Bishop EDMUND BONNER OF LONDON, 1569

POVERTY PREFERRED

Biography

SUMMONED by the Council and requested to resign, with the assurance of a good pension if he would do so, he replied that he preferred death. "How then," they asked, "will you live?" "Nothing indeed remains to me; but I hope in God, who will not fail me, and in my friends, the more that I may be able to gain my livelihood by teaching children, which profession I did not disdain to exercise although I was a bishop. And should no one be found willing to accept my teaching, I am a doctor of law and will resume the study of what I have forgotten, and will thus gain my bread. And should this not succeed, I know how to labour with my hands in gardens and orchards, as planting, grafting, sowing, etc. as well as any gardener in the Kingdom. And should this also be insufficient, I desire no other grace, favour, or privilege from Her Majesty than what she grants to the mendicants who go through London from door to door begging, that I may do the like if necessary." When the Council heard this, his final denunciation, they said, "We have nothing more to do with you at present. Her Majesty then will provide herself with another bishop."

" Hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?"— JAS. ii. 5.