless severity. Those who have not read the numerous proclama tions, by which the King, Queen, Council, and Go vernment demonstrated their anxiety to destroy the work of Edward, and to re-establish the unreformed religion, and the Liturgy of St. Peter, as they are related by Strype, Burnet, and Foxe, cannot under- BONNER IS REPRIMANDED FOR HIS GENTLENESS. 307 stand the manner in which the mildest Bishop of London must have been stimulated to exercise great severity against the Ultra-Protestants. Dr. Lingard has noticed them very sparingly. In allusion to one proclamation only,* in which Bonner was reprimanded by the King and Queen, Dr. Lingard observes, with much justice, that he " is inclined to doubt, from this "reprimand, whether Bonner really deserves all the " odium which has been heaped upon him. It cer- " tainly fell to his lot, as Bishop of London, to con- " demn a great number of the gospellers : but I can " find no proof that he was a persecutor from choice, " or went in search of victims. They were sent to " him, and as the law stood (but oh ! Dr. Lingard, " what a law !) he could not refuse to proceed, and " deliver them over to the civil power."f An Ultra- Protestant would have said that he ought to have re signed his Bishopric rather than have burned the pri soners, but of this I am no judge ; for I have learned to submit to every ordinance of man, especially when they tell us to '''hear the Church" : and I have yet to learn that we are to withhold that submission when the Church commands us to punish those whom its laws define to be delinquents. I would not burn an Ultra-Protestant by choice : but if the law of the land commanded me to act the part of Bonner, then, as my friend Keble expresses himself, my po- * That of May 24th, 1555. f Lingard's History of England, Mary, p. 267, note 11. Se cond Edition, 1823. 308 BONNER THE CONSCIENTIOUS EXECUTIONER. sition would become a very delicate one indeed* The Queen's proclamations and letters, and the constitutions of Cardinal Pole, who declared, as the Papal Legate, that all who hold or teach opinions which Rome condemns are heretics — that all cen sures and punishments against heretics appointed by law be exacted — and that all ordinaries, such as Bishops, and Bonner among the number, who shall be negligent in extirpating heresies, should be also punished as the law required, excited the zeal and stimulated the energies of Bonner. Pole, as Turner has proved, the meek, quiet, calm, cour teous, gentlemanly, unobtrusive Cardinal Pole, was most probably the moving, but hidden, cause of the severe enforcement of the laws against heresy. For three years after Gardiner's death, when it was there fore impossible to attribute the severities to the in fluence of Gardiner — in the absence of the King — after he was made Archbishop of Canterbury, the secret, silent, cautious Cardinal was the adviser of the Queen and Council. Bonner had no influence as a Counsellor. He was regarded only as the liv ing faggot, that burnt the prisoner when the torch of authority kindled its unconscious sticks. Pole whispered the dictates of Rome and Spain. The Queen listened. Bonner was only the conscientious and obedient executioner. Let us consider some of these proclamations and letters which followed the reconciliation with Rome.f * Keble's Letter to Mr Justice Coleridge. X At the end ofthe year 1 554. THE FIRST ULTRA-PROTESTANT VICTIMS. 309 The proceedings against the Ultra-Protestants, after the reconciliation with Rome, began on the 28th of January.* On that day, at St. Mary Overy's Church, Gardiner, Bonner, the Bishops generally, many Peers, Knights, and others being present, some of the chief prisoners were brought before them, and warned of the consequences of their con tinuing their withholding their assent to the general submission to Rome. The result of the meeting was the burning of Rogers in Smithfield, Hooper at Gloucester, Sanders at Coventry, Taylor at Had ley. They were all first excommunicated, and,then surrendered to the civil power, with the evidently sincere, candid, pious, Christian-like, Italian prayer, that they be not injured in life or limb. They were burnt amidst the formally expressed pity of the reconciled Church, and the taunts and curses of the reconciled Churchmen ; but we, who are Trac tarians, deem it to be most illiberal to impute to the Church of Rome, the conduct of its members. We must judge of the Church by its words, not by its actions ; as we must judge of a tree by its leaves, not by its fruits : or of a fountain by the clearness, not by the taste of its waters. To do otherwise is scriptural only, and Ultra-Protestant. Six others were burnt before the 10th of February, and then the burnings ceased for five weeks. On that day, a Spanish friar preached at Court against the discipline of burning heretics, established by the * 1555. 310 DR. LINGARD ON THE BURNINGS IN SMITHFIELD. Canon law, and incorporated into the English statute law ; from the latter, though not from the former, of which two codes, it has been since expunged. This sermon was, no doubt, a proof that many Papists agreed with the sentiments expressed by the Church, when it consigned the heretic to the secular power ; and commanded that power to execute the laws of burning them, while it humbly and justly requested it not to hurt them. The amiable consistency of the Spanish priest, however, was soon over-ruled : for the proclamations now began, which instigated our Bonner to proceed. Dr. Lingard is of opinion, that the burnings were revived, in consequence of the provocation given by the excesses of the Ultra-Protestants. To this there are two answers : one, that each act of sedition aught to have been punished, and that the follies of one man cannot justify the burning of another ; and the next is, that the burnings were revived on the 16th of March, before any offence was committed, which could implicate the Ultra-Protestants generally. Tomkins, a weaver, was burnt on the 18th of March, having been condemned on the 9th of February.* A conspiracy was detected on the 18th. This con spiracy could not, therefore, account, as Dr. Lin gard imagines, for the burning the poor weaver, on the 16th, as the learned historian seems to imagine. Neither am I able to perceive the justice of his rea- * Strype, Eccles. Mem, p. 209, compared with p. 210 — the references given by Dr. Lingard. FIRST PROCLAMATIONS AGAINST ULTRA-PROTESTANTS. 311 soning, which ascribes the commencement of the proclamations to the detection of the conspiracy. The proclamations made no allusion to the dangers of the Crown, though they speak in general terms, of preserving the peace ofthe country. I must, there fore, in justice to the Ultra-Protestants, acquit them of causing the proclamations, by rebellious conduct, as Dr. Lingard insinuates, but does not assert.* I must impute their publication to the anxiety of the Queen to uphold the unreformed religion, and to suppress heresy ; and I am supported in this con clusion, by the authority of both Strype and Burnet.f The first proclamation by the Council against the Ultra-Protestants, after the reconciliation with Rome, is given by Burnet.J In this proclamation it is or dered — 1. " That the whole body of the magistrates " meet and divide themselves into parties of eight, " ten, or twelve — that they thus divide the county " among them — attend the preachers who are com- " missioned to preach — travel with them, and en- * " It is not improbable," is his language. — History of Eng land, (Mary) p. 265. Second Edition, 1823. X See Strype, p. 213, and his allusion to the same Records in Burnet, which Dr. Lingard refers to. I am surprised to find that both Dr. Lingard and myself refer to the same pages, in the same authors, to support opposite views. X Ap. Records, No. 19, p. 283, part ii, book ii. It is ad dressed to the Justices of Norfolk. It is called an order pre scribed by their Majesties, to the Justices of Peace ofthe County of Norfolk, for the good government of their Majesties' loving subjects within the same shire. March 26, 1555. 312 LETTERS FROM MARY TO THE MAGISTRATES. " courage them, and commit to prison those who re- " fuse to hear them — and especially enquire and take " charge of the preachers and teachers of heresy." The great object of this proclamation was to prevent religious meetings held by itinerant preachers. This proclamation of the Council was supported by letters from the King and Queen, appealing to the Justices, by their loyalty, to exert themselves to the utmost to put down all clandestine meetings, and to preserve the peace of the country. These letters are given by Strype ; who attributes to them the more active persecutions ofthe "bloody years" which followed.* I omit the letters from the Council, ordering the executions of the prisoners, as these were sent to the Mayor of London, to the Sheriffs, or Magistrates, in the ordinary course of law.f The same injunctions- which had been sent to the Justices of Norfolk, were issued to all Magis trates throughout England. All persons suspected of heresy were to be apprehended and sent to their or dinaries, to be brought to the " unity of the Church," or to be sent to execution. They were issued on the 16th of May. The Justices were commanded to execute all the laws to the utmost, against all who were not conformable to the " Catholic religion of Christ's Church" — and " to have an especial regard " to such disordered persons, as forgetting their duty * Strype, Eccles. Mem, p. 214. ¦J: Strype, on Flower's- execution, p. 215. BONNER RELUCTANT TO SHED BLOOD. 3,13 " to the King and Queen, did lean to any heretical " or erroneous opinions": and other letters were im mediately after dispatched to the Bishops, admonish ing them, on no account to spare the criminals who were thus sent before them by the secular Magis trates. The King and Queen, they said, had un derstood, to their great astonishment, that divers of these " disordered persons" or Ultra- Protestants, (Mary and Philip, like ourselves, always mention them with contempt,) when brought before the Bi shops, had not been dealt with according to law — but had been suffered to continue in their errors. The King and Queen, therefore, commanded them to have greater regard to the office of good Bishops, and either to remove such criminals from their errors, or proceed against them according to the order of the laws.* If it be supposed that Bonner was at this time more active than the other Bishops, who were thus re proved for their unwillingness to proceed against the Ultra-Protestants, the Queen's letter, written more expressly to the Bishop of London, will prove that he was as reluctant to shed blood as his brethren. On the 24th of May, the King and Queen addressed a letter to Bonner alone, commanding and urging him " to proceed more diligently against the here- " tics — never to refuse to judge them when they are " brought before him — not to treat them when judged " with too much indulgence — but so to execute the * Strype, Eccles. Mem, p. 217. 314 BONNER NOT THE INSTIGATOR OF THE BURNINGS. " office of a good pastor and Bishop, that God's " glory be better advanced, and the commonwealth " be more quietly governed." Burnet, Sharon Turner, and others, have discussed the question, who were the principal instigators of the burnings. These letters prove" that they were commanded by the Queen, under the Spanish and Italian influences which now governed her, rather than by the English Bishops, who were only the executors of the Royal will, and of the Papal autho rity. Mary was the Queen — Philip the Spaniard the Sovereign — Gardiner was the Chancellor — Pole the Papal Legate. The Italians, Priuli and Orma neto, were, with Pole, the advisers of his plans and the spies ofthe Pope. What necessity can there be for the theory which represents Bonner as the in stigator of the burnings ? The examples already made had not produced their intended effects. The King and Queen issued therefore, in the months of May and June, still severer proclamations. Letters were sent from Hampton Court, commanding that all who were un der condemnation for heresy, should be immediately brought out for execution. Fresh charges were di rected to the Bishops, to be more vigilant in search ing for the Ultra- Protestants, or gospellers, or here tics, who loved the Prayer-book, and for bringing them up for recantation or execution. They wrote also again to Bonner complaining to him, that four * Burnet, Records, part ii, book ii, p. 285. THE CONVOCATION SUBMIT TO CARDINAL POLE. 315 Parishes in his Diocese still used King Edward's Prayer-book, and requiring him to examine into the matter, and to punish the offenders. He obeyed the order. Three Ultra-Protestants were consequently burnt in three different places. So difficult was it to restore in England the glories of the first Tem ple, now that the people in the reign of Edward had built up the second.* At the end of this year — Cardinal Pole, as Legate of the Pope, was permitted by the Royal letters to summon a synod of the Clergy. No voice was there raised by the Clergy of the Church of England, now that the Church had returned to that unity which consisted in submission to Rome, against the seve rities which thus cemented the reconciliation. Where Rome rules, all is silence, all is peace. The Church, the Church, speaks — and woe, woe, woe, to the en quirer who questions, to the reasoner who doubts — to the Ultra-Protestant who opposes, its divine au thority. So ended the year 1555. The next year opened with proclamations of still increasing severity. The silence of the Convocation encouraged the King and Queen. Cardinal Pole was constantly at court,f and I hope that the English gentleman and ecclesiastic was not the adviser ofthe edict ofthe 14th of January, 1556. It was then ordered that, to produce a greater * Strype, Eccles. Mem. Ann, 1555. X We learn this from Gargrave's Letter. Gargrave was one of the Council. See the original in Strype, Ecc. Mem, p. 284. 