364

BONNER AGAIN IMPRISONED.

sided after his sentence, or with what friends he associated, we know not. He was, however, permitted to retain his liberty for nine months. In April, 1560, he was committed to the Marshalsea, to his former prison. Strype assures us that this was done to secure his safety; because he was so hated by the people, that it would not "have been safe to have walked abroad in public, lest he should have been insulted or maltreated by the friends and acquaintance of those whom he had so barbarously beaten or butchered."* But if this was the cause of his detention, we may be justly surprised that he was not committed to the Marshalsea at the time when he refused to take the oath of supremacy. It is difficult to perceive why he should be more liable to insult in April, 1560, than in June, 1559. The cause of his arrest, therefore, must remain in obscurity. He was imprisoned in April. He was soon after excommunicated, and his sentence was denounced against him at St. Paul's Cross by the preacher,† while he still remained a prisoner in the Marshalsea. Strype, however, assures us that he was always at liberty, but would not venture to leave his prison.

Two circumstances only remain to be mentioned of the venerable Bonner, to prove his consistency to the last. The Bishops who had refused to comply with the establishment under Elizabeth, had been zealous for the Apostolical Succession, and the Episcopacy of

* Strype, chap. ii. Elizabeth.

† July 28, 1560.

RESOLUTE CONDUCT OF ELIZABETH.

365

England, in conjunction with the Church of Rome. They did not imagine that the succession could be secured and continued without their assistance. When, however, they were all deprived, the Queen took into consideration the propriety and necessity of filling up the Bishoprics. As a lover and admirer of antiquity, desirous to observe the laws and the Catholic canons of the antient Church, she sedulously endeavoured to obtain consecration for her intended ecclesiastical rulers of the Church, in the antient canonical forms and modes; as well as according to the laws and statutes of the Kingdom. It is certain, however, that she would have allowed no impediment to have prevented her settling the affairs of the Church in the best manner she could. If she could not have established the Royal Supremacy, the Prayer-book of Edward, and the faith of the Reforming Bishops, with the Apostolical Succession, she would have appointed Superintendants, or Moderators, or Ruling Presbyters, or Ecclesiastical Magistrates, to govern the Dioceses under some other old, or new name. If her people could not have wor shipped God and Christ with the Apostolical Succession, she would have taken care they should have some form of worship, though without it. But I am compelled to say that Elizabeth was most anxious to avoid this alternative. She well knew that no Church had been governed but by Bishops, from the very commencement of Christianity: and she believed, also, that these Bishops were independent of the au

366

DECISION OF ELIZABETH.

thority of their brother and co-equal Bishop, him of Rome. Elizabeth, therefore, issued a commission to Tunstal, Bourne, Pool, Kitchin, Barlow, and Scory, the two last of whom had been deprived under Mary, to consecrate Parker to the See of Canterbury; to which he had been chosen, in compliance with the Queen's congé d'elire of July 18th, 1559, by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. The Bishops, to whom the oath of Supremacy had not been yet tendered, refused to obey. The consecration was postponed; but the Queen was not a person to be baffled. Three months elapsed. A mandate was then directed to Kitchin, of Llandaff, the only Marian Bishop who had conformed, to Barlow, Scory, Coverdale, who had also been deprived by Mary, to the Suffragan of Bedford and of Thetford, commanding them to consecrate Parker. A clause, however, was added, which declared that if there was any deficiency in their power, either by the statutes of the realm, or by the laws of the Church, either in their acts, or in the person, state, or faculty of either of them; her own authority, as Queen of England, hereby supplies such deficiency. "That is," said the Queen, (in effect, though not in words)-"if you, my "friends, the deprived or undeprived Bishops, refuse "to assist me in providing for the due administra"tion of the ecclesiastical affairs of my realm, I, as "Queen of England, responsible to God, the only "Ruler of Princes, for the upholding of the Christian

*

* See Rymer.

66

BONNER AND THE BISHOPS OPPOSE THE QUEEN. 367

"religion among my people; I will make Matthew "Parker the Head of the Church; and he shall ap"point others, by the same regal authority by which "I appoint him. I am in this realm, the supreme "Christian Magistrate. The Pope shall not rule me. "The Bishops shall not rule me. I will give the best "form of Christianity I can to the people; and it "shall be the union, if possible, of the old Catholic "faith and the old Episcopal discipline: but if you, "the Bishops, will not act with me, I will act without 'you, and God alone shall judge me. If I cannot "establish the Christian religion with Bishops, I will "establish it without them." Such decided conduct ended all question about the Apostolical succession. The Queen's command was obeyed. Barlow, and Hodgkins, the Suffragan of Bedford, who had been made Bishops according to the Romish Pontifical; and Scory and Coverdale, who had been consecrated according to the Ordinal of Edward, confirmed and consecrated Parker, on the 17th of December, and the Apostolical succession was secured to the Church of England.*

Bonner and his brethren, perceiving the firmness of the Queen, made one more effort to induce her to pause. They sent a message to the Queen in Coun

* I might discuss here, whether the Bishops could consecrate by virtue of their appointment to the Episcopate, as they had no jurisdiction-but I leave the controversy in the hands of Mr. Palmer, Dr. Wiseman, and Dr. Lingard. See the Dublin Review, and Mr. Palmer's books,-" Sub judice Lis."

368

ELIZABETH AN ULTRA-PROTESTANT.

cil, at the beginning of December, before Parker was consecrated—-" We entreat your Majesty," they said, "to listen to us the Catholic Clergy, within

your realm, not to be misled by those who would "persuade you to embrace schisms and heresies, "in lieu of the antient Catholic faith, long since "planted here by the motherly care of the Church "of Rome," (those of us Tractarians, who talk of Rome as our mother, could have adopted no better language than this of Bonner) "which your ances

tors reverenced, until your father and brother "were misled by schismatical advisers." They then eulogized Mary, and intreated the Queen to consider the supremacy of Rome; and hoped that God would turn her heart, and make her evil advisers repent of their heresies. The paper was signed by five Bishops-Edmund Bonner being the second.

The Queen answered in the Ultra-Protestant spirit which I have represented to be characteristic of her mind and temper. "As to your entreaty to listen to you," she said, "this is my answer: our “realm and subjects, were stray wanderers while

they were under the tuition of the Romish Pastors.

They were advised to own a wolf for their head, "in lieu of a shepherd. Heresies and schisms were "then so numerous, that the flock of Christ fed on "poisonous shrubs, not on wholesome pastures." She then proceeds to affirm, that Rome did not first plant the Catholic faith in this kingdom; but that their Romish idolatry made them liars. She refers