THE LIFE, SUFFERING, AND MARTYRDOM, OF HUGH LATIMER, BISHOP OF WORCESTER. UGH LATIMER was born of mean parents at Thirkeston, in Leicestershire, about the year 1475, who gave him a good education, and sent him to Cambridge, where he showed himself a zealous papist, and inveighed much against the reformers, who, at that time, began to make some figure in England. But conversing frequently with Thomas Bilney, the most considerable person at Cambridge of all those who favored the reformation, he saw the errors of popery, and became a zealous protestant. Latimer being thus converted, labored, both publicly and privately, to promote the reformed opinions, and pressed the necessity of a holy life, in opposition to those outward performances, which were then thought the essentials of religion. This rendered him obnoxious at Cambridge, then the seat of ignorance, bigotry, and super stition. However, the unaffected piety of Mr. Bilney, and the cheerful and natural eloquence of honest Latimer, wrought greatly upon the junior students, and increased the credit of the protestants so much, that the papist clergy were greatly alarmed, and, according to their usual practice, called aloud for the secular arm. Under this arm Bilney suffered at Norwich but his sufferings, far from shaking the reformation at Cambridge, inspired the leaders of it with new courage. Latimer began to exert himself more than he had yet done; and succeeded to that credit with his party, which Bilney had so long supported. Among other instances of his zeal and resolution in this cause, he gave one which was very remarkable: he had the courage to write to the king (Henry VIII.) against a proclamation, then just published, forbidding the use of the Bible in English, and other books on religious subjects. He had preached before his majesty once or twice at Windsor; and had been taken notice of by him in a more affable manner, than that monarch usually indulged toward his subjects. But whatever hopes of preferment his sovereign's favor might have raised in him, he chose to put all to the hazard, rather than omit what he thought his duty. His letter is the picture of an honest and sincere heart: he concludes in these terms: "Accept, gracious sovereign, without displeasure, what I have written; I thought it my duty to mention these things to your majesty. No personal quarrel, as God shall judge me, have I with any man : I wanted only to induce your majesty to consider well, what kind of persons you have about you, and the ends for which they counsel. Indeed, great prince, many of them, or they are much slandered, have very private ends. God grant your majesty carefully, and God grant, that at our next meeting we may find each other in better temper." The next, and several succeeding meet may see through all the designs of evil men, and be in all things equal to the high office, with which you are intrusted. Wherefore, gracious king, remember yourself; have pity upon your own soul, and thinkings, the same scene was acted over again. that the day is at hand, when you shall give account of your office, and the blood which hath been shed by your sword: in the which day, that your grace may stand steadfastly, and not be ashamed, but be clear and ready in your reckoning, and have your pardon sealed with the blood of our Savior Christ, which alone serveth at that day, is my daily prayer to him, who suffered death for our sins. The spirit of God preserve you." Lord Cromwell was now grown up into power, and being a favorer of the reformation, he obtained a benefice in Wiltshire for Latimer, who immediately went thither and resided, discharging his duty in a very conscientious manner, though persecuted much at the same time, by the Romish clergy; who, at length, carried their malice so far as to obtain an archiepiscopal citation for his appearance in London. His friends would have had him fly; but their persuasions were in vain. He set out for London in the depth of winter, and under a severe fit of the stone and colic; but he was most distressed at the thoughts of leaving his parish exposed to the popish clergy. On his arrival at London, he found a court of bishops and canonists ready to receive him; where, instead of being examined, as he expected, about his sermons, a paper was put into his hands, which he was ordered to subscribe, declaring his belief in the efficacy of masses for the souls in purgatory, of prayers to the dead saints, of pilgrimages to their sepulchres and reliques, the pope's power to forgive sins, the doctrine of merit, the seven sacraments, and the worship of images; which, when he refused to sign, the archbishop, with a frown, begged he would consider what he did. "We intend not," said he, "Mr. Latimer, to be hard upon you; we dismiss you for the present; take a copy of the articles; examine them He continued inflexible, and they continued to distress him. Three times every week they regularly sent for him, with a view either to draw something from him by cap{tious questions, or to teaze him at length into compliance. Tired out with this usage, after he was summoned at last, instead of going he sent a letter to the archbishop, in which, with great freedom, he told him: "That the treatment he had lately met with had fretted him into such a disorder as rendered him unfit to attend that day; that in the meantime he could not help taking this opportunity to expostulate with his grace for detaining him so long from his duty; that it seemed to him most unaccountable, that they, who never preached themselves, should hinder others; that, as for their examination of him, he really could not imagine what they aimed at; they pretended one thing in the beginning, and another in the progress; that if his sermons were what gave offence, which he persuaded himself were neither contrary to the truth, nor to any canon of the church, he was ready to answer whatever might be thought exceptionable in them; that he