316 THE MERE PROTESTANTS SUBMIT TO THE QUEEN. effect upon the people, the burnings of the Ultra- Protestants should be attended by a good number of officers ; and these officers were commanded to ap prehend and commit to prison every spectator of their execution who spoke to them one word of com fort, or praise, or admiration. Sympathy was a crime. Pity was a sin. The result ofthe proclamation, and of the burnings, generally proved the superiority of the "poisoning system" which my friend Froude re commends. " Pity melts the mind to love," says our great poet, and the minds of the Anti-Protestant spectators of their countrymen who were burned alive, with unsparing zeal, on the cold mornings of a winter month, when the fires were kindled with such slowness that the wretched sufferers still more keenly perceived that they were dying, were moved to pity the persons, enquire into the doctrines, and love the cause of the misguided Ultra-Protestants, whom they assembled to gaze upon and deride. Yet Bonner was not the author of the burnings. Still the severities increased. After this proclama tion new commissions were issued, commanding the magistrates in every diocese to make the most dili gent search for the Ultra-Protestants who had not been hitherto discovered. The Protestants, the mere Protestants, who objected to certain portions of the creed and discipline of Rome, as to theoretical or metaphysical points, in which the hearts, souls, and consciences of men were not deeply interested — and which had little or no relation to the state of the soul THE ULTRA-PROTESTANTS "DEVILISH PERSONS." 317 in the immortality which follows this short life — had all disappeared. They had conformed, or they were silenced. The Ultra- Protestants alone — those who believed that resistance to Rome, for the sake both of present truth and future blessing, was a holy and bounden duty — these alone breasted the storm, or perished in its waves. The commission of April the 26th began by calling the Ultra- Protestants " devil ish persons ;" and it ended with the declaration that " the King and Queen, by publishing this proclama- " tion, did not intend to infringe upon the ecclesiasti- " cal liberties ofthe Church, by thus committing the " punishment of heresy to lay persons ; but that they " merely desired to extend their royal aid to the spi- " ritual powers, which might not otherwise be able " to execute this justice."* Yet the Ultra- Protes tants of the day, in spite of this amiable caution on the part of Mary, attribute the burnings of their hereti cal predecessors to Bonner and his brethren. The severity still increased. A commission was issued on the 17th of November, two years before the death of Mary, commanding the Bishops to sum mon persons before them, to compel them to take an oath, to discover any heretics or Ultra-Protestants. Especial commissions also were directed to particular counties, and places, to the same effect. The Com missioners were empowered to seize the lands, tene* ments, and goods, of all who had absconded from their homes, under suspicion of heresy. Under these * Strype, Eccles. Mem, p. 289. 318 ULTRA-PROTESTANTS DESIRE THE PRAYER-BOOK. commissions houses were searched, heads of families absconded, oaths were administered at the discretion ofthe Commissioners, and indictments for treason and heresy were multiplied, and it became impossible for the heretics to escape the diligence of the govern ment. In addition to the Royal Commission, Cardi nal Pole issued a Papal Commission by his autho rity as Legate.* An especial Commission was issued also for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and very affecting is the supplication or petition sent up by the people of those counties to the Commis sioners, though they are guilty of affirming, that " these Commissioners were sent down to subvert " and abolish God's Holy Word and true religion ; " and, instead thereof, to place and advance the " Romish blindness, and blasphemous superstition." This is the very language which the Ultra- Protes tants still use. Tbe petitioners praised the Prayer- book of King Edward, and implored the Queen to permit them to serve God and Christ freely. The petition was without effect. The reconciliation with Rome could not be completed, if any relaxation were permitted of the ever increasing severity, j The changing of the religion of a nation, whether we adopt the "poisoning" or the "burning" plan of conversion, can only be permanently effected by taking care that the education of youth be regulated * Strype, Eccles. Mem. Mary, p, 341. f See Strype, p. 343 ; and Foxe, who gives the petition at length. THE QUEEN'S SEVERITY INCREASES. 319 on the principles which the Government or the Church may desire to establish. The next anxiety, therefore, of Philip and Mary, was to issue Com missions for the visitation of both the Universities. These were undertaken by Pole, the Papal Legate, and Royal Commissioner. The Anti- Protestant will rejoice, the Ultra- Protestant will blush to contemplate the submission of the Universities to the Commission — their reception of the Legate — their compliance with the new changes — their obedience to the Canon Papal law — their entertainments, speeches, and wel- comings of the Royal Papal Commissioners. I pass them all by. Some of my Oxford brethren would not agree with me, if I condemned the Universities in these matters. I pass them by, as Bonner was not especially concerned in them. The severity still increased. In the year 1577, some of the Sheriffs of Counties, mortified and angry at the duty which the law, the Council, and the fre quent commissions imposed upon them, had sus pended the executions of some of the Ultra-Pro testants who had been condemned. On the 20th of July, letters were therefore directed to the Sheriffs of Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Stafford, to the Mayor of Rochester, and to the Bailiffs of Colchester, to charge them to proceed to the fulfilment of their duty : and incessant letters and orders of Council were issued to compel the unwilling Sheriffs and Magistrates to proceed more zealously and actively.* * Strype, p. 402. 320 CARDINAL POLE ISSUES PROCLAMATIONS. They were heavily fined for disobedience : and warm ly commended for loyalty and religion where they had been more energetic. The last year of the reign of Mary arrived, and the severities still increased, and with them the hatred and indignation of the great mass of the peo ple to the holy Church of Rome. The King and Queen had hitherto been the chief apparent movers of the burnings : while Cardinal Pole was considered to be the secret agent and adviser of the Court. This year, however, he acted on the principle that the ecclesiastical is superior to the civil power, by issuing a commission or instrument, called a signifi- cavit, addressed to the King and Queen, against certain Ultra- Protestants, praying their execution. A warrant was accordingly sent down to Canterbury, and five persons were burnt at that place, seven days before the Queen's death.* At the commencement of the year, Bonner had been compelled to issue a commission to try the Ultra-Protestants of Essex : when the delinquents were examined one day, and condemned the next. The effect of these trials ap pears to have been the increasing, rather than dimi- nishingthe numbersof the heretics. "You do not care " for burnings : they do not terrify you," said an Anti- Protestant to an Ultra-Protestant, "we must " find some other means to suppress you."f This conviction caused at one moment the suspension of * Strype, p. 454. X Strype, p. 455. SEVERE PROCLAMATIONS AGAINST THE PRAYER-BOOK. 321 the executions. Chadsey, one of the most zealous and active of the Anti-Protestants, was recalled in the midst of the most pious demonstrations of piety and loyalty. This suspension of the burnings, how ever, soon ceased. On the 6th of June, 1558, a proclamation was published by the King and Queen, declaring the mere fact of possessing prohibited books to be rebellion, and martial-law was denounced against all who offended in this manner. " Who- " ever," it was proclaimed, " should possess the said " wicked or seditious books, or finding them doth " not burn them, without shewing them to others, or " reading them, shall be reputed and taken for a rebel, " and shall, without delay, be executed for that offence, " according to the order of martial law."* That is, to use the words of Dean Noel, " sudden death by " law martial, without examination, question, verdict, " and judgment," was the punishment decreed by Pa pists, against the possessors, buyers, sellers, and read ers of prohibited books, among which was the Prayer Book of King Edward, which my friend Froude, like these men, would have removed, for the Liturgy of St. Peter, or the Canon ofthe Mass. The procla mation, Strype tells us, was principally issued against this one book only ; but it was made general, and it destroyed the very ruins of the supposed liberty of the people. I cannot entirely approve of the prin ciple of the proclamation. I quite disapprove of the penalty by which it was enforced. This was the * Dated 6th June, St. James's. 322 BONNER NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LAW. last of the more general proclamations. Five months after it was issued, the Queen died ; and though the executions were continued till her death, no fresh edicts, no new laws were passed, to add to the seve rities which cemented the alliance and submission of England to Rome. All these severities were enacted, as Parsons and Harpsfield have so eloquently urged, against the notorious John Foxe, by the public laws ; and the ecclesiastics of the country therefore, and Edmund Bonner among these, cannot be made re sponsible for the acts of the Sovereign, or for the penalties by which the laws were enforced. But the obedience of Bonner to the public law may not be defended solely even from the manner in which the proclamations and letters of the King, Queen, and Council, excited him to the more effec tual discharge of his duty. Incessant applications were made to him, from the more active and zealous Peers, Magistrates, and Officers, who were anxious to restore the Liturgy of St. Peter, and to destroy altogether the second Temple of King Edward. No supposition can be more absurd, than that Bonner was the originator of the persecutions. If we can but establish our principles, we shall never want Bonners to execute the laws, Gardiners to persuade the Sovereign to enforce them, nor country Magis trates to display their zeal, religion, and loyalty, by seconding every effort to punish the opponents of the Court. The former Chancellor, Lord Rich, Sir Anthony Brown, the two Tyrrells, (Henry and THE MAGISTRATES SEND PRISONERS TO BONNER. 323 Edmund), Mildmay, Appleton, Weston, and others, hated to the death, and persecuted to the stake, the loathesome Ultra- Protestants.* The Earl of Oxford and Sir Philip Paris sent up, for instance, six Ultra- Protestants to Bonner, for disobeying the orders of the Church, and for holding divers opinions, con trary to the Catholic faith.f Bonner did not seek for them : and when they were brought before him, he endeavoured, according to his general custom, to persuade them to recant, and to revoke their opi- nions.J Sir Edward Gage apprehended two men as they were at prayer, in the house of another Ultra- Protestant, who was but too often guilty of the same crime, and sent them to the Council, to be transfer red by them to the custody of Bonner. These also, he endeavoured to persuade to recant. § Edmund Tyrrell, an active Magistrate in Essex, delighted to assist the Sheriffs at the burnings of the delinquents, and apprehended John Newman, my friend's ancestor, of whom I have already spoken, on his return from one of the executions, merely upon suspicion, and sent him, with his companion John Denley, to the Commissioners. He prayed, in his letter, that the Holy Trinity would ever have the Council in its holy keeping ; and declared his intention of going, on the next day, to search for more heretics.|| Sir * Strype, Ecc. Mem, p. 265. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 149. 1st May, 1555. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 142. § Foxe, vol. vii, p 321. X 12th of June, 1555. Foxe, vol. vii, p. 329. Y 324 THE MAGISTRATES SEND PRISONERS TO BONNER. Richard Southwell, on the very same day, wrote up to Bonner, from another part of the country, to en treat him to take care that an " arrogant heretic," sent to Bonner by Lord Riche, should be proceeded against according to law.* Tyms, the Curate of Hackley, was apprehended by Tyrrell, and sent to Bonner. Tyms reminded Tyrrell that he (Tyrrell himself) had conformed to the laws of religion in the days of Edward. The remark exasperated only the Anti- Protestant. " I never conformed in my heart," was the answer : and Tyms was committed to the charge of Bonner, and, refusing to recant, was burnt. Was it the fault of Bonner, that the law required no other trial than the suspicions of a Magistrate, the questioning of the Bishop, and the refusal to recant, or to conform, as the Bishop might require ?f " Wilt " thou recant ?" " Wilt thou conform ?" "Wilt thou " submit to the Catholic Church, as an obedient " child ?" demanded Bonner. " I am of the Catho- " lie Church," was the answer ; " but he was not of " tho Church of Rome, or of the Church of England, " as it had submitted to Rome, and by that submission, "was in unity with Rome ;" and the obstinate and insolent Ultra- Protestant was burnt. " We have " sent to your Lordship," wrote Sir John Mordant and Edmund Tyrrel, Magistrates for Essex, " three " persons who be not conformable to the orders of " the Church, and not doubting that thc parishes * Foxe, vol. vii., p. 371. f Foxe, vol. viii, pp. 108, 109. bonner's gentleness. 325 " of Burstead and Bellerciay shall be brought to " good conformity, if they be punished."* And 1 could refer to many other instances in which Bonner was neither the instigator, nor the encourager, of the informations ; but rather endeavoured to save the poor wretches who were committed to him, than to condemn them with the haste and zeal which pleased the Government ; and cemented the recon ciliation with Rome.f 3. But what, it will be asked, is the meaning of the epithet so generally apphed to Bonner, as the "bloody <" Bonner," if he thus generally abstained from seek ing out for condemnation the delinquents wbo re fused to be convinced that there was an actual sacri fice in the Eucharist ; that prayers for the dead are to be offered, and that the second Service-book of King Edward was unworthy of approbation, when compared with the Canon of the Mass ? Have we been all misinformed? Is the testimony oftradition, which always, every where, and by all persons, has been believed, that Bonner was the eruel and unfeel ing persecutor, to be now denied and overthrown ? If the conduct of Bonner was capable of defence, how can we believe the most common facts of his tory, or give credit to any reports which are handed * Foxe, viii, p. 142. 