Mary's administration thought that religious dissidents would best be dealt with by ecclesiastical tribunals rather than by the civil power. As Bonner was Bishop of London, the chief burden of stamping out religious dissent fell to him. Therefore, in 1555, he began the persecution to which he owes his notoriety among his detractors as "Bloody Bonner." He was appointed to degrade Cranmer at Oxford in February 1556. The part he took in these affairs gave rise to intense hatred on the part of the rebels. Foxe in his "Book of Martyrs" summed up this view in two lines: