Edmund Bonner
Initially an instrumental figure in the schism of Henry VIII from Rome, he was antagonised by the Protestant reforms introduced by the Duke of Somerset and reconciled himself to Catholicism.For these and other services Bonner had been rewarded by successive grants of the livings of Cherry Burton (Yorkshire), Ripple (Worcestershire), Blaydon (County Durham), and East Dereham (Norfolk).469) in North Germany; and in 1536 he wrote a preface to Stephen Gardiner's De vera Obedientia, which asserted the royal and denied the papal supremacy, and was received with delight by the Lutherans.He was already king's chaplain; his appointment at Paris had been accompanied by promotion to the See of Hereford (27 November 1538) but owing to his absence he could neither be consecrated nor take possession of his see, and he was still abroad when he was translated to the Bishopric of London (October 1539).Hitherto he had shown himself entirely subservient to the sovereign, supporting him in the matter of the divorce, approving of the suppression of the religious houses and taking the oath of Supremacy which John Fisher and Thomas More refused at the cost of their lives.[5] Bonner resisted the visitation of August 1547, and was committed to the Fleet Prison; but he withdrew his opposition, and was released in time to take an active part against the government in the parliament of November 1547.When these became law, he neglected to enforce them, and on 1 September 1549 he was required by the council to maintain at St Paul's Cross that the royal authority was as great as if the king were forty years of age.[5] He did so, but with such significant omissions in the matter which had been prescribed touching the king's authority, that after a seven days' trial he was deprived of his bishopric by an ecclesiastical court over which Cranmer presided, and sent as a prisoner to the Marshalsea.After a struggle the Protestant faction gained the upper hand, and on 7 February 1550 Bonner's deprivation was confirmed by the council sitting in the Star Chamber, and he was further condemned to perpetual imprisonment, where he remained until the accession of Mary in 1553.Bonner, they point out, was one of those who brought it to pass that the condemnation of heretics to the fire should be part of his ordinary official duties, and he was represented as hounding men and women to death with merciless vindictiveness.Bishop Jewel, in a letter to Peter Martyr Vermigli, related that "Being confined to the tower of London upon accession of Queen Elizabeth, the highest punishment inflicted, he went to visit some of the criminals kept in that prison, and wishing to encourage them, called them his friends and neighbors."A more charitable assessment of Bonner's character was made by an Anglican historian, S. R. Maitland, who considers him,... a man, straightforward and hearty, familiar and humorous, sometimes rough, perhaps coarse, naturally hot tempered, but obviously (by the testimony of his enemies) placable and easily entreated, capable of bearing most patiently much intemperate and insolent language, much reviling and low abuse directed against himself personally, against his order, and against those peculiar doctrines and practices of his church for maintaining which he had himself suffered the loss of all things, and borne long imprisonment.Lord Acton in the Cambridge Modern History (1904) argued: "The number of those put to death in his diocese of London was undoubtedly disproportionately large, but this would seem to have been more the result of the strength of the reforming element in the capital and in Essex than of the employment of exceptional rigour; while the evidence also shows that he himself patiently dealt with many of the Protestants, and did his best to induce them to renounce what he conscientiously believed to be their errors.
The Right ReverendBishop of LondonCatholicDiocese of LondonJohn StokesleyNicholas RidleyEdmund GrindalBishop of HerefordStephen GardinerHanleySouthwarkLondonEnglishAlma materBroadgates Hall, OxfordRichard SampsonJohn SkyppschismHenry VIIIProtestantthe Duke of SomersetCatholicismhereticsMary I of EnglandQueen Elizabeth IsawyerJohn StrypeSir John SavageThomas SavageArchbishop of YorkrectorDavenhamPembroke College, OxfordThomas WolseyThomas CromwellCawoodLeicesterpapal curiaClement VIIFrancis IMarseilleGilbert BurnetCherry BurtonYorkshireRippleWorcestershireBlaydonCounty DurhamEast DerehamNorfolkUppinghamRutlandArchdeacon of LeicesterEmperorVicenzaNorth GermanyLutheransGreat BibleSee of HerefordThomas WriothesleySix Articlesoath of SupremacyJohn FisherThomas MoreProtector SomersetArchbishop CranmerEdward VIMarshalseaSir Francis BarringtonHenry ChettleRichard CoxRobert CullifordRobert DaborneJohn DickensThomas DruryJohn EliotJohn GerardHannah GlasseJohn Baptist GranoNicholas GrimaldCharlotte HayesWilliam HerleDenzil HollesBen JonsonThomas MaloryPhilip MassingerGeorge MorlandNicholas OwenSally SalisburyJohn SeldenRichard ShelleyRalph SherwinNicholas UdallRobert WingfieldGeorge WitherBorough CompterKing's BenchTower of LondonJames NeildJohn HowardJames OglethorpeMarshalsea CourtFleet PrisonAct of UniformityBook of Common PrayerSt Paul's CrossCranmerRidleyOxfordJohn FoxeCatholic EncyclopediaFoxe's Book of MartyrsJohn BaleBishop of OssorycatechismNicholas HarpsfieldHenry PendletonElizabethSupremacy of the Crown Act 15625 Eliz. 1oath of royal supremacypraemunirehigh treasonBishop Horne of Winchester8 Eliz. 1John Jewel