2nd March, 1556. X See the accounts of the manner in which Sir John Brown and Sir Thomas Tye exerted themselves to procure the con demnation ofthe Ultra-Protestants — Foxe, vol. vii, p. 753, and *ol. viii, j). 383. 326 THE LAW, NOT BONNER, TO BE CONDEMNED. down to us upon the authority of contemporary and continuous evidence. Bonner, I again reply, was only a specimen of that class of executioners of the public law which will ever be produced by that state of society, in which the mass of the people oppose the change in religion which the Churchmen and the Government may en deavour to enforce, in conjunction with the influence of the Church of Rome. Severe legal enactments form severe magistrates. The law, notBonner, was to be condemned. Many harsh and severe expressions were undoubtedly uttered by Bonner, but common candour requires that we should not look to these alone. When he had in vain endeavoured to per suade the prisoners to recant : when he found his efforts to be useless, then he frequently lost his tem per, and spake unadvisedly, from the impatience and impulse of the moment. In the novel of Quentin Durward, Sir Walter Scott has drawn the portraits of two executioners, who were respectively known by the names of Jean-qui-pleure, and Jean-qui-rire. One was accustomed to encourage his prisoners, when he hanged them, by jokes, jests, familiar expressions, and terms of affection and endearment. The other was used to console and comfort them, with texts of Scripture and sentences of religion and devotion ; and both these persons, says the novelist, were more utterly detested than any creatures of their kind be fore or since.* Sir Walter was wrong. Bonner has * Quentin Durward, vol. i, chap, vi, p. 140. Edition, 1824. B0NNERS WILL BE ALWAYS MADE BY GOOD LAWS. 327 concentrated more hatred and detestation on his name than either of these ; not because he resembled one more than the other, but because he united in him self the peculiarities of both. He did not, it is true, either utter jokes, or quote texts ; but he first in vited to recant, and then pronounced sentence on the obstinate. He was deemed hypocritical in the former, and the union ofthe supposed hypocrisy and cruelty, which is nothing but the spirit of the old Papal law, in requesting gentleness from the Magis trate, whom it commands to burn the heretic, has been regarded as the crime of the individual, instead of being the unavoidable characteristic of the Magis trate. "Let us but establish our principles, and Bonners will abound in every See, till all opposition be as effectually removed in England, as in Italy, Austria, or Spain." To understand the character of Bonner rightly, therefore, we must regard him as acting in the spirit of the Church; and consider the gentle expressions by which he would have persuaded the Ultra- Protestants to recant, before we censure him for the harsher language in which he expressed his condemnation of their inveterate Ultra- Protestant obstinacy. During the six days of Hooper's imprisonment, Bonner and others of his own selecting, Packingham, Chadsey, and Harpsfield, constantly went down to the prison to persuade him to relent, and to become a member of the Reconciled Church. They quoted Scripture — they promised worldly advantages — they urged 328 BONNER'S GENTLENESS TO HIS PRISONERS. every argument in their power — they threatened only the intolerable punishments decreed against the Ultra-Protestantism, hated by us, as well as by Bonner, when all other reasoning was of no avail.* " If ye will return*" said Bonner to Higbed, " I will " gladly receive you."f " Bonner," says Foxe, " pronounced judgment upon Pigot, Knight, and " Laurence, when he found that his fair flatterings, "and his cruel threatenings were alike in vain. "J The Bishop used the threatening in mercy, when he found that his entreaties were useless. Three times, Bonner is related by Foxe to have persuaded Flower, the madman, who struck the priest at the altar, to submit to the "unity of the Catholic Church." § " It was his old manner — his wonted manner — he " urged the reasons he was commonly wont to use to " others," says the hateful martyrologist. || Bonner urged and solicited Ardeley to recant.^" " Thou " art a proper young man," said Bonner to Hawkes, " I would be glad to do thee good." " I am thy " Pastor, and one that should answer for thee."** " Wats," said Bonner to another, " consider with ""yourself — cast not away your soul."ff Bonner la- * Foxe, vol. vi, p. 650'. f Foxe, vol. vi., p. 736. X Foxe, vol. vi, p. 739. § Foxe, vol. vii, p. 74. || Foxe, vol. vii, pp. 74, 75. f Foxe, vol. vii, p. 88. ** Foxe, vol. vii., p. 101. XX Foxe, vol. vii, p. 122. bonner's supposed harshness considered. 329 "boured to win him," says Foxe, speaking of Abbs, another heretic,* and of Packinghamf — of Tanker- fieldj — of Allen § and others — " I am sorry for your trouble," he said to Philpot [j — " the obstinate fool !" he only then exclaimed, when his persuasions and entreaties were useless. And I could refer to many other instances of his gentleness and kindness, which prove that he had no wish nor intention to execute the severity commanded by the law, if the obstinate Ultra- Protestants would have been persuaded by his bland courtesies. So evidently, indeed, did this ap pear to Sharon Turner to be the fact, that he imputes the kindness of Bonner to actual indifference, in the note, in which that historian endeavours to prove that Cardinal Pole was the real mover of the conti nued severities, which lasted till the death of Mary. He says, though with too much contempt of my favourite Bishop, that Bonner was the last man to have opposed the will of his superior : for he lived only for his pudding.^! 4. Let us now consider the harshness imputed to Bonner. * Foxe, vol. vii, p. 328. f Foxe, vol. vii, p. 335. X Foxe, vol. vii, p. 343. § Foxe, vol. vii, p. 381. || The passage quoted by Lingard. % Sharon Turner's Hist, of Eng., vol. viii, Mary, chap, xv., book ii., note 25. N.B. There is a misprint in this note of Sha ron Turner. The reference to p. 149, is printed for 240. 330 BONNER OFTEN UNCOURTEOUS. The one circumstance then, after the reconcilia tion with Rome, which rendered the name of this venerable Bishop so peculiarly detested by the Ul tra-Protestants, was, that he was sometimes more uncourteous in his expressions, than our Saviour's representative ought to have been. The first act of Bonner after the reconciliation with Rome, which the Ultra-Protestants denounce as unjustifiably severe, is the rejection of the peti tion of the Proto-martyr Rogers, that he might speak to his wife, the mother of his eleven children, before he was burnt in Smithfield. The request that he might see her in prison had been previously reject ed by Gardiner, who denied the validity of his mar riage. " She is not thy wife," was the reply of the Chancellor.* On the 4th of February, f Bonner left his palace to go down to Newgate, to degrade Rogers from the priesthood, before he was burnt. Bonner was anxious that everything should be done "decently, and in order." An Ultra- Protestant would say, that he was like the Priests who betrayed Christ to be crucified. They could deliver the Son of God to the scourge, and to the cross, but they could not enter into the judgment hall, lest they be defiled, and be prevented from eating the Passover. All such illiberal remarks, we reject with disdain. When his degrading had been completed — "I have but one petition to ask," said the translator of the Bible, "that I may talk a few * Foxe vol. vi, p. 692. f 1555. PRIESTS' MARRIAGES ILLEGAL. 331 words to my wife before my burning." It seemed a small request ; but Bonner did not consider the re quest as a favour which could be granted. The reason of the refusal, however, had been given by Gardiner. The Church of Rome, and the Churches which sub mitted to its authority, declared the contracts, forms, and ceremonies, which constituted marriage between men and women among the laity, to be invalid when one party was a Priest. We only encourage celibacy, and declare it to be the " more excellent way" for the clergy. Rome has changed this our " pious opi nion"* into a law : and that law of Rome, was now the law of England. If, therefore, the women who had lived with the Priests, as their wives, because of the contracts, forms, and ceremonies, which made them believe they were married, were no more wives by law, than if their supposed husbands had been married to other women, instead of being married by vow to the Church, : it is evident they must have been considered by the law in the rank only of con cubines, or courtezans. Bonner could not oppose the law. Bonner could not appear to sanction the unlawful unions which he was required to condemn. Many Clergymen, who were not suspected of any heresy against the Sacrament of the Altar, were de- * See the defence, or apology, or earnest desire, of the celi bacy of the clergy, in the Letter of my dear friend Dr. Pusey to the Bishop of Oxford, on " the tendency to Romanism, im puted to the Tracts for the Times" — a meek performance, 8vo, Oxford, 1839. 332 BONNER OPPOSED TO THE PRIESTLY MARRIAGES. prived, and put to penance for contracting such sup posed marriages ;* and Bonner must have^ deemed himself guilty, (if he had permitted Rogers to speak with his wife,) of encouraging the concubinage of the Clergy, opposition to the law, and heretical resist ance to the Church. He had taught, with Rome, and others, that celibacy is identified with chastity, and he would not, therefore, sanction the unchastity of the priestly marriage ; and give his formal permis sion that the Proto-martyr should speak to his wife. She met him indeed in Smithfield. One child at her breast — and ten following their mother. There she took her leave of him, till the invisible world received her. Her husband rejected the pardon which would have saved him. He was unmoved by the tears, or by the silence, or by the broken expressions of his children, and their mother. He had loved the Bible, and given it to the people. He loved the Prayer- book, and predicted its re-establishment. Why then should I condemn Bonner for discouraging the celi bacy of the Priesthood ; and censure him for uphold ing, by his rejecting the petition of Rogers, my own and my friends' most " pious opinion." It is said that the exclamation — "Have him away, have him away," spoken by Bonner to Ardeley and Simson, when the people waited to see them leave * Ormund Hill, of Thornton — Oswald Butler, of Woodhall — and many others were put to penance, or deprived, or excom municated by Cardinal Pole, solely for their marriage. Thc pious opinion became law. — See Pole's Articles of Visitation in Strype, p. 164. BONNER TRIES TO SAVE HAWKES. 333 the Consistory Court,* was spoken in anger or re venge : whereas, it was the expression only, as I have shewn, of contempt, excitement, or alarm, when the crowds in the court made so much tumult, that Bonner desired, by tbe rapid withdrawment of the prisoners, to prevent an outbreak. When Hawkes, the most obstinate ofthe Ultra- Protestants, whom the Earl of Oxford sent up to Bonner, refused to be con vinced by the expostulations of Bonner ;the attendants on the court cried out — "Faggots, burn him, hang "him, to prison with him, irons on him, and so on."f Bonner endeavoured to persuade the Queen's men to leave the prisoner to his examination. He thus saved him his life for the time : and though the conversations J between Bonner and Hawkes seem ed to imply only mutual exasperation ; the very resistance which Hawkes had made, interested the Bishop in his favour ; and Bonner would have saved him, if the obstinate Ultra-Protestant had afforded him the least opportunity of evading the severe laws which Bonner was required to execute. In all cases he insisted upon trying those only who belonged to his own episcopal jurisdiction. Those he endeavoured to save, and the rest he endeavour ed to dismiss altogether.^ " Thou shalt be burnt at a stake in Smithfield, if * Foxe, vol. vii, p. 89. X Foxe, vol. vii., p. 1 09. X Foxe, vol. vii., p. 113. § Foxe, vol. vii, p. 109. 334 BONNER INSULTED BY ULTRA-PROTESTANTS. " thou repent not," said Bonner to Robert Smith, and the expression is supposed to imply cruelty and bloodthirstiness on the part of Bonner. The candid examination of the whole proceedings* will prove to the impartial reader that Bonner patiently endured the most provoking insults from this man ; and only then condescended to more severe language, when persuasion and entreaty were exhausted, and the in sults of the Ultra-Protestant criminal had become unendurable. "Away with him, away with him," said Bonner, f and the exclamation was certainly un worthy of a Judge; but the criminal had insulted that Judge when he was discharging his duty : and we must not reason, as if the Judges in the reign of Mary understood their duty so well as the Judges in the reign of Victoria ; and considered it to be their duty that they should be as unimpassioned amidst eulogy or insult, as the bench they sate upon. When Philpot was brought before Bonner, he, it is true, professed his conviction, that he could not escape because of the cruelty of Bonner towards his prisoners.^ " Your cruelty is such," said Philpot to Bonner, " that I am afraid to come before you. I " would your Lordship would proceed against me "gently by the law." The answer of Bonner ought to convince all who charge him with capricious and needless cruelty, of the absurdity and folly of the * Foxe, vol. vii, pp. 347-355. ¦j- Foxe, vol. vii, p. 356. + Foxe, vol. vii, p. 645. BONNER INSULTED BY ULTRA-PROTESTANTS. 