Boni Homines or Bons-hommes, (I.) monks established in England by I>rince Edmund in P259. They professed to follow the rule of St. Augustine, after the institution of John Be-Bon. There is not much satisfactory information respecting them. They are said to have worn a blue dress, and to have had two houses in England : Esseray in Buckinghamshire, and Edington in Wiltshire. (IB) In France, the Min- ims founded by Francis de Faule, who, in addition to the two monastic vows, added a third, to observe a perpetual Bent, were called Bons-hommes ; some say, because Bouis XI was accustomed to give the title bo-n-homme to their founder. (III.) The Albigenses, Cathari, and Waldenses were at different periods call- ed Boni homines.
Bonner, Edmund, bishop of Bondon, and stj'led, from his persecuting spirit, " Bloody Bishop Bonner," and the " ecclesiastical Nero of England," was the son of humble parents at Hanley, in Worcestershire, and was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He at first favored the Reformed views, and advocated the divorce of the king. Henry VIII made him his chap- lain, bishop of Hereford, and then of Bondon, and em- ployed him on embassies to Franco, Germany, and the pope. But when death had removed the despot whose ungovernable temper seems to have obtained submis- sion even from men of virtue and of ordinary firmness, Bonner's Protestantism ceased ; he protested against Cranmer'a injunctions and homilies, and scrupled to take the oath of supremacy. For these offences he was committed to the Fleet, from which, however, he was soon after released. From this time Bonner was so negligent in all that related to the Reformation as to draw on himself in two instances the censure of the Privy Council ; but as he had committed no offence which subjected him to prosecution, the council, ac- cording to the bad practice of those times, required him tn do an act extraneous from his ordinary duties, knowing that he would be reluctant to perform it. They made him preach a sermon at St. Paul's Cross on four points. One of these Bonner omitted, and commissioners were appointed to try him, before whom lie appeared during seven days. At the cud of Octo- ber, 1649, he was committed to the Marshalsea, and deprived of his bishopric. After the death of Edward VI Bonner was restored by Queen Mary. His first acts wen- tci deprive the married priests in Ins diocese, "and set up the mass in St. Paul's" before the queen's ordinance to that effect. It would he tedious to follow him in all the long list of executions for religion which make the history of that reign a mere narrative of blood. Fox enumerates 125 persons burnt in his dio- cese, and through bis agency, during this reii n ; and a letter from him to Cardinal Pole (dated at Fulha.n De- cember 20, 1550) ia copied by Holinshed, in which Bon-
ner justifies himself for proceeding to the condemnation of twenty-two heretics who had been sent up to him from Colchester. These persons were saved by the influence of Cardinal Pole, who checked Bonner's san- guinary activity. When Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, Bonner was made the single exception to the favorable reception given to the bishops. In May, 1559, he was summoned before the Privy Coun- cil, and died in confinement, Sept. 5, 1509. Bonner was a good scholar, skilled in the canon law and in scholas- tic theology, but a man of a severe and cruel nature, and of a base and mean spirit. Maitland endeavors to vindicate his memory from some of the charges which stain it in his Essays on Subjects connected with the Ref- ormation (Bondon, 1849). See Burnet, Hist, of Ref. i, 195 ; ii, 430 ; Life and Def. ofBp. Bonner (Bond. 1842). Bonnet. There are two Heb. words thus render- ed in the authorized version. Sec also Crown; Head-dress.
1. "1X3 {peer', literally an ornament, and so trans- lated in lsa. lxi, 10; "beauty" in ver. 3; "goodly" in Exod. xxix, 28 ; " tire" in Ezek. xxiv, 17, 23) was a simple head-dress, tiara, or turban, worn by females (lsa. iii, 20), priests (Exod. xxix, 28 ; Ezek. xliv, 18), a bridegroom (lsa. lxi, 10), or generally in gala dress (lsa. lxi, 3 ; Ezek. xxiv, 17, 23). It appears to have consisted merely of a piece of clcth tastefully folded about the head. In the case of females it was prob- ably more compact and less bulging than with men. See Turban.
2. Fi"35"2 {mirjlabth' , literally convexities') is spo- ken only of the sacred cap or turban of the common priests (Exod. xxviii, 40 ; xxix, 9 ; xxxix, 2, 8 ; Bev. viii, 13), in distinction from the mitre of the high- priest, for which another term is used. Sec Priest.
Bonney, Isaac, a Methodist Episcopal minister of the New England Conference, born in Hard wick, Mass., Sept. 26, 1782 ; converted 1800 ; entered the itineran- cy 1808 ; superannuated 1850 ; died 1855. He was a devoted Christian, an eloquent and useful minister, and an able theologian. He was several times elected a member of the General Conference. — Minutes of Con- ferences, vi, 36 ; Sprague, Annals, vii, 452.
Bonosus, bishop of Sardica in the latter half of the fourth century, opposed the worship of the Virgin and other Roman novelties, and was, in consequence, un- justly branded as a heretic. His followers seem to have embraced Arianism. Walch published a treatise, De Bonoso Ha-retico (Gott. 1764). — Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. cent, iv, pt. ii, ch. v, § 25, note ; Bardner, Works, iv, 244.