Edmund was born in 1500 in Hanley, Worcestershire. Bonner was perhaps the natural son of George Savage, rector of Davenham, Cheshire, by Elizabeth Frodsham, who was afterwards married to Edmund Bonner, a sawyer of Hanley in Worcestershire.
Edmund was educated at Broadgates Hall, now Pembroke College, Oxford, graduating bachelor of civil and canon law in June 1519. He had graduated in law, and not in theology.
Edmund ultimately entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey and later of Henry VIII, whose authority in church matters he vigorously championed in numerous missions to Italy, France, and Germany between 1532 and 1538. In 1538 Henry appointed him bishop of Hereford and in 1539, of London. After Henry's death he opposed the changes under Edward VI and was imprisoned in the Marshalsea and deprived of his offices, but with the accession of Mary, he acknowledged the papal authority he had forsworn and played a prominent part in reconciling the country with Rome. When Elizabeth came to the throne, he refused to take the oath of supremacy and was again sent to the Marshalsea. Here he remained in confinement until his death, Sept. 5, 1569.
Bonner's most important writings: Responsum et Exhortatio in laudem Sacerdotii (1553), Articles to be enquired of in the General Visitation of Edmund Bishop of London.
Bonner was one of those who brought it to pass that the condemnation of heretics to the fire should be part of his ordinary official duties, and he was represented as hounding men and women to death with merciless vindictiveness.