335 accusation. Bonner affirms that he was condemned by his superiors for not proceeding still more se verely and more energetically against the Ultra- Protestants. "I am blamed," he said, "by my bro- " thers, my Lords the Bishops, that I have not dis- " patched thee before this. I made suit to my Lord " Cardinal, and to the whole Convocation, that they " would hear thee. My Lord of Lincoln said of thee " that thou wouldst have the last word. All assure me " that thou delightest in public discussion, and that " notoriety is thy meat and drink. Yet if thou wilt " be conformable, I will forgive thee all that is past : "thou shalt have no hurt for anything thou hast " already spoken or done." Where does Bonner's cruelty appear in this ? The truth is, that the com mon mistake was made, that the executor of the se verities of the law was responsible, in the public opi nion, for the cruelties of the law itself. An Ultra- Protestant, who refused to attend his parish Church after the schism had been healed by the reconcilia tion, was brought before Bonner. "Thou hast often " been before me," said the Bishop, " I have tra- " vailed with thee, to win thee from thy errors.* " Yet thou, and such as thou, dost report that I seek " thy life." " Yea, my Lord," said the delinquent, " ye be a blood-sucker : I would I had as much blood " as water is in the sea, for thee to suck." Bonner did not lose his temper. On the contrary, his very calmness is urged against him as a proof of his cold * Foxe, vol. vii. p. 746. 336 BONNER REQUIRED TO DEGRADE CRANMER. and cruel disposition. When he charged the prisoner to return to the " unity of the Church," and was re quested to prove the opinion held by the prisoner to be heresy, Bonner would not argue with the delin quent. He read the usual questions, and condemned the prisoner. The law was defective : but Bonner was not answerable for its defects.* But we are told that Bonner betrayed great and unnecessary harshness in the matter of the degrad ing of Cranmer. My friend Froude has spoken of Cranmer as undeserving of any very great respect — all my Roman Catholic brethren agree with him ; and it is very certain that Cranmer vacillated and wavered to an extent which diminishes the respect of all but the Ultra-Protestants, for the firmness and character of the Archbishop. In this case, Cran mer was degraded from his Archbishopric, as How- ley would now be, if the same influence could pre vail in England. Bonner was required to degrade him, as the first ecclesiastic in his province. When the various orders of the Episcopate and Priesthood wore taken from him, the Archbishop, according to the institutions of the Canon law, became only a sim ple layman. Bonner, after the ceremony of his de gradation was completed, addressed the spectators of the ceremony, as if Cranmer was no longer to be considered an ecclesiastic. " This is the man," he said, " this is the man who hath despised the Pope, " pulled down churches, contemned the Sacrament * Foxe, vol. vii, p. 746. LANGUAGE OF BONNER TO CRANMER. 337 " of the Altar ; yet thc Pope, by us his servants, " sentences him to punishment — the Church is the " place where he is judged — the altar is the spot, " before which he is condemned." Bonner is supposed, in this speech, to be expres sing his revenge against the Archbishop, for Cran mer's degradation of Bonner, in the reign of Ed ward. It may be so ; but to me, it appears that the Bishop of London was but expressing, antithetically, the contrast between the former dignity and the pre sent depression of Cranmer ; and arguing from that contrast, the condemnation of Cranmer by the Al mighty, as well as his condemnation by the existing Church of England after its submission to Rome. The Ultra-Protestants may infer from the words of Bonner, cruelty and harshness.* I draw no such inference. I no more infer, from such observations of Bonner, that he was needlessly harsh and severe, than I infer, from the address of Judge A., or Judge B., to a clearly convicted criminal on the enormity of the offence, and the necessity of public punish ment, that the said Judge is a cruel or inflexible Magistrate. I again say, that the fault was in the law of the hour, and if our principles could be so carried out, that our "pious opinions," respecting the authority and power of the Church could become the law of the land ; Bonners and Gardiners would soon abound to rejoice in the severity of the law, by openly executing it to the utmost with Bonner ; or * Foxe, vol. viii., p. 72. 338 SEVERITY NECESSARY TO CHANGE RELIGION. by privately encouraging the more intolerant enact ments with Pole and Gardiner. When the religion of a nation is to be changed by other means than by open preaching, the measures which we call seve rity and caution, though the Ultra-Protestant calls them cruelty and treachery, must be unsparingly and unrelentingly continued, till the object of the Go vernment and of the Church be effected, in the con version or submission of the people. The day after the Feast of the Nativity, 1557, Bonner wrote to Pole,* on the subject of twenty-two heretics, against whom Bonner had intended to pro nounce sentence of death : but whom Pole respited. This has been alleged as an act of great cruelty, that Bonner objected to Pole's interference. The perusal of the Bishop's letter amply justifies him. The people gathered round the prisoners, supported them by their sympathy, and comforted them to the utmost. This reception encouraged their obstinacy, and threatened to do away the whole effect of the preceding punishments. Bonner, therefore, wrote to the Mayor, Sir John Gresham, to prohibit the resort of the people to the delinquents. So many had been burned, and the schism still remained so entirely unhealed, that it became evident the experi- * The letter is dated Postridie Nativitatis. The good Bishop had adopted the antient custom, which I and my brethren have revived, of dating letters on the eves or festivals ofthe Saints. Most of our Tracts are dated in this manner. I have dated my Introduction to this Life of Bonner, " October 23rd, the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola." BONNER ZEALOUS, NOT CRUEL. 339 ment must entirely fail, if the Ultra- Protestants were to be encouraged in their disobedience by the popu lar sympathy. These prisoners had been very quiet and orderly, and there were great hopes, therefore, that some of them would have recanted and saved their lives ; till they arrived at Aldgate and Cheap- side ; when their whole demeanor changed, in conse quence of the sympathy of the populace.* Zeal for the accomplishment ofthe objects of all the previous burnings, and not cruelty alone, ought, therefore, in candour, to be attributed to the Bishop, as the motive for his resistance to the interference of Pole. Nothing is so illiberal as Ultra-Protestantism. The severe expressions of Bonner to Allerton, " Ah, Sirrah ! how is it thou hast come hither again, " thou whore-son varlet — thou prick-louse ! Away " with him, away with him !"t — have been objected to. But Allerton had been released before, and our Saviour's representative had become angered by the insolence and obstinacy of the prisoner. " The "Bishop doth nothing," said Allerton, "but seek " men's blood."! What Magistrate could endure to be thus called a murderer, merely because he en forced submission " to the ordinances of man, for " the Lord's sake." As the fourth year in which the severities that followed the reconciliation with Rome began to close, Bonner perceived the neces- * See Foxe, vol. viii, p. 307, for Bonner's letter. f Foxe, vol. viri., pp. 407-9. X P. 412. — Foxe, ut supra. z 340 SEVEN -BURNT TO PREVENT TUMULT. sity of still greater activity in executing thc law, or the certainty that all the former sacrifices would be of no avail. On the 28th of July, 1558, when seven were burned together in Smithfield, and when pro clamation had been made that no man, under pain of instant death, should approach to them, touch them, speak to them, nor comfort them ; the Ultra- Protes tants, notwithstanding that fearful proclamation, and the present threatenings of the Sheriffs and their at tendants, were so " Godly comforted" by the people, that the Anti-Protestants were astonished.* The Bishop of London must have perceived the danger that this popular sympathy might go on till it broke out into open rebellion. He, therefore, took that precaution, when the next Ultra-Protestants were sent to him, which was affirmedf to have procured him more hatred from the multitude than any other act of his magistracy. Seven more delinquents were brought before him. He sent them down to Fulham on the 12th, questioned them the next morning at mid day, and condemned them to be burned that evening, on their own answers, in the usual manner. He thus effectually prevented any ebullition of popular tumult, and preserved the public peace, while he obeyed the law. Yet this considerate and anxious care to pre clude the possibility of rebellion is called cruelty. The last Ultra-Protestant who was burned in * See Bentham's letter to Lever, in Strype, Ecc Mem, Mary, chap, lxiii. X See Bentham's letter. THE MASS NOT IDOLATRY. 341 Smithfield, a short time before the death of Mary,* is said to have been treated with cruelty by Bonner. So anxious, however, was the Bishop to save him, that the attendant friends of the prisoner thanked the Bishop for his exertions and expostulations :"\ neither did he change his gentle language to him, till he was exasperated by the Ultra- Protestant de claration, which we are daily endeavouring to ren der obsolete, that " the Mass was a horrible idola try." Then the patience of Bonner yielded to the provocation. Bonner called him a blasphemous he retic, read his sentence, and condemned him to be burnt. " May I speak but two words," said the de linquent, unmoved by the sentence. " What hast " thou to say — speak," said Bonner ; and the priso ner, strange to say, declared — " I am moved by the " Spirit of God to tell you, that God will shorten " your hand of cruelty ; for, after this day, in this " place, none shall be put by you to death, by the " fire and the faggot." And so, indeed, it came to pass. "None," says the old Martyrologist, J " after " this day suffered, under Bonner, in Smithfield — " God be thanked !" John Foxe may be supposed to imagine that the coincidence of no additional sacri fices being offered up at Smithfield, proved the last victim to have thus spoken by the spirit of prophecy. Bonner could not be expeeted to have been impres- * July, 1558. f Foxe, vol. viii, p. 477. X Foxe, vol. viii, p. 478. 342 BONNER THREATENS TO BURN MORE VICTIMS. sed with the supposition. The reply did but exas perate him. " Thou art as mad in thy heresies,'' he answered, " as Joan Boucher," whom Cranmer had' consented to burn. " In anger and fume, thou " wouldest become a railing prophet : though thou " and all the sort of you would see me hanged, yet " shall I live to burn ye ; and I will burn all the sort " of you that come in my hands, who will not worship " the blessed Sacrament of the Altar, for all thy prat- "tling." And so, says the historian, he went his way ;* and " as he spake, he would have acted." I do not admire the peculiar mode in which the laws of the country at that time were framed to suppress Ultra-Protestantism ; but I do admire, with my friend Froude, the zeal and energy, with which the conscientious Bonner endeavoured to extinguish the essentially unchristian Protestantism which could give its body to be burned ; while it refused submission to the learned Clergy, the Government, the Queen, the Convocation, and the Bishops. The people still sympathize with the victims, and detest the Judge. They remember the indignant language ofthe Bishop of London to the last Martyr at Smithfield ; and to this day they loathe his memory. This exasperation of Bonner at the ill success of the burnings, of which he was the instrument, in creased till the death of the Queen. After the burn ing of the last Ultra- Protestant in Smithfield, we read of his using similar expressions to another, whom he * Foxe, vol. viii, p. 479. bonner's expressions uncourteous. 343 scourged and struck repeatedly with a cane, and birchen and willow rods. " If thou wilt not believe me," he said, "but wilt follow the leading of other " heretics, thou shalt be brought to destruction, and " burn both body and soul." " If thou wilt believe " me, thou canst not err." "If thou shouldst err, thou " art in no peril : thy blood would be required at our " hands."* All this was said to John Mills. " They " call me bloody Bonner !" he added, " a vengeance " on you all." " I would fain be rid of you ; but "you have a delight in burning." That is, the burnings were perceived to be ineffectual in repres sing Ultra- Protestantism. " If I might have my " will, I would sew your mouths and put you into " sacks, and drown you." Men forgive injuries, more than they forgive insults ; and these expressions, more than the burnings themselves, have made the name of Bonner odious ; though they were only the uncouth and uncourteous mode of expressing his zeal for the " unity of the Church" and his hatred of heresy, . rather than his personal hostility to the criminals whom he was required to punish. But another part of Bonner's conduct has excited even more indignation against him than these words of reproach and contempt to his prisoners. He is accused of cruelty and harshness, in beating Thomas Hinshaw, with willow rods, in his garden, at Ful ham ;f John Mills, with birchen rods and a cane ;J * Foxe, vol. viii., p. 485. X Foxe, vol. viii, p. 484. X Foxe, vol. viii, p. 487. 344 CANING and flogging young heretics canonical. Wilmot, Fairfax, Green, and others. I shall but reply to this charge, almost in his own words, when he was reproached with this custom, after his depri vation in the reign of Elizabeth. " His prisoners," he said, " might believe they had made a happy ex- " change, who were punished only with whipping, " when they deserved burning": and I shall add, also, that Bonner was too skilful in the Canon law, to inflict any punishment upon a heretic, which that law did not sanction. A Bishop was empowered by the laws of the Church, handed down by antiquity and tradition, to exercise discipline, to prescribe pe nance, to moderate, relax, or remit it. One kind of discipline or penance, strange as it may appear to the Ultra- Protestants, who abuse Bonner for his observ ance of the laws of the early Church, consisted in the discretionary use of the whip and rod. This punishment was not inflicted upon delinquents of a higher degree ; but upon the young, the ignoble, the inferior persons, who presumed to form opinions, and to defend their opinions, contrary to the decisions of the learned, and of the Clergy. Thus the rule of Isidore, of Seville— of Macarius— of St. Benedict — Aurelian also, and Gregory the Great sanction and command the use of stripes and corporal punishment.* St. Augustine assures us, that this kind of punish ment by stripes was commonly used, not only by schoolmasters and parents, but by Bishops in their * See the references in Bingham,— Book xvi., chap, iii, sect. 2. the antient bishops whipped heretics. 345 consistories :* and the reason was not so much the distinction of crimes, as the distinction of age and quality in the persons. For these causes, therefore, Bishop Bonner flogged the Ultra-Protestants in his orchard. He acted in strict accordance with the canons of the universal Church, the authority of the Fathers, the sanction of tradition, the examples of antiquity. The Ultra-Protestants condemn Bonner for flogging his prisoners, because they are ignorant ofthe venerable authorities from the best days of the Primitive Church, the days of St. Augustine. They are not conscious that all the floggings he inflicted were strictly canonical. They will not believe that a Bishop was fully justified in flogging all the young heretics in his diocese, and burning all the old ones. But to censure Bonner for whipping the Ultra-Pro testants, is to censure the great St. Augustine, the holy St. Benedict, the learned Isidore. It is to con demn at once, in one sweeping indiscriminate disap proval, the Fathers, Antiquity, Tradition, and the Canon Law. And I am sure that Bonner will need no other defence, than the fact that he is identified with all these in whipping the Heretics ; and that to censure him, would be to censure them. This, I cannot — this, I will not do. I complete my vindica tion of this great man, therefore, by resting his de fence on these immovable foundations ; and I only * Aug. et 159, ad Marcellin. Quis modus coercitationis, et a Magistris artium liberalium, et saepe in judiciis solet ab epis copis adhiberi See Bingham. 346 degeneracy of the present day. wish that the Bishops of the Church could exercise the same authority at present ; and if they do not burn the Ultra-Protestants, that they possessed, at least, the old canonical authority of flogging, most soundly, the presumptuous, the impertinent, and the ignorant. So degenerate, however, have we become — so totally have we departed from the spirit of the antient Canons — so entirely have we neglected the discipline of the Catholic Church, in its best days, the days of St. Augustine, that a Bishop in the present day would be deemed "most singular, who flogged even a mechanic, or a peasant, for Ultra- Protestantism. An action for assault would be brought against the Bishop himself, in a civil court of justice. The jury, though they might call themselves Christians, Churchmen, and Episcopalians, would, unhesita tingly, give a verdict of damages against the Bishop himself: and the Canons of the Antient Church, with all the long train of Traditions, Antiquity, Fa thers, Saints, and Bishops, would be appealed to, and quoted, in vain. 5. Here, then, I end my defence and vindication of the character and conduct of the venerable Bishop Bonner, during the reign of Mary. He obeyed the laws ofthe land. He endeavoured to extend the same pious opinions which had once been established as the religion of England. By influence, by law, by obedience to the. Catholic Church, by supporting the submission to Rome, which constituted the "unity "of the Church," and the reconciliation of the Ita- BONNER ONLY WISHED TO "UNPROTESTANTIZE." 347 lian and English Churches, by warning, persuading, expostulating, and threatening, before he flogged and burnt the Ultra-Protestants ; Bonner proved himself to be the firm, uncompromising, advocate of the Anti-Protestant system. He had but one, one, one object in view ; and that was the very ob ject, which we, the Tractarian British Critics, have announced in "bold and offensive language," to be our design also. He wished only to " unprotestantize" the National Church. To effect this, he had no sym pathy with sufferings, and no pity for the sufferers. We do not approve of his real or supposed cruelty ; we approve only of his principles and object. We learn from the failure of his plans, the impossibility of effecting, in England, a change in the religion of the people, by terror, force, and severity ; but that such change must be effected by an opposite system of treatment. We learn that we can only hope to " un protestantize" the nation, by the "poisoning sys tem" of Froude, in preference to the "purning and flogging system" of Bonner. SECTION IV. FROM THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH TO THE DEATH OF BONNER, 1569. Little now remains to be said of the venerable Bonner. Elizabeth peacefully ascended the throne on the death of her sister, on the 17th of November, 1558, a day which was long held sacred by the Ul tra-Protestants. She was proclaimed, unanimously, among the general rejoicings of Peers, Commons, and people, who appear to have become weary of the forcing system, by which the pious Mary had endeavoured to change the religion of the nation. The "poisoning system," we hope, will succeed better. The joy ofthe people was so excessive, that no signs of sorrow for the death of that " blessed Saint"* was manifested by any but those who were best able to appreciate her excellencies, the Bishops and Clergy of the Church, who had submitted to Rome.t Elizabeth had complied with the laws of Mary in the matter of religion, to such extent that the hopes and fears of her subjects were equally ex cited. She had assisted and communicated at the * See the prayers of Queen Mary, at the end of Strype's Memorials, vol. iii. Records, p. 288. -j- Burnet, part ii, book iii, p. 374. Elizabeth's injustice to bonner. 349 mass : and the Bishops, therefore, two days after her accession, met her at Highgate, to welcome and con gratulate her. Elizabeth received them all with courtesy and kindness, excepting Bonner, whom she ought more especially to have favoured, as the most active ecclesiastical Magistrate, whose loyalty, when his Sovereign professed the religion he approved, was equal to his piety and virtue. From him she turned away with silent and reproachful contempt, and thus gave an earnest of the change of policy she was meditating. Bonner, with his brethren, return ed to the City, and we may suppose to his house at St. Paul's, while the Queen proceeded to the Duke of Norfolk's, at the Charter House, and from thence the next day to the Tower- Two months elapsed before the Queen was crown ed,* and before the meeting of her first Parliament.-}- In this short space of time, Elizabeth threw off the mask which had been assumed with so much skill and dexterity, as to deceive her zealous sister, and prevent any judicial process against her as a heretic. Though she buried her sister with all the solemnities of the Catholic ritual, and commanded a solemn dirge and mass of requiem for the soul of the Emperor Charles the Fifth,! it is not improbable that the souls of both would have been as much benefited by the reformed, as by the ancient ritual ; for she shewed * 15th January, 1559. f 23rd January. X Lingard — Elizabeth — vol. iv, p. 349. 350 conduct of Elizabeth. no zeal for the faith, which valued the prayers of the living for the souls of the dead. She discharged the heretical prisoners on their own recognizances — re ceived the Ultra-Protestant Divines on their return from Geneva, and other places of exile — forbade Oglethorpe (who refused obedience), to elevate the Host in the Chapel Royal in her presence — and ac tually imprisoned White, the Bishop of Winchester, for the sermon on the death of Mary, in which the zealous preacher, advocated the " Unity of the Church," condemned heresy, exhorted all to perse vere in the religion of Mary, prayed for the souls in purgatory, upheld the power ofthe Church as judging all men, but to be judged of none. He declared of Mary that the poorest creature in all the city feared not God, more than she did* — that she restored to the Church the ornaments which had been taken away in the time of the schism, and, having purged the realm which was poisoned with heresy, refused to declare herself the head of the Church, a title which no prince had for fifteen hundred years had ever usurped. It was probably this expression which irritated the young Queen, who was conscious to herself that she intended to restore the days of schism, to destroy the unity which had been esta blished with so much difficulty, and cemented with so much blood. Neither was this all. She forbad * See White's Sermon at the end of Strype's Memorials, vol. iii., Records, 284. The passage at the end of this page is really eloquent. Elizabeth's first proclamation. 351 preaching unless under especial circumstances — she appointed a secret committee of divines to revise and correct the Liturgy of Edward — and took other measures which proved to Bonner and his brethren the resolution she had taken, on the meeting of her first parliament, to " undo all, as all had never been," to overthrow the work of Mary, and possibly to re ject once more the very supremacy of the Bishop of Rome itself, as her rash and ruthless father had done. They were confirmed in their suspicion by the pro clamation in which she ordered the established wor ship to be only so long observed " till consultation " on religion might be had in Parliament, and the " three estates."* This document demonstrated to the Bishops, that Elizabeth had determined to act upon that principle which is the secret of all heresy, and the beginning of all that pride of heart, which presumes to throw off the authority of the ecclesias tics, to whom alone is committed the power of pro nouncing what doctrines are to be believed or reject ed by the laity. If the proposition on which this proclamation was written, was to be once admitted without resistance — if the Church of England was allowed once more to become a parliamentary Church, instead of remaining a portion of the Papal Church, the Bishops at once perceived that the Bishop of Rome might possibly be no longer regarded as the sole head upon earth of the Church Catholic, and of the Church of England. The unavoidable and neces- * Lingard — -Burnet — Strype. 352 THE BISHOPS REFUSE TO CROWN ELIZABETH. sary consequence followed. The Bishops assembled at London in full committee, or in private synod, and unanimously resolved to oppose every obstacle in their power, to the solemn ceremony which con firmed the authority thus dangerous to the united and reconciled Churches of Rome and England. They resolved to refuse to crown the Queen. They resolved, that is, to refuse to acknowledge as their Sovereign, a woman who would have objected to some part of the service as ungodly and superstitious ; and who, if she did not refuse to take, certainly meant, to violate, that part of the oath, which bound the Sovereign to maintain what my friend Dr. Lingard calls " the liberties of the Church," that is the liberty of its dependence on Rome, and of its independence ofthe King or Queen of England.* Their loyalty was less than their piety. They believed they were to honour God, more than Caesar, as they were com manded to do. They honoured God, when they preferred the Pope to the Queen. They honoured Caesar rightly, when they placed the Queen below their holy Father the Pope. They refused to crown Elizabeth, and Bonner was the chief of the recusants. What was to be done ? The secret delibera tions of the Council of Elizabeth have not been handed down to us. Much confusion and embarrass ment certainly resulted on account of the great im portance which was attached to the ceremony of con secration. Bonner was the Bishop who, in conjunction * Lingard, p. 350. BONNER GIVES UP THE CORONATION ROBES. 353 with the Archbishop of York, (for the See of Can terbury was vacant by the death of Pole,) would be chiefly assailed by the partizans of the Court and of the projected changes. They were both resolute, and both persisted in their refusal. Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle, at length consented to place the Crown on the head of Elizabeth, on condition that she took the accustomed oath and complied with the Catholic pontifical. If he, or some other of his brethren, had not consented, I have no doubt that the Queen would have commanded the Chancellor, or one of the principal nobility, or one of the de prived Bishops, or Dr. Cox, or some other of the re turned exiles, to place the crown upon her head. She certainly possessed the recklessness of her fa ther, though she preferred to govern by balancing party against party, by exciting hopes of favor, and fears of censure, and thus ruling by influence, ra ther than by force or terror. Oglethorpe at length consented to crown her, and it is a curious fact, that the Lords commanded Bonner to send to the Bishop of Carlisle the robes that were used on this occasion by the Ecclesiastic who was appointed to crown the Sovereign. He was directed to send, and he obeyed the injunction, all the pontifical habits that Bishops were wont to use, in " such glorious inau- " gurations of most illustrious Kings."* Bonner sent * Such is Strype's translation of the words of the writ — Universam apparatum Pontificium, quo uti solent Episcopi in hujusmodi magnifieis Illustrissimorum Itegum inaugurationibus. 354 NEW DEFINITION OF HERESY. the robes, and the Queen was crowned amidst the loud shouts and rejoicings of all the expectant Ultra- Protestants of London. The Parliament met on the 23rd of January, eight days after the coronation. According to the antient custom, the Convocation assembled at the same time. Elizabeth well knew that the members of this august assembly were opposed to her intention to resume the supreme ecclesiastical, as well as civil power, over the kingdom. She therefore sent down an order to the Convocation, to make no new Canons. The Par liament proceeded to repeal all the statutes of the late reign for the support of the Anti-Protestant sys tem, and to re-establish, with some few alterations, the second Service-book of King Edward, for which so many Ultra-Protestants had died. It decreed that no doctrines, or opinions, or matter of religion which might be promulged by the Parliament, should be deemed to be heresy, but that only which was con trary to Scripture, or to the decisions of the four first Councils. Henry VIII. had declared those doctrines to be heresy which opposed his own decisions. The Bishop of Rome declared that to be heresy which opposed the Church of Rome. I must confess that I prefer that definition of heresy, which affirms it to be an offence against either Scripture, or the deci sions of the earlier Councils. The ecclesiastical ju risdiction was declared to be vested in the Crown, and the Convocation was not permitted to interfere nor to express an opinion on the subject. All THE BORNINGS WERE ALL IN VAIN. 355 future appeals to the Court of Rome were prohibited, though certain existing causes were permitted to be completed within a certain time.* The assertion of the Papal authority was prohibited by severe penal ties, according to the repetitions of the offence, from fine to imprisonment, from imprisonment to death. An oath was to be required for declaring the Queen to be the supreme governor, in all ecclesiastical and spiritual, as well as in all temporal causes ; and all foreign, ecclesiastical, or spiritual jurisdiction, or authority whatever, within, the realm, was to be ut terly renounced. All the burnings, in short, had been in vain. The severities of Mary recoiled upon the inflictors of the former punishments, though in a less terrible shape, than the death of the faggot and the stake : and Mary seemed to have lived in vain, or to haye lived only to enable the Ultra- Protestants to adorn the tales of John Foxe, and to terrify the commonalty of England with the fears of Popery for ever. The State of England and the Church of England must be considered as one society, bound by the double laws, ecclesiastical and temporal. The ecclesiastical laws had hitherto been made by the spiritual senators ; the temporal laws by the civil senators of the country. In this instance the eccle siastical laws were enacted against the wish of the spiritual senators, whether the Convocation ofthe Clergy, or the Bishops in Synod. The Bishop of * Statutes at large, vol. ii, p. 142, edit. 1735, folio. A a 356 THE PRAYER-BOOK RE-ESTABLISHED. London, Harpsfield, his Chaplain, and others, exert ed themselves to the utmost against the change. The Convocation presented five articles to tbe Bishops, to be laid before the House of Lords, declaring their belief in the bodily presence — Transubstantiation — the Sacrifice of the Mass — the supremacy of the Pope — and a protestation, that to decide on doctrine, Sa craments, and discipline, belonged to no Parliament, nor to any lay assembly, nor to any lay authority, but to the Pastors of the Church, that is, to the Bishops and the Convocation. All was in vain. The opposition of the Clergy was neutralized by a Royal command, that five Bishops, and three Doctors, on the Anti- Protestant, and eight Divines on the Protestant or Ultra-Protestant side, should dispute publicly on the controverted points. The debates in Parliament were suspended that the members might hear the discussion. The Anti-Protestants, however, objected to the arrangement that they should begin the controversy and that their oppo nents should reply, and the conference was declared to be at an end, amidst the ridicule ofthe Protestants. The committal ofthe Bishops of Winchester and Lin coln to the Tower, and the binding over the other disputants on their own recognizances to make their appearance daily, till judgment was pronounced on them, silenced the opposition of the other Bishops, and the bill in favour of the re-establishing the Book of Common Prayer was finally, I grieve to say, read and carried by a majority of three. Bonner BONNER OPPOSES THE CHANGES. 357 attended in his place, in the House of Lords, and was out-voted with the rest of the minority. The bills passed into laws. The Parliament and the Con vocation, after many adjournments, were dissolved about the middle of May, and no efforts on the part of the Bishops, the Convocation, nor the Clergy of England ; and no efforts on the part of the Bishop of Rome, or of his adherents on the Continent, or in the empire, have hitherto been able to rescind the laws, nor to overthrow the establishment of religion, effected by Elizabeth. The Anti- Episcopalians, of the reign of Charles, overthrew it for a time ; but from that blow we have recovered. Neither can we hope to destroy this Church, unless we adopt the "poisoning or Froudian system," commended by myself and my friends. So ended, vainly and fruitlessly, the opposition of Bonner to the decisions of Elizabeth, and the votes of her first Parliament. He exerted himself through out the whole Session to the utmost of his power against all the changes. He was constantly in his place in the House of Lords, and in the Convoca tion, and before the House of Commons. He was present at the former, on the 30th of January, to op pose the bill for the restitution of the first-fruits and tenths to the Crown. They had been restored by Mary to the Church, and even the Ultra- Protestants confess, that it would have been happy for the Church if her bounty had not been rescinded ; and that Elizabeth had anticipated the bounty of Anne, 358 BONNER OPPOSES THE REGAL SUPREMACY. and remedied the poverty of the benefices occa sioned by her imperious father. Bonner voted on the 8th of February in favor of the recognition of the Queen's title to the throne,* and for various subsequent measures which supported her authority. He opposed on the 27th of February, and on every day till the 22nd of March, when it passed into a law, the bill for restoring the supremacy over the Church from the Pope to the Crown. He objectedf to the bill empowering the Queen, on the avoidance of an Archbishopric or Bishopric, to exchange the temporal possessions of the See with impropriate parsonages — an unhappy law, to which much of the poverty of the Bishoprics was to be imputed, till it was rectified by the late changes, by which a definite sum is allowed to the more impoverished Sees by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from the confiscated re venues of other appointments in the Church. He voted on the 26th of April against the restoration of the second Service-Book of King Edward. Several bills for enlarging tbe spiritual power of the Queen, such as, that the Queen by commission might restore deprived ecclesiastics upon appeal to the throne, and to annex the revenues of certain religious houses to the Crown, did not pass into laws ; probably on ac count of the more successful opposition of Bonner and his brethren : though others, to which the most strenuous opposition might have been anticipated, * See Strype's Summary of the acts of this Parliament. f 4th April, 1559. BONNER OBJECTS TO RIDLEY'S LEASES. 359 were passed without any recorded objections. The chief of these was, that none should be punished for exercising the religious services appointed in the reign of King Edward — a law which had the effect of pardoning those who remained in prison on that account. Bonner appears to have attended regularly in his place till the dissolution of Parliament.* I have already said that the Convocation was for bidden to pass any canons. Bonner, however, ex erted himself to the utmost, and with great success, to induce the Convocation to oppose the measures affecting religion. He commanded his Chaplain Harpsfield to draw up the five articles, which the lower House of Convocation desired the Bishops to present to the Lords. They were presented, by Bonner, to the Chancellor, but they were never made the matter of dis"cussion by the House. I am unable to state the reasons for which Bonner did not make them the subject of a distinct motion. In the present day the House of Commons would fiercely resent any interference of a member of the House of Lords with their debates, as a gross breach of privilege. In the reign of Elizabeth this inter ference seems to have excited no surprize. On the llth of March a Bill was brought into the House of Commons to confirm Bishop Ridley's leases. The Bill passed the House — but Bishop Bonner, with the boldness and decision which characterized all his proceedings, came down in person to the House, * 8th May, 1559. 360 THE LATIN MASS-BOOK FINALLY REJECTED. demanded a copy of the Bill, and stigmatized Rid ley as an usurper of the Bishopric. The House granted his request, and appointed Wednesday the 15th to consider his objections. Bonner appeared at their bar at the time assigned him, and argued that he had been deprived unjustly of his See, in the reign of Edward, and that Ridley was, therefore, an intruder, whose leases were consequently void. His plea was not admitted, and the law passed — but Bonner was neither injured nor insulted. His firm ness and decision seem to have overawed the very Ultra-Protestants, who most hated both his person and opinions. So ended the Parliament which re-established the present frame-work of the Church of England. The Prayer-book of Ridley, Cranmer, Latimer, and their Ultra- Protestant King, was ordered to be again brought into use on St. John Baptist's day.* The Latin Mass-book, which had been permitted to be used from the days of the Queen's accession till this time, was removed ; and never has been since regarded with favour, till I and my brethren have again begun to eulogize it. The Prayer-book was joyfully received by the Ultra-Protestants and by the people generally, with the exception of the Anti-Episcopal party, who were returning from Ge neva and their other places of exile on the Con tinent. As Mary had changed religion without the consent of the Clergy, but imprisoned an Arch- * June 24th. BONNER REJECTS THE OATH OF SUPREMACY. 36 1- bishop and Bishop, and at length burnt them ; so Elizabeth changed the religion of the country with out the consent of the Archbishop and Bishops — whom though she did not burn, she deprived of their preferments. The nation was divided. The Parlia ments were easily packed by Sheriffs who obeyed the mandates of the Court. The violence of Mary, I must confess, to have been greater than that of Eliza beth. The changes, under Edward, received the sanction of all the legal powers of the realm. Those of Mary were begun by the authority of the Court alone, without the sanction ofthe Parliament. Those of Elizabeth were all begun and completed by the Parliament ; and they confirmed only the establish ment of Edward, which had forcibly and illegally been removed by Mary. We are now, then, once more to consider Bon ner in adversity. The Parliament was dissolved on the 8th of May. On the 30th of that month Bonner was summoned before the Council, -and the oath of supremacy, disowning the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, was formally tendered to him. He refused to take it, and was informed that his bishopric was again forfeited. His last act of authority as a Bishop, the collation to a benefice, had been performed on the 6th of May. On the 30th he was deprived.* Sen- * Anthony Wood was in possession of Bonner's Eusebius. Bonner had written in it Litera Dominicali A. An. Dom. mdlix, die Maii xxx, vocatus ad concilium recusavi praestare juramentum et omnino deprivatus.* * Strype, (Elizabeth) chap. ii. 362 CONFERENCE BETWEEN ELIZABETH AND THE BISHOPS. tence of deprivation was not actually pronounced on him till the following month. Much reluctance seems to have been felt by the Queen before she resolved on taking this very decided step. All the fourteen Marian Bishops had been called before her, with the other Clergy of the Convocation, eight days after the Parliament was dissolved. Bonner was with them. The Queen addressed them : she re minded them that she had only restored the antient rights of the Crown, by bringing back the supremacy ; and begged them to take into their serious conside ration the affairs of the Church, and to banish from it, all schism and the superstitious worship of Rome. The Bishops (Bonner never seems to have excelled in the art of public speaking, which indeed is no cer tain criterion of great talent,) answered the Queen by Heth, the Archbishop of York. They begged her to recollect and to imitate the zeal of Mary for the See of Rome, and the reconciliation which in her reign had been made between England and Rome : and they loyally and candidly assured her that if Elizabeth imitated the example of Mary, that then the Bishop of Rome would once more restore the island to his favour.* The Queen listened in silence. When Heth had done speaking, she made this most Ultra- Protestant answer, " as Joshua declared, I and " my house will serve the Lord ; so I and my realm " are resolved to serve Him. As he assembled the " Elders of Judea to make a covenant with God, I * Strype, (Elizabeth) chap. ii. Elizabeth's speech to the bishops. 363 " have assembled the Parliament and Clergy of my "nation to make a covenant, not with the Bishop "of Rome, but with God. My sister could not " bind the kingdom to an usurped authority. I ab- " solutely renounce all foreign jurisdiction. I will " be no way subject to any power, but to Christ " the King of Kings. I esteem all my subjects, " whether ecclesiastical or civil, to be enemies to " God, to me, and to my successors, who shall hence- " forth own his usurped or any foreign power what- " ever."