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 UltraProtestants, 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 success has crowned our joint labors-when we have succeeded in reviving the influence of the 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 Principles, the Stuart Dynasty. This, however, is a digression. My zeal carries me away. The anticipation 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.

B

4

BISHOP RIDLEY, A TRAITOR AND A RENEGADE.

About the year 1512, Edmund Bonner was admitted as a Student at Broadgate Hall, now Pembroke 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 wouldthen 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.

ARISTOTLE, THE FAVORITE STUDY OF OXFORD.

5

The great

Edward, than of her father Henry.* Bonner escaped this danger. He was educated at Broadgate Hall, now Pembroke College,† which was at that time a noted nursery for Civilians and Canonists. 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 University of Oxford, it is founded neither on Scriptural, 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. ful, 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-Protestant cause, than any book in the language. We shall never establish Tractarianism, till Foxe's book be despised or forgotten. See the account in Book 9, vol. 6, p. 354, (new edition.)

+ Collegium quod hodie Pembrochianum dicitur, olim Latarum Portarum aulæ nomine claruit. Cum vero Thomas Tisdale de Glineton, în usum Reipublicæ Literariæ pecunias legaverat quibus Reditus ad alendos septem Socios, et sex discipulos, e scholâ præcipue Abendunensi eligendos, comparari possent: et Richardus Whatwicke, S.S. Theologiæ Bacalaureus, Tres socios, Quatuorque discipulos addidisset: Collegium ibi loci instituendum concessit Jacobus Rex, quod in honorem D. Gulielmi Herbert, Pembrochiæ comitis academiæ tunc temporis Pem. brochianum,-appellari visum est.-Notitia Oxoniensis, p. 94: London, 1675.

Anthony Wood.-Athen. Oxon. vol. 1, p. 158, No. 180.

6

THE ANTI-PROTESTANT SEEKS PEACE, NOT TRUTH.

reference to any of the peculiar truths or doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. Both studies are utterly free from Ultra-Protestantism; but the study of the civil and papal canon law (while, like the reasoning of Aristotle, it takes the mind away from the foundations, which make the lovers of Scriptural truth despise both studies), biasses the reason to the adoption of the regulations of the Church. Scriptural reasonings and conclusions are derived from the study of the will of God. Constitutional reasonings, such as modern politicians prefer, is founded on the study of the will of the people. The reasonings and conclusions of the civilians were drawn from the study of the will of princes. The reasonings of the papal canonists were drawn from the study of the will of the Popes and of the Church; and they became identified with those of the civilians, when the Popes took the place of Kings and Princes. The principles, therefore, of canonical obedience, became identified with those of civil obedience. The Protestant pretends to seek for truth in Scripture, and for freedom in constitutional laws. The Anti-Protestant seeks neither for truth nor freedom. He looks only for peace and obedience, without regard either to truth or freedom and he finds these in the civil and canonical laws, which appear to modern prejudices to be contemptible and absurd. Bonner went to a College where the civil and canon law was preferred to any laws derived from the Scriptures; and his profiting appeared in the subsequent severities by which he

MARY, A PROVIDENTIAL CHECK TO THE REFORMATION. 7

endeavored to uphold the "providential check, in the reign of Mary, to that spirit of change which had begun in the reign of her brother.*

Having made sufficient progress in philosophy, and in the civil and canon law, Bonner was admitted on the 12th of June, 1519, Bachelor of the Canon Law, and on the day following, Bachelor of the Civil Law. Two others were admitted with him in the canon, and eight in the civil law, but their names are not mentioned by Wood.† He was made a Doctor in Civil Law on the 12th of July, in the year 1525.

The precise time when Bonner entered into Holy Orders is not known. It is supposed that he was ordained about the same time that he took his degree of Bachelor in Canon and Civil Law. Wood informs us, that after he became a Clergyman, he performed many matters, relating to his faculty, in the Diocese of Worcester,§ by the appointment of the Bishop of the Diocese of that day. His knowledge of the canon

*British Critic, No. 59, p. 5.

+ Wood's Fasti, Oxon. p. 27.—On comparing Wood's Fasti with the Athen. Oxon., it will be perceived that they contradict each other in the account of Bonner. The mistake is rectified in the Biog. Britannica.

Athen. Oxon, vol. 1, page 158.

§ The Bishop of Worcester, at this time, was Jerome, an Italian, appointed by the Pope, and residing in Italy, or on the Continent. He was deprived for non-residence, together with Lawrence Campegius, the Bishop of Salisbury, another Italian, in the 29th of Henry VIII.-See the Coll. Records, Burnett's Reformation, vol. 1, p. 11, folio edit. 1670.