Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 2.djvu/563

 urged that "heresy" should be legally defined. Parliament's response to this appeal was the re-enactment of three ancient statutes formerly in force against Lollardism. The measure passed rapidly through both Houses, the only opposition which it encountered proceeding from the Lords, where some objection was urged to the restoration of the old episcopal jurisdiction, while the penalties enacted were pronounced excessive. As the result of this legislation, John Rogers (the proto-martyr of the reign) died at the stake in the following February; and a series of like tragical scenes followed, in which the sufferings of the martyrs and the fortitude with which they were endured, combined to produce a widespread impression. So marked, indeed, was the popular sympathy, that Renard felt bound to suggest to Philip the employment of less extreme measures, "otherwise the heretics would take occasion to assert that the means employed by the Church to bring back perverts to the fold were, not teaching and example, but cruel punishments." He further advised that Pole should, from time to time, have audience of the Council and be consulted by them with regard to the penalties to be enforced. Unfortunately, neither Gardiner nor Pole was inclined from previous experience to advocate a lenient course. The former was especially anxious to give proof of the sincerity of his recent repudiation of his former tenets; the latter was scarcely less desirous of showing that under a gentle demeanour he was capable of cherishing a strong purpose. Five years before, when his merits as a candidate for the tiara were under discussion at the Conclave, it had been urged against Pole that when at Viterbo he had been wanting in the requisite severity towards obstinate heretics; and he had himself always claimed to have inclined to mercy when assisting at the conferences of the Council of Trent. But he was especially anxious at this time to leave no occasion for a similar reproach in England, and his discharge of his functions during the remainder of the reign cannot be regarded as lenient; although in Convocation, as late as January, 1555, he admonished the Bishops to use gentleness in their endeavours towards the reclaiming of heretics.

For the merciless severities which ensued, the violence of the more intolerant Reformers also afforded a partial extenuation; and it is now generally admitted that the part played by Bonner was not that attributed to him by Foxe, of a cruel bigot who exulted in sending his victims to the stake. 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 to the employment of exceptional rigour; while the evidence also shows that he himself dealt patiently with many of the Protestants, and did his best to induce them to renounce what he conscientiously believed to be their errors.

In the course of 1555 events abroad brought about a further