AFFECTIONATE MOTHER AND SISTER. 153 of the history of Bonner, during the reign of Mary, will convince us of the heinousness of the "sin of 1668." It will prove to us the absurdity of the last prayer of Edward VI., "Oh Lord! preserve this land from papistry." It will demonstrate to us the folly of the twin cries—in Ireland of “no surrender,” and in England of "no popery." It will place in a new point of view, the doctrines and the labors, the language and the professions, of myself, and of my friends, the only real, true, sound, orthodox, HighChurchmen, the Tractarian British Critics. SECTION III. from the ACCESSION OF MARY, JULY 6TH or 22nd, 1553, TO HER DEATH, 17TH NOVEMBER, 1558. Bonner had been first committed to the Marshalsea on the 20th of September, 1549; and finally remanded there on the 1st of October, when he was deprived of his Bishopric. He continued in prison till the overthrow of Jane, the innocent usurper, "the twelfth day Queen." Mary was proclaimed by the Council on the 19th of July. On the 3rd of August* she made her splendid entrance into London, and proceeded, according to the usual custom, to the Tower, where she released Gardiner from confinement. On the 4th the order must have been made for the liberation of Bonner, for he left the Marshalsea on the 5th, and was brought, in public procession,† with the other Bishops who had been imprisoned, to his house at St. Paul's. The next day was Sunday. Whether he was pre * Not the 1st, as is usually said.-See Strype, Eccles. Rem. Oxon., 553, Mary, chapter 1. + So I understand the expression in Strype, who informs us that both he and the other Bishops were set at liberty, and brought home with him to his palace at St. Paul's.—Strype, Eccl. Rem., p. 17, vol. iii., folio edit., 1721. ACCESSION OF MARY. 155 vented by illness from attending in his place at the Church, or whether he was present and nothing remarkable occurred, we know not: but on the 13th of August, the next Sunday, he appeared at St. Paul's Cross, where Ridley, three weeks before, had preached a sermon in favour of the usurper. Bonner had commanded his chaplain, Bourne, to preach. It so happened that the celebrated sermon which Bonner had been commanded by the Council, in the reign of Edward, to preach to the people at St. Paul's Cross, had been delivered precisely that time four years before, on the same Sunday, from the Gospel of the day.* Bourne chose the same text which Bonner had previously selected, and took occasion not only to allude to the persecution which his Diocesan had undergone but justified and vindicated his conduct. "On this very text," he said "the Bishop preached four years before, and for his sermon on the same, he was most cruelly and unjustly cast into the most vile dungeon of the Marshalsea,† and there left during the whole reign of Edward." The Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, Lord Courtenay, who was, at this time, the favourite of the Queen, with many others of high rank, as well as the Bishop himself, were present *Foxe. There is some confusion in the account of Foxe. Both Strype, Eccles. Rem., p. 21, and Burnet, p. 245, say that Bourne preached on the 13th. Yet Foxe tells us that a man was committed to prison on the 5th, for abusing Bourne, for words spoken at St. Paul's Cross, on the preceding Sunday. Perhaps Bourne preached twice. † Foxe, vol. vi.. p. 391, New Edit., p. 11, p. 14, Ed. 1684. 156 BONNER'S CHAPLAIN PREACHES AT ST. PAUL'S CROSS. at the sermon. From justifying Bonner, the chaplain proceeded to impugn the proceedings of the former reign.* Strype says that he did this according to his instructions. Of this we know nothing. He proceeded, however, to express his opinions very freely, as his office entitled and permitted to do, according to the custom of that day; when the pulpit was at once the platform, the newspaper, the review, and the popular society; and he assailed the ecclesiastical proceedings of the late reign. "He accused the doings of the former reign, "and made such reflections upon things that were dear "to the people, that it excited a general commotion.” One Ultra-Protestant interrupted the preacher to affirm that Bonner had preached abominable doctrine. Others more excited than the rest began to climb up into the pulpit, to pull him down. an uproars began, such shouting at the sermon, such casting up of caps, that a bystander, who kept a journal of the events of the day,|| affirmed that the people seemed to be mad, and much mischief would have been done, if the Mayor and his brethren had Such *By comparing the several historians, I infer that he began his sermon by alluding to the fact, that Bonner had chosen the same text from the Gospel of the day, and that he spake of his imprisonment, and then of its causes, and this led him to the attack on the memory of Edward which caused the tumult. + Collier, vol. ii, p. 345. + Collier. § Strype. || Strype. MARY'S TOLERATION AND GENTLENESS. 157 not been present. No authority of the magistrates could restrain the Ultra-Protestant zeal from displaying itself in its true colors. While the preacher was meditating his withdrawal from the scene, and when Bradford, who was afterwards punished, as one of the "embodied evils" of heresy, came forward and endeavoured to calm the tumult, by quoting the passages from the Epistle to the Romans, which command every soul to be subject to the higher powers, one of the more furious of his hearers threw a dagger at Bourne; and Bourne was hurried out of the gation, lest he should be murdered on the spot. All this took place before any laws had been re-enacted by the Parliament against heresy. It is not too much to say, that Bonner's life as well as that of his chaplain was endangered. So great was the rage of the Ultra-Protestant party, that Bradford, as well as Bourne, was compelled to leave the congregation. Bourne was conveyed through the crowd with great difficulty, and taken for shelter to St. Paul's School, which was near the place of preaching. congre I shall not stop here to consider the proclamations which had been issued, for liberty of conscience, on the very day preceding this outrage. Mary had openly declared that though her own conscience was decided in matters of religion, she was resolved not to compel nor force others, otherwise than as God should persuade them, by means of godly, virtuous, and learned preachers, to put into their hearts the resolution to adopt her conclusions.* After this out * Burnet, p. 245. |