BECKET A BLESSED SAINT AND MARTYR.

133

calling the Commission "a pretended power." The former accusations were submitted to him in the state of newly drawn articles. He desired a copy of them which was granted, and the Court again adjourned till the next day. Fresh witnesses were then summoned. The Bishop not only objected to them, but exhibited a written accusation against Latimer, as an impugner of the King, in calling him a babe and a child. The accusation seems to have been received in silence, and the Court again adjourned.

When the Court again met, Bonner was not present. Two of his gentlemen appeared for him, and declared that sickness prevented his attendance. Sir Thomas Smith seems to have believed that his sickness was feigned. "You do the part of a trusty servant as becometh you," said he to Mr. Johnson, the Bishop's servant, "but doth your master think to oppose the King in his own realm? Is this the part of a subject? I think we shall have a new Thomas Becket," with much to the same effect. I shall only remark on this, that though Sir Thomas Smith was certainly in much estimation as the King's professor of Civil Law, and was soon after appointed to be Secretary of State, that his contemptuous way of speaking of this "blessed Saint and Martyr of the most high" Thomas Becket, excites in me the same indignation as it excited when Jewel used the same language. If we had more Beckets we could again

* One was Master William Cecil.

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KINGS INFERIOR TO BISHOPS.

place Kings in their proper position. I do not say we would flay them at the tombs of Canterbury, but we would make both them, as well as their people, submit to the "representatives of our Saviour," as Bishops, because they are Bishops. We would compel their obedience to the ascendancy of the Apostolicals, who desire only the elevation of their Holy Mother.

On the following day Bonner made his appearance, objected again to all the witnesses, replied generally to the articles, and protested with more than his usual vehemence against Sir Thomas Smith as his personal enemy. He had probably been informed by his servant, Mr. Johnson, of the blasphemous words which Sir Thomas Smith had spoken, against the "blessed Saint and Martyr of the most high," Thomas Becket. The anger of the Bishop against this Ultra-Protestant Judge renders the fifth appearance of his victim Bonner more interesting to us, than any which preceded it. After Bonner's exceptions to Sir Thomas had been read, the Secretary, full of the pomp of office, replied that he was and would be his judge till he was otherwise commanded by the King. "I said, my Lord, that you behaved like thieves, murderers, and traitors, in your rebellious conduct, and I here repeat my accusation." This language was certainly indefensible. The most stanch Ultra-Protestant must confess it to have been so. "As one of the

King's Council," replied Bonner,

"I must and do

honor and reverence you; but as ye are but Sir

BONNER INDIGNANT WITH CRANMER.

135

Thomas Smith, and say as ye have said, I say ye lie, and I defy you: do what ye can to me, I fear not." And Bonner is to be believed. The persecutor and the victim in these sad times would have changed places. The tribunal or the stake, the judgment seat or the scaffold, the mitre or the cap, the rochet or the shroud, were alike indifferent to the zealous controversialists of the hour. Cranmer interrupted the conversation. "You are worthy of imprisonment," he said to Bonner, "for such irreverend behaviour." This remark made our zealous Bishop of London still more indignant. "In God's name," he said to Cranmer, (I do not say that I approve the language in which the Bishop of London expressed himself,) "send me whither ye will, and I must obey you. I will go everywhere for you, but to the Devil, for thither I will not go for you. have a small portion of goods, my

Three things I poor body, and

my soul. The two first you may take-my soul ye get not." He was determined to save his soul by still believing in Transubstantiation and worshipping Thomas Becket, the Saint and Martyr, our additional Mediator with the Most High. Well, Sir," said the Secretary, "ye shall know that there is a King:" and the Council chamber was commanded to be cleared, while the Commissioners proceeded to deliberate on their best mode of concluding this vexatious affair.

Bonner now stood among the attendants at the door of the Council chamber. His Chaplains, Re

136

BONNER COMFORTS HIS CHAPLAINS.

gistrar, and Commissary were with him. Seeing the Chaplains (Harpsfield his great assistant in the severities, by which in the following reign he endeavored to suppress the ascendancy of the Ultra-Protestants, was one of them,) much depressed, "Sirs, what mean you," said the persecuted Bonner, "I could wish you to be as merry as I am. I am right glad and joyful in this trouble, it grieveth me not at all. That which grieveth me is that Hooper and such vile heretics be licensed to preach at St. Paul's Cross, and at the other places in my diocese within my cure, and that they detestably rail against the blessed Sacrament of the Altar; and deny the verity and presence of Christ's true body and blood to be there. In this opinion I will live and die, and am ready to suffer death for the same. Go, I charge ye, to the Mayor of London, and bid him leave the Church when he and the Aldermen hear such preachers, and lest they learn to believe that such erroneous doctrine be true." Then turning round and observing Cranmer's gentlemen, who were listening to his bold ejaculations; "I charge ye also," he said, "my Lord of Canterbury's gentlemen, to do the same, and tell my Lord, your master, of these my sayings, as ye are Christian men, and shall answer for your conduct." By this time Bonner was commanded to return. He did so, and then read to them a written appeal to the King, which he had prepared previously to his leaving home that morning, and he refused to make any other answer whatever, unless Sir Thomas.

ADMIRABLE FIRMNESS OF BONNER.

137

Smith was removed. This resolute conduct brought

the matter to issue. "Ye will give no other answer?” said the Secretary. "None," said Bonner, "except the law compel me." "Call the Knight Marshall," said the Commissioner, "that he may be had to ward." The other Commissioners seconded the threat. They declared that he had behaved most unbecomingly, and that he must be committed to the Palace prison, the Marshalsea. The officer whose duty it would be to secure his person, if he were so commanded, now came in, and Sir Thomas Smith directed him to take charge of Bonner as his prisoner, and to provide that no person held communication with him. The fact that the Secretary committedhim seems to have surprised Bonner, who said "that the Archbishop was the most proper person to have done so." No reply was made. He was commanded, however, as a last effort to induce him to plead, to be brought before the Commissioners once more on the following Monday, and the meeting adjourned till an early hour on the morning of that day.

Who does not-who will not, except the most bigoted Ultra-Protestant, admire the firmness of Bonner, in thus appealing to the King against the words of the King's Commissioners. I well remember that when I was a school-boy, long before my mind was illumined with the principles of the British Critics, with whom I have lately associated at Oxford, that I was taught to admire the precisely simi