8

PLURALITIES OF LIVINGS DEFENSIBLE.

law recommended him to the notice of Wolsey, at the time when the limits of the powers of the Pope, and of the King, were coming daily into more frequent diseussion. Wolsey soon rewarded his learning and virtue. Bonner was appointed, in 1525, about the time in which he took his degree of Doctor in the Civil Law, to the charge not of one, but of several benefices. This will seem strange in the present day. But if the Church revenues, as Paley argues, be a common fund, for the reward of the greatest virtue; the accumulation of livings upon one person who renders more service to the Church by his knowledge and learning than another, may be defended upon that plea. An Ultra-Protestant would tell us, that benefices and church livings, parishes and all parochial divisions, were instituted for the better improvement of the people; and not for the reward of the clergyman. He would affirm, and in this I cannot but agree with him, that pluralities were indefensible, because the incumbent could not be present in two places at once, and some portion of the people must consequently be neglected. I am sorry, therefore, that Dr. Bonner accepted so many benefices. Much as I love this great man, I acknowledge that it is but reasonable that the shepherd should dwell among his flock. Yet it must be remembered that a clergyman, in the days of our fathers, had other things to attend to, than the souls of the people. He had the canon and civil law to study, that, like Bonner, he might be employed upon

ELEVEN BENEFICES GIVEN TO ONE PERSON.

9

difficult embassies to the Pope; and upon various

foreign missions.

The providing the charges for

We read, therefore,

such expensive employments, were defrayed from

the revenues of the Church.

that though Bonner was not distinguished for his theological learning, he was celebrated for his skill and dexterity in the management of other affairs.* For this reason he was much noticed by Cardinal Wolsey; who, like Bonner, was more admired for his law, than his theology. He was made by Wolsey Commissary of his Faculties; and to reward his labors in that capacity, he held, at the same time, the Rectories of Ripple Bleadon; Dereham, in Essex; Cheswick, in Middlesex; and Cherry Burton, in Yorkshire. Our surprize too, that so many preferments were held by one person will cease, when we remember also, not only the learning of this eminent casuist, but remember that the Cardinal rewarded less eminent virtue by still more numerous preferments. We read, for instance, that Wolsey granted or procured eleven appointments for a Clergyman by no means so distinguished as Bonner; and these preferments were so widely scattered, that attention to their various claims was a physical impossibility.†

* Biog. Brit.

† Dr. Winter was at the same time—

No. 1. Dean of Wells;

2. Prebendary of Sutton, in that Church;

3. Archdeacon of York and Richmond;

LO

BONNER WITH WOLSEY AT CAWOOD.

While the charge of his benefices was confined to Curates or Vicars, Bonner attended Wolsey as his Commissary; and formed one of his retinue when he was arrested at Cawood. We learn this from Hollinshead.* Immediately after the arrest of Wolsey by the Earl of Northumberland and by Walsh, the King's Chamberlain, "the Cardinal," says Hollinshead, "was sitting at dinner, on All-hallows Day,

having at his board's end divers chaplains sitting "at dinner. Ye shall understand that the Cardinal's great cross stood in a corner at the table's end, "leaning against the hanging, and when the board's "end was taken up, and a convenient time for the "chaplains to arise, one Doctor Augustine, a Vene"tian, and physician to the Cardinal, rising from “the table with the others, having upon him a great

gown of boisterous velvet, overthrew the cross, "which trailing down along the carpet, with the "point of one of the crosses, brake Doctor Bonner's "head that the blood ran down. The company there

4. Prebendary of Strenfell, in the same Church;

5. Chancellor of Sarum;

6. Prebendary of Bedwin, in the same Church;

7. Provost of St. John, of Beverley;

8. Prebendary of Mitton, in the Church of Lincoln;

9. Prebendary of Norwell, in the Church of Southwell; 10. Rector of Rindley, in the Diocese of York; 11. Rector of St. Matthew, in Ipswich.

-Fidde's Life of Cardinal Wolsey, p. 530, note 9.

* Hollinshead, Henry VIII., A.D. 1530. A.R. 22, p. 915. Ed. 1585.

ACCIDENT TO BONNER.

11

"standing were greatly astonished with the chance. "The Cardinal perceiving the same, demanded what "the matter meant by their sudden amaze. They "shewed him of the fall of his cross upon Dr. Bon"ner's head. Hath it (quoth he) drawn any "blood?' 'Yea, forsooth, my Lord' (quoth they.) "With that he cast his eyes aside, and shaking his “head, said, 'Malum omen,' and therewith saying 66 grace, rose from the table and went to his cham"ber. Now mark the signification how the Cardinal

expounded this matter at Pomfret, after his fall. "First, ye shall understand that the cross which he "bare as Archbishop of York, signified himself; and "Augustine, who overthrew the cross, was only he "that accused the Cardinal, whereby his enemies 66 'caught an occasion to overthrow him. It fell

66

upon Dr. Bonner's head, who was master of the "Cardinal's faculties and spiritual jurisdictions, and 66 was then damnified by the overthrow of the cross : and moreover, drawing blood of him betoken"ed death, which shortly after did insue."

66

yea,

I have given this anecdote at full length from Hollinshead, because it is omitted by all the biographers of Bonner; and because also it shews us where he was, and how he was employed in the year 1529-1530, the year in which Wolsey was arrested, and in which he died. The expences of his attendance upon Wolsey were defrayed, we must believe, from his benefices; and this must be regarded as an apology for his holding so many pluralities.

12

JOHN FOXE, A CONTEMPTIBLE AUTHORITY.

We must now pass to the more public transactions in which Bonner was engaged.

Soon after the death of Wolsey, we find Bonner high in favor with Henry VIII. In explaining the causes of that favor, I am sorry to be compelled to have recourse to that authority whom the Ultra-Protestants have always so much admired, but whom I and my friends have as uniformly hated and despised-I mean the contemptible martyrologist, John Foxe. From his From his pages, Burnett has borrowed the letter, a part of which is published in the Biographia Britannica, and which, I am required to confess, must be depended upon as authentic. From this letter,* which Foxe quotes from Bonner's own handwriting, and of which he would not, he says, alter one word, we learn that Bonner imputed his success in life to the interference of Cromwell with the King. In this letter, in which are many allusions to the terms of the civil law, he acknowledges that his advancement was begun and continued, only, by the goodness of Cromwell. There can, I think, therefore, be no doubt that Cromwell had observed the fidelity of Bonner to Wolsey; and had probably heard from the Cardinal, or knew from his personal conversation with him, the skill of Bonner in the canon law. He recommended him, on this account most probably, to the King, who gave

* P. 315, Vol. II., Edit. 1684; and p. 150, Vol. V. of the New Edition of the Acts and Monuments.