wished a little more regard might be had to the judgment of the people; and that a distinction might be made between the ordinances of God and man; that if some abuses in religion did prevail, as was then commonly supposed, he thought preaching was the best means to discountenance them; that he wished all pastors might be obliged to perform their duty; but that, however, liberty might be given to those who were willing; that as to the articles proposed to him, he begged to be excused subscribing to them; while he lived, he never would abet superstition; and that, lastly, he hoped the archbishop would excuse what he had written; he knew his duty to his superiors, and would practise it; but in that case, he thought a stronger ob- the rest, the bishop of Worcester, being ligation laid upon him." then in town, waited upon the king, with his offering; but instead of a purse of gold, {which was the common oblation, he presented a New Testament, with a leaf doubled down in a very conspicuous manner, to this passage: "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." In 1539 he was summoned again to attend the parliament: the bishop of Winchester, Gardiner, was his great enemy; who, upon a particular occasion, when the bishops were with the king, kneeled down and solemnly accused Bishop Latimer of a seditious sermon preached at court. Being called upon by the king, with some stern The bishops, however, continued their persecutions, but their schemes were frustrated in an unexpected manner. Latimer being raised to the see of Worcester, in the year 1533, by the favor of Ann Boleyn, then the favorite wife of Henry, to whom, most probably, he was recommended by Lord Cromwell, he had now a more extensive field to promote the principles of the reformation, in which he labored with the utmost pains and assiduity. All the historians of those times mention him as a person remarkably zealous in the discharge of his new office; and tells us, that in overlooking the clergy of his diocese, heness, to vindicate himself, Latimer was so was uncommonly active, warm, and resolute, and presided in his ecclesiastical court with the same spirit. In visiting, he was frequent and observant; in ordaining, strict and wary; in preaching, indefatigable; and in reproving and exhorting, severe and persuasive. far from denying and palliating what he had said, that he boldly justified it; and turning to the king, with that noble unconcern, which a good conscience inspires: "I never thought myself worthy," said he, "nor did I ever sue to be a preacher before your grace; but I was called to it, and would be willing, if you mislike it, to give place to my betters: for I grant, there may be a great many more worthy the room than I am. And if it be your grace's pleasure to allow them for preachers, I can be content to bear their books after them. But if your grace allow me for a preacher, I would desire you to give me leave to discharge my conscience, and to frame my In 1536 he received a summons to attend the parliament and convocation, which gave him a further opportunity of promoting the work of reformation, whereon his heart was so much set. Many alterations were made in religious matters, and a few months after the Bible was translated into English, and recommended to a general perusal, in October, 1537. Latimer, highly satisfied with the pros-doctrine according to my audience. I had pect of the times, now repaired to his diocese, having made a longer stay in London than was absolutely necessary. He had no talents, and he pretended to have none for state affairs. His whole ambition was to discharge the pastoral functions of a bishop, neither aiming to display the abilities of a statesman, nor those of a courtier. How very unqualified he was to support the latter of these characters, the following story will prove it was the custom in those days for the bishops to make presents to the king on new-year's day, and many of them would present very liberally, proportioning their gifts to their expectances. Among been a very dolt, indeed, to have preached so at the borders of your realm, as I preach before your grace." The greatness of his answer baffled his accuser's malice; the severity of the king's countenance changed into a gracious smile, and the bishop was dismissed with that obliging freedom, which this monarch never used but to those he esteemed. However, as the bishop could not give his vote for the act of the six papistical articles, drawn up by the duke of Norfolk, he thought it wrong to hold any office in a church where such terms of communion were required, and therefore he resigned was also appointed to preach the Lent sermons before his majesty, which office he also performed during the first three years of his reign. Upon the revolution, which happened at court after the death of the duke of Somerset, he retired into the country, and made er in those parts, where he thought his la-. bors might be most serviceable. his bishopric, and retired into the country, where he purposed to live a sequestered life. But in the midst of his security, an unhappy accident carried him again into the tempestuous weather, which was abroad: he received a bruise by the fall of a tree, and the contusion was so dangerous, that he was obliged to seek out for better as-use of the king's license as a general preachsistance than could be afforded him by the unskilful surgeons of those parts. With this view he repaired to London, where he had the misfortune to see the fall of his patron, the lord Cromwell: a loss which he was soon made sensible of; for Gar-ning of the next; but as soon as the rediner's emissaries quickly found him out in his concealment, and something, which somebody had some where heard him say, against the six articles, being alleged against him, he was sent to the tower; where, without any judicial examination, he suffered, through one pretence or another, a cruel imprisonment for the remaining six