44 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 41. Nor is there any doubt what their fate would have been had it rested with the English bishops. Imme- diately after the Bill had received the royal assent, the hated Bonner was sent for to be the first victim. Home, Bishop of Winchester, offered him the oath, which it was thought certain that he would refuse, and he would then be at the mercy of his enemies. Had it been so the English Church would have disgraced itself ; but Bon- ner's fate would have called for little pity. The law however stepped in between the prelates and their prey as Portia between Shylock and Antonio and saved them both. By the Act archbishops and bishops might alone tender the oath ; and Bonner evaded the dilemma by challenging his questioner's title to the name. When Home was appointed to the See of Winchester his pre- decessor was alive ; the English bishops generally had been so irregularly consecrated that their authority, until confirmed by Act of Parliament, was of doubtful legality ; and the judges of the Court of Queen's Bench caught at the plea to prevent a needless cruelty. Bon- ner was again returned to the Marshalsea, and Home gained nothing by his eagerness but a stigma upon him- self and his brethren. 1 The remaining business of the session passed over without difficulty : the grant of money was profusely liberal ; 2 an Act was passed for the maintenance of the navy, which will be mentioned more particularly in a 1 Annals of the Reformation : STRYPE, vol. i. part 2, pp. 2 to 8. 2 ' Two fifteenths and tenths on personal property, and an income tax of ten per cent, for two years.