* This speech might have been spoken by George the Third. The Ultra-Protestants still quote Scripture in the same manner against the Bishop of Rome. They still talk of religion as being the cove nant between God and their souls. After such a speech there was no remedy. The oath of supre macy was tendered to the Bishops and the whole Clergy of the realm. Their number was calculated at 9400 ecclesiastical persons. Of all these, I blush to say, one hundred and seventy-seven only vacated their preferments, rather than renounce Rome and accept the Prayer-book of Edward.f Bonner was one of the number. He was finally deprived, accord ing to the forms required by law, by the Commis sioners, on the 29th of June, 1559. Where he re- * Strype, ut supra. f Strype, (Elizabeth) chap. ii. There were, however, ac cording to Camden, 14 Bishops, 13 Deans, 14 Archdeacons, 15 Heads of Colleges, 50 Prebendaries, 80 Rectors, Abbots, &c. 6, or 192. 364 BONNER AGAIN IMPRISONED. sided after his sentence, or with what friends he as sociated, we know not. He was, however, permitted to retain his liberty for nine months. In April, 1560, he was committed to the Marshalsea, to his former prison. Strype assures us that this was done to se cure his safety ; because he was so hated by the people, that it would not " have been safe to have walked abroad in public, lest he should have been insulted or maltreated by the friends and acquaintance of those whom he had so barbarously beaten or butcher ed."* But if this was the cause of his detention, we may be justly surprised that he was not committed to the Marshalsea at the time when he refused to take the oath of supremacy. It is difficult to perceive why he should be more liable to insult in April, 1 560, than in June, 1559. The cause of his arrest, there fore, must remain in obscurity. He was imprisoned in April. He was soon after excommunicated, and his sentence was denounced against him at St. Paul's Cross by the preacher, f while he still remained a prisoner in the Marshalsea. Strype, however, as sures us that he was always at liberty, but would not venture to leave his prison. Two circumstances only remain to be mentioned of the venerable Bonner, to prove his consistency to the last. The Bishops who had refused to comply with the establishment under Elizabeth, had been zealous for the Apostolical Succession, and the Episcopacy of * Strype, chap. ii. Elizabeth. f July 28, 1560. RESOLUTE CONDUCT OF ELIZABETH. 365 England, in conjunction with the Church of Rome. They did not imagine that the succession could be se cured and continued without their assistance. When, however, they were all deprived, the Queen took into consideration the propriety and necessity of filling up the Bishoprics. As a lover and admirer of anti quity, desirous to observe the laws and the Catholic canons of the antient Church, she sedulously endea voured to obtain consecration for her intended eccle siastical rulers of the Church, in the antient cano nical forms and modes ; as well as according to the laws and statutes of the Kingdom. It is certain, however, that she would have allowed no impedi ment to have prevented her settling the affairs of the Church in the best manner she could. If she could not have established the Royal Supremacy, the Prayer-book of Edward, and the faith of the Reforming Bishops, with the Apostolical Succession, she would have appointed Superintendants, or Mo derators, or Ruling Presbyters, or Ecclesiastical Ma gistrates, to govern the Dioceses under some other old, or new name. If her people could not have wor shipped God and Christ with the Apostolical Succes sion, she would have taken care they should have some form of worship, though without it. But I am compelled to say that Elizabeth was most anxious to avoid this alternative. She well knew that no Church had been governed but by Bishops, from the very commencement of Christianity : and she believed, also, that these Bishops were independent of the au- 366 DECISION OF ELIZABETH. thority of their brother and co-equal Bishop, him of Rome. Elizabeth, therefore, issued a commission to Tunstal, Bourne, Pool, Kitchin, Barlow, and Scory, the two last of whom had been deprived under Mary, to consecrate Parker to the See of Canterbury ; to which he had been chosen, in compliance with the Queen's conge d'elire of July 18th, 1559, by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. The Bishops, to whom the oath of Supremacy had not been yet tendered, refused to obey. The consecration was postponed ; but the Queen was not a person to be baffled. Three months elapsed. A mandate was then directed to Kitchin, of Llandaff, the only Marian Bishop who had conformed, to Barlow, Scory, Cover- dale, who had also been deprived by Mary, to the Suffragan of Bedford and of Thetford, commanding them to consecrate Parker. A clause, however, was added,* which declared that if there was any defi ciency in their power, either by the statutes of the realm, or by the laws of the Church, either in their acts, or in the person, state, or faculty of either of them; her own authority, as Queen of England, here by supplies such deficiency. "That is," — said the Queen, (in effect, though not in words) — "if you, my " friends, the deprived or undeprived Bishops, refuse " to assist me in providing for the due administra- " tion of the ecclesiastical affairs of my realm, I, as " Queen of England, responsible to God, the only " Ruler of Princes, for the upholding of the Christian * See Rymer. BONNER AND THE BISHOPS OPPOSE THE QUEEN. 367 " religion among my people ; I will make Matthew " Parker the Head of the Church ; and he shall ap- " point others, by the same regal authority by which " I appoint him. I am in this realm, the supreme " Christian Magistrate. The Pope shall not rule me. " The Bishops shall not rule me. 1 will give the best " form of Christianity 1 can to the people ; and it " shall be the union, if possible, of the old Catholic "faith and the old Episcopal discipline : but if you, " the Bishops, will not act with me, I will act without " you, and God alone shall judge me. If I cannot " establish the Christian religion with Bishops, I will " establish it without them." Such decided conduct ended all question about the Apostolical succession. The Queen's command was obeyed. Barlow, and Hodgkins, the Suffragan of Bedford, who had been made Bishops according to the Romish Pontifical ; and Scory and Coverdale, who had been consecrated according to the Ordinal of Edward, confirmed and consecrated Parker, on the 17th of December, and the Apostolical succession was secured to the Church of England.* Bonner and his brethren, perceiving the firmness of the Queen, made one more effort to induce her to pause. They sent a message to the Queen in Coun- * I might discuss here, whether the Bishops could conse crate by virtue of their appointment to the Episcopate, as they had no jurisdiction — but I leave the controversy in the hands of Mr. Palmer, Dr. Wiseman, and Dr. Lingard. — See the Dub lin Review, and Mr. Palmer's books, — " Sub judiee Lis." 368 ELIZABETH AN ULTRA-PROTESTANT. cil, at the beginning of December, before Parker was consecrated — " We entreat your Majesty," they said, " to listen to us the Catholic Clergy, within " your realm, not to be misled by those who would " persuade you to embrace schisms and heresies, "in lieu of the antient Catholic faith, long since " planted here by the motherly care of the Church " of Rome," (those of us Tractarians, who talk of Rome as our mother, could have adopted no better language than this of Bonner) " which your ances- " tors reverenced, until your father and brother " were misled by schismatical advisers." They then eulogized Mary, and intreated the Queen to consi der the supremacy of Rome ; and hoped that God would turn her heart, and make her evil advisers repent of their heresies. The paper was signed by five Bishops — Edmund Bonner being the second. The Queen answered in the Ultra-Protestant spirit which I have represented to be characteristic of her mind and temper. " As to your entreaty to listen to you," she said, " this is my answer : our " realm and subjects, were stray wanderers while " they were under the tuition of the Romish Pastors. " They were advised to own a wolf for their head, " in lieu of a shepherd. Heresies and schisms were " then so numerous, that the flock of Christ fed on " poisonous shrubs, not on wholesome pastures." She then proceeds to affirm, that Rome did not first plant the Catholic faith in this kingdom ; but that their Romish idolatry made them liars. She refers BONNER REPROVED BY ELIZABETH. 369 to the proofs upon which this Ultra- Protestant asser tion rests, and declares that Augustine procured the murder of many Priests in England, who were Mar tyrs for Christ, because they denied the usurped au thority of Rome. " And, whereas," she added, " our " father was withdrawn from the supremacy of Rome " by schismatical and heretical advisers — who, we " pray you, flattered him and encouraged him in this " conduct more than you, Heth, when you were " Bishop of Rochester ; or than you, Bonner, when " you were Archdeacon ? Are not you, then, schis- " matics and heretics ? Suspend, then, your censures. " Was it our sister's conscience, or your advice, " which made her so averse to our father's and bro- " ther's actions ?" She then briefly replied to the arguments in favor of the Papal supremacy, and con cluded, by saying — "that if Athanasius withstood " Rome under Liberius, when he became an Arian, " without being guilty of heresy, she also might se- " parate from Rome, without heresy or schism." The last sentence warned them not to provoke her to en force the penalties enacted for the opponents of her government ; and with this she concluded her reply. Many of the Council entreated her to punish Bonner for his insolence, as he had been so zealous, or, as Strype says, so inveterate against the Protestants and Ultra-Protestants in the reign of Mary. She refused to do so — " Let us not follow," she said, "the " example of Mary. Let us rather shew that our re formation .tendeth to peace, and not to cruelty ;" and Bonner remained unmolested. 370 FIRMNESS AND CONSISTENCY OF BONNER. The Convocation of 1562 gave the sanction of the Bishops and Clergy to the faith, discipline, and gene ral government of the Church. The last circumstance of any interest, related of Bonner, remains to be mentioned, and this imperfect narrative is finished. It is the last proof of his firm ness and consistency, and his almost sublime Anti- Protestant contempt for the Protestant, Ultra-Pro testant, schismatical, and heretical rulers of the Church, who had succeeded to himself and Gardiner. Power had been given to the newly-consecrated Bishops, by a clause in the act of supremacy, to ten der the oath of submission to that supremacy, to the Ecclesiastics under their jurisdiction. Bonner was now in the Marshalsea. That prison was in the Dio cese of the Bishop of Winchester. White, the former Bishop, under Mary, had been deprived by Eliza beth. Home had been consecrated to the Bishopric by Parker, according to the form prescribed by the Ordination-Service, in the second book of Edward the Sixth. Home needlessly and therefore uselessly, for Bonner was safe in prison, resolved to tender to Bonner the oath of supremacy. Bonner was, accord ingly, summoned before the Bishop, or his ecclesias tical officers.* Bonner, as I have already shewn, was well versed in the Canon law. He was neither a preacher nor a theologian, and did not profess to be either. When he appeared before the represen tatives of the Bishop, he urged many reasons for re fusing to take the oath. The chief and the only one * Strype, Annals, (Elizabeth) chap. 34. VALUE OF THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 371 indeed which we may deem it necessary to consider, being this — that Home was not really and truly the Bishop of Winchester — that the Act of Parliament required that the oath should be tendered by the Diocesan, to those who resided in their Dioceses — that Home was not his Diocesan, nor any Diocesan — that he was not a Bishop at all, and, there fore, that he had no power and no authority to ad minister the oath. This objection of Bonner, to: the Episcopal jurisdiction of Home, was at once per ceived to be a question of the most vital importance. If the apostolical succession was not continued among us by the consecration of Parker, and the Bishops whom Parker consecrated, then it was, as our bre thren ofthe Church of Rome still assert, and as the Dublin Review has lately asserted* — that the orders of the Church of England are not valid. If the or ders ofthe Church of England are not valid, then it follows that our Bishops have no authority, our Clergy no mission, our commemorations of Christ's death are not sacraments, our sprinkling of water, or our dip ping of children at their supposed admission into the Universal Church, are not baptism. Then also it fol lows that our people are out of the Covenant, their * See the article in the Dublin Review, on the Apostolical succession in the Church of England, the reply by Palmer, and the rejoinder. These articles are attributed to Bishop Wiseman and Dr. Lingard. The argument of our Romanist brethren is, that those who consecrated Parker had no jurisdiction, and could not, therefore, continue the succession. This seems to have been Bonners objection. B b 372 BONNER REFUSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE HORNE. Pastors are out of the Church, the English nation is left to the uncovenanted mercies of God, we are worse than the Pagans, we are not Christians, so much as the French, the Italians, the Portuguese, or the Spa niards. All of these are Christians. The English people have made one great mistake, and God's mercy does not rest upon them, Christ has not died for them, the Bible is useless to them, the means of grace are a mockery. This, all this, and more than this was, and is, implied in the denial of the va lidity of the orders of the Church of England ; for those who are not in the Covenant with God on earth, cannot be included in the Covenant with God hereafter. Those who are not in the Church mili tant, cannot belong to the Church triumphant. To use the language of the holy Cyprian ;* he cannot have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his Mother. All this was implied in Bonner's objec tion to the validity of the consecration of the Bishop of Winchester. Upon Bonner's refusal, therefore, to acknowledge Home to be a Bishop of the Catho lic Church, though he had been consecrated by Par ker in the form appointed by the Service-book of King Edward ; an indictment was laid against him in the Court of Queen's Bench, and Bonner attended with two of the most eminent council of the day, the learned Plowden and Wray, afterwards Chief Justice, to plead to that indictment. * De Unitate. OBJECTIONS OF BONNER TO HORNE. 373 I pass by the pleas which were over-ruled by the Judgls — that he was indicted as Doctor of Laws* and not as Bishop — that he was accused by the Chan cellor, and not by the Bishop — that he was not re quired to take the oath of supremacy in a public place. The objection to Home was, that Horne was not a Bishop, for two reasons ; first — he was not elected and consecrated according to the laws of the Ca tholic Church ; and, secondly — he was not conse crated according to the statutes and ordinances of the realm. It is much to be regretted, that none of the au thors, who have related this charge of Bonner against Horne, have given us the Bishop's arguments at any length.* I can, therefore, but briefly mention Bon ner's objections, and the reply to them. Horne was not a Bishop according to the canons ofthe Catholic Church. The answer is, that he was consecrated by Parker and his episcopal coadjutors, according to the first of the Apostolical Canons, the fourth Nicene Canon, and the Canons of Africa and Antioch, as they are given in the antient codes. The objection of Bonner, therefore, must have referred to the validity of the consecration of Parker, who consecrated Horne. * See Strype's Annals, (Elizabeth) chap. 34. — Dodd's Church History. Collier, vol. ii., folio edition. Dyer's Reports, p. 234. Edit. 1672. Folio. Strype's Parker, book ii., chap. 1., who refers to a MS. in the Cotton Library. — Cleopatra, sec. 4. 374 ON THE CONSECRATION OF PARKER. Parker was consecrated by four persons, who had been duly and canonically appointed to the episcopal office. Queen Elizabeth had issued a mandate to these four persons, Barlow, Scory, Coverdale, and Hodg- skins, to lay their hands on Parker. They did so. If they were Bishops, therefore, Parker was rightly and duly made by them the continuator of the apos tolical succession. Bonner, therefore, must have in tended to insinuate or affirm, that they were not Bi shops — that is, that they were deprived in the reign of Mary, and had not been restored again to their Sees. They, consequently, possessed no jurisdiction, and, therefore, no authority. I shall only observe, in re ply, that the four Bishops were restored, if they, in deed, had ever lost it, to their power to consecrate ; by the same authority, which had dispossessed and deprived them. If Mary had power to depose them from all or from any part of their office, Elizabeth had power to restore them ; and Barlow, Scory, Coverdale, and Hodgskins, were more certainly justified in continuing the Apostolical Succession, when they were commanded by the authority of their Prince to do so, after their unjust deposition from episcopal jurisdiction ; than either the non- juring Bishops who continued the succession for nearly a century after their deprivation ; or than the Bishops of the Church of Rome, — Baines, Wise man, and others — to exercise episcopal jurisdiction in the Dioceses where our own Bishops are appoint ed, both by the Canons of the Catholic Church, NAG'S HEAD FABLE NOT YET INVENTED. 375 and by the laws of the realm. I am sorry to find, that Bonner objected, on this ground, to the va lidity of Home's consecration. His silence, how ever, on the story of the Nag's Head consecra tion, which he is said to have originated, proves to us that this fable had not at this time been in vented. Bonner's second objection to the validity of Home's consecration was taken from the laws and statutes of the realm. This objection seems to have given much trouble to the Judges, who met and deliberated in the chamber of Chief Justice Catiline. It was, that Horne had been consecrated according to the form of ordination in the second Service-book of King Edward, which had been repealed by Mary ; but which had not been restored, with the rest of the book, by the aet of Elizabeth. That act spoke in general terms of the Prayer-book of Edward ; but did not mention the order of consecrating Bishops, which was a separate Service-book. The question, therefore, was, whether the form of consecrating Bishops was, or was not, part and parcel of the Prayer-book, or a distinct and separate service ; and whether, therefore, Horne ought not to have been consecrated according to the 25th of Henry VHL, c. 20, and not according to the consecration Service-book of Edward. The Queen's mandate for the consecration of Parker, had commanded that he be consecrated according to the form of the 376 ALL DIFFICULTIES REMOVED BY A NEW LAW. statutes in that case made and provided ; but if there should, by chance, be any deficiency in the form or mode of his appointment, it was to be consi dered as done away by the royal mandate, which or dered his consecration.* The same authority might be considered as extending to any informality in the consecration of Horne, provided that the laws of the Church ( Catholic) were observed. This, however, was not pleaded ; neither was it insisted upon, that the or dination services formed a part of the Book of Prayer. The indictment, therefore, was kept open till an Act of Parliamentf was passed, to " take away all ques- " tions and ambiguities that might be objected to the " lawful confirmations, investing, and consecrations " of Bishops." In this act it was asserted that in all the consecrations, those words only had been used, which had been accustomed to be used, by Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth ; and also, that other general words and sentences had been inserted in her letters patent, to dispense with all the doubts and cases that could in anywise be objected against the same. The discussion was thus terminated by the * Supplentes nihilominus, suprema auctoritate nostra Regia — si quid, aut in quas juxta Mandatum nostrum predictum, per vos fient aut in vobis, aut vestrum aliquo Conditione, statu, fa cultate vestris ad Praemissa perficienda, desit, aut deerit eorum, quae per statuta hujus regni, aut per leges ecclesiasticas in hac parte, requiruntur, aut necessaria sunt, Temporis ratione et rerum necessitate id postulante Rymer, Feed. T. xv., p. 550 ; edit. 1713. f The 8th of Elizabeth. ANECDOTES OF BONNER. 377 law. The language of the statute left the question undecided, and professed only to solve a doubt. The indictment against Bonner fell to the ground: but the oath of supremacy was not again tendered to him, either by his Diocesan, or by any other Magistrate. This act passed in the year 1565. Nothing more is recorded of Bonner from this time. He continued to be a prisoner in the Marshalsea ; retaining the same cheerfulness which had characterized him both in his pious zeal when he burnt the heretical Ultra- Protestants, or when he was insulted and threatened by their surviving friends and kindred. Very singu lar are the anecdotes which illustrate his self-posses sion, when he was taken from the Marshalsea to the tribunal of the Bishop of Winchester. " The Lord confound thee, or turn thy heart," said one. " The Lord," he answered, " send thee to keep thy breath to cool thy porridge": an expression not perfectly episcopal. The divisions among the people, how ever, were displayed at the very time when some were most severe in their expressions of indignation. A woman came and knelt before him — " The Lord save thy life, Bishop !" she said, " I trust to see thee Bishop of London again." " God a mercy, good wife," was Bonner's answer. Another met him, an Ultra-Protestant, who urged upon him the duty of submitting to the regal supremacy. " By God, you are well learned," said the Bishop. " Where learn ed you to swear, Master Bonner ?" was the answer. I am, I must say, grieved to add, that Bonner's re- 378 DEATH OF BONNER. ply was such as the best friends of- Bishops must condemn. " Did not Christ swear," he replied. "Verily, verily, I say unto you": and the answer of the Ultra-Protestant to the Anti-Protestant was no less indecorous — "It is well," said he, "that thou hast some Scripture for blasphemy, for thou hast none for Popery."* How miserable, how sad, are the re sults of the controversies among Christians. When shall authority and liberty be so united with peace and truth, that these detestable hatreds shall be end ed ; and the words Heretic and Papist, as the laws tand proclamations of Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth were in vain issued to decree, be no more used to exasperate and divide us. Oh ! that the Providence of God would grant some uniter of hearts and reconciler of truths, to the universal Church ; that love may succeed to hatred, and the admiration of the Infidel, instead of his contempt and scorn of Chris tians, be once more excited, as in the earlier days of the Church. Then the Heathen looked upon the be lievers in Christianity, and said, not — " sceJiow these " Christians hate" — but "see how these* Christians " love one another." And now the time arrived which must come to all, when his body was to be given to the earth, and his spirit must return to the God who gave it. What shall the moment be, when the consciousness of exist- ence on earth shall cease, and the consciousness of * See these conversations in Strype, Annals, (Elizabeth) chap. 34. BONNER IS PRIVATELY BURIED. 379 existence in another state begin ? I dare not speculate on the condition of any one of my fellows. ..Yet we read of no expressions of devotion, no sorrow for the pos sibility of error, no repentance for the burnings and die whippings, the blows and the heatings, with which he had visited the Utyra-Protestants ; with a severity required or unrequired by the fierce and unrelenting l$w. Bonner was more than seventy years of. age, when the Providence of God summoned him to his great account. He died a prisoner, but under Qn easy restraint in the Marshalsea, on the 5th of September, * 1569- So great was his unpopularity among the citizens of London, who would not consider him as the mere executor of the Anti-Protestant law, but who hated him as the cause of the death of so many of tbeir ministers, friends, and kindred ; that public disturbances were apprehended, if his friends and relations had buried him with the usual pomp and splendour, with which some of his acquaintance de sired to commit him 4o the grave. His body was conveyed from the prison in which he died, to St. George's Church-yarjd, in Southwark, at midnight. He sleeps in a dishonoured grave. Not only is his name hateful to posterity for his Alleged cruelty to sufferers who were already weighed down by the agonizing anticipations of that most terrible of all terrible deaths — the burning at the stake ; but' he was commonly reported to be an Atheist,* whose * Strype, (Elizabeth) chap. 53. C C 38ti MONUMENT NOT YET RAISED TO BONNER. private declarations were, that there was no immor tality hereafter, either of joy or sorrow ; no truth in the Scriptures, no.accountablenSss to God. I cannot say how the truth may be, with respect to this accu sation. I only know that much faith is required to believe* that he was, what I and; my brother " Trac tarian British Critics" declare all Bishops to be, " the representatives of Christ, and as worthy qf " our ' homage, as the Apostles and the successors " of the Apostles." » The contemptible Ultra-Pro testants, whom my soul abhors more than any of the brethren of Bonner, or than Bonner himself, what ever be the accusations against him, will, I still fear, remain unconvinced, by my pages, of their bounden duty to submit their private judgment and self-formed opinions to this decision of the Catholic Church. I, however, and my brethren, my own dear friends, who desire to "unprotestantize" this Protes tant nation, shall never hesitate, with our beloved Froude, to approve both of Gardiner and Bonner, and to commend their opinions to the approbation and the love of the Church. Great indeed will be the change we shall effect, if we can accomplish this ob ject. Our Ultra-Protestant friends at Oxford have lately erected a monument to Ridley, Cranmer, and Latimer, who were burnt. We hope so to unprotes tantize, or to Romanize the nation, that we shall raise a monument to Mary, Gardiner, and to Bonner, who burnt them. They prefer the criminals, we the judges. They think of the suffering, we of the guilt ; A LIFE OF BONNER REQUIRED. 381 they o£ the Ultra- Protestant professions, we of Jbe Anti-Protestant actions. They are against Rome, we are with Rome. They, like the Pseudo-Martyrs, whom they eulogize, talk more of the Bible than of the Church; we talk more of the Church than of the Bible. They love the Prayer-book ; we love "the Catholic Ritual, the Canon of the Mass, and the beauties of the Breviary. They go to the fountain ; we trace the stream. They love the Government which gives the sceptre over the visible Church to all the successors ofthe Apostles ; we prefer the Unity at which our dear fathers in the reign of Mary aspired, the government of the Church by the successor of St. Peter alone. They love the German reformers Bucer, Martyr, Phagius, and their set ; we prefer the Italian reformers, Priuli, Ormaneto, and Castro, who assisted Pole to secure Aristotle to Oxford. Lives of Cranmer, and Jewell, and Wycliffe, without num ber, have crowded the shelves of our libraries, and gradualbjwlescended to our book stalls ; and the time, it seemed to me, had come, when the principles of my friend Froude might be more extensively acted upon, and a life of Bonner be added to the list, that the anti dote might attend the poison. Go, then, my book, go forth to the astonished world ! Go ! and tell the Bri tish public ! Go tell the Anglican Church ! that three centuries after Henry had placed the Bible in the Churches of England, and taken down the Papal tiara which overshadowed the royal diadem of the Kings of England — go ! tell the British people, that 382 OXFORD IN 1841. thejje were found, at Oxford, inthe year 1841, Eng lishmen, Clergymen, Gentlemen, and Scholars, who loved the memory, advocated the motives, admired the conduct, and desired to restore, in England, the faith, the creed, and - the principles of Edmund Bonner ! ! ! THE END. F. Humble $ Son, Printers, Durham.