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 England, all godliness and goodness was abolished, and the Catholic doctrine of the Church was named Papistry. 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. "Ye have been very desirous," was one AND PRAYER BOOK OF KING EDWARD. 305 66 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." "Thou "hast taught," (was the charge by Bonner, against six others who were brought before him,‡) "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 Edward, against which my beloved friends, in our Tracts, are so eloquent, was one great crime of the delinquents, 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 reasons. I do not, therefore, hesitate, as I would defend my own conclusions, to defend in them the conclusions of Mary, Bonner, Gardiner, and the Anti-Protestants of their day. Our opinions and conclusions, in many most important points, wherein we both differ from the Ultra-Protestants, are identical with * Foxe, vol. viii., p. 470. + Foxe, vol. viii., p. 480. 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 restored, that prayers for the dead were permitted, and that the whole of our present Prayer-book was remodelled 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 Bonner 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 ancestors 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 proclamations, by which the King, Queen, Council, and Government 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 66 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."† An UltraProtestant would have said that he ought to have resigned his Bishopric rather than have burned the prisoners, 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. + Lingard's History of England, Mary, p. 267, note 11. Second 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 censures 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, courteous, 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 therefore impossible to attribute the severities to the influence of Gardiner-in the absence of the Kingafter 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 living 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.† * Keble's Letter to Mr Justice Coleridge. |