Portrait of a bishop

Edmund Bonner - Bishop of London 1539-1549 and 1553-1559

Edmund Bonner was born 1500 and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated with a civil and canon law degree in 1519 and soon after started working as a chaplain for Thomas Wolsey until Wolsey’s arrest in 1529. He was subsequently transferred, possibly by the influence of Thomas Cromwell, to the service of King Henry VIII and in 1532 he was sent to Rome to block the juridical proceedings against Henry when the question of the king's divorce was raised. Over the following years he promoted “the cause of the Gospel”, asserting the royal supremacy and denying the papal, which delighted the Lutherans. His work impressed Cromwell and maybe also the King and in 1539 he was appointed Bishop of London. When the protestant Edward VI came to power however, Bonner, still fundamentally Catholic, began to doubt the change to “Royal Supremacy” when he saw to what uses it could be put by a Protestant council. He came into conflict with Edward’s government and was deprived of his bishopric by an ecclesiastical court and was sent to the Marshalsea prison.

When the Catholic Queen Mary came to power he was released from prison and once again reinstated to his see. He set about restoring Roman Catholicism, a task that was met with hostility and saw frequent religious disputes. The Queen’s administration thought that the Reformers would best be dealt with by the ecclesiastical tribunals, rather than by the civil power, and Bonner was given the task of stamping out religious dissent. During this time he carried out the persecutions to which he owes his notoriety among his detractors as Bloody Bonner. Foxe in his "Book of Martyrs" summed up this view in two lines: "This cannibal in three years space three hundred martyrs slew. They were his food, he loved so blood, he sparèd none he knew." However, his defenders claim his actions were merely "official", and that "he had no control" over the fate of the accused.  Under Elizabeth I’s rule he sat and voted in the parliament and convocation of 1559. In May he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and was once again sent to the Marshalsea. He died in the Marshalsea on the 5th of September 1569, and was buried in St George's, Southwark, at midnight to avoid the risk of a riot.

Portrait of a Bishop

Arthur Winnington-Ingram-Bishop of London 1901-1939

Bishop Arthur Winnington-Ingram was born in Worcestershire in 1858 and read classical moderation and literae humaniores at Keble College, Oxford. He held a number of positions before being appointed Bishop of London in 1901, a post he held for 38 years. During his time as Bishop he was very vocal about the Church’s teaching on morality and opposed what he saw as birth control propaganda and spoke out against secularists. But he also highlighted the inadequate housing of the poor and the issue of unemployment. 

He is remembered today for his role during the First World War. He was Chaplain to the London Rifle Brigade and visited them in 1915 during his two weeks at the Western Front.  A year later he went to the Grand Fleet to boost their morale.  In 1917 he led the National Mission of Repentance and Hope, traveling through every diocese to stir up renewed enthusiasm for the war effort. His speeches were on occasion violent in tone, at times verging on xenophobia, something he was criticised for. Fulham Palace also played a part in the war; in 1918 the Palace was converted into a hospital funded by the Freemasons and run by the Red Cross.  The Library and Drawing Room were used as wards and the Great hall as a canteen.