Gilbert Bourne, while preaching at St Paul's Cross, London, is attacked with a dagger thrown at him. Etching, 17--.

Gilbert Bourne or Bourn was a canon of St Paul's cathedral, London, and a Roman Catholic. "On 13 August 1553, less than a month after Mary I's accession, Bourne was almost killed when he preached a sermon at Paul's Cross, denouncing the protestant changes of Edward VI's reign, and singing the praises of Bonner, deprived of the bishopric of London in 1549, but soon to be restored. The crowd that gathered to hear Bourne's sermon became so angry with his remarks that they began to riot, and someone threw a dagger at Bourne that narrowly missed its target" (Oxford dictionary of national biography, s.v. Bourne). He seems to be portrayed here as a protestant