to him, except the repudiation of papal control; and he was one
of those numerous Englishmen whose views were faithfully reflected in
the Six Articles. He became a staunch Conservative, and, apart from his
embassy to the emperor in 1524-1543, was mainly occupied during the last
years of Henry's reign in brandishing the "whip with six strings."

The accession of Edward VI opened a fresh and more creditable chapter in
Bonner's career. Like Gardiner, he could hardly repudiate that royal
supremacy, in the establishment of which he had been so active an agent;
but he began to doubt that supremacy when he saw to what uses it could
be put by a Protestant council, and either he or Gardiner evolved the
theory that the royal supremacy was in abeyance during a royal minority.
The ground was skilfully chosen, but it was not legally nor
constitutionally tenable. Both he and Gardiner had in fact sought fresh
licences to exercise their ecclesiastical jurisdiction from the young
king; and, if he was supreme enough to confer jurisdiction, he was
supreme enough to issue the injunctions and order the visitation to
which Bonner objected. Moreover, if a minority involved an abeyance of
the royal supremacy in the ecclesiastical sphere, it must do the same in
the temporal sphere, and there could be nothing but anarchy. It was on
this question that Bonner came into conflict with Edward's government.
He resisted the visitation of August 1547, and was committed to the
Fleet; but he withdrew his opposition, and was released in time to take
an active part against the government in the parliament of November
1547. In the next session, November 1548-March 1549, he was a leading
opponent of the first Act of Uniformity and Book of Common Prayer. When
these became law, he neglected to enforce them, and on the 1st of
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. He failed to comply, and after a seven days' trial he was
deprived of his bishopric by an ecclesiastical court over which Cranmer
presided, and was sent to the Marshalsea. The fall of Somerset in the
following month raised Bonner's hopes, and he appealed from Cranmer to
the council. After a struggle the Protestant faction gained the upper
hand, and on the 7th of February 1550 Bonner's deprivation was confirmed
by the council sitting in the Star Chamber, and he was further condemned
to per