Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/511



HE fall of the Protector was a signal for revived hope among the Catholics. Bonner, at the close of a process in which the forms of law were little observed, and the substance of justice not at all, was not only imprisoned, but had been in September deprived of his bishopric by a sentence of Cranmer. In times of religious and political convulsion, to be opposed to the party for the moment in power is itself a crime; and Bonner, sensual, insolent, and brutal, retained, nevertheless, the virtue of honesty. The See of London, therefore, had been required for more useful hands. But there was a general impression that the recovery of authority by the executors would now lead to a change of policy. In Oxford mass was again celebrated in the college chapels. Both Bonner and Gardiner appealed against the oppression to which they had been subjected. The Bishop of Winchester, congratulating the council on their success and courage, entreated that his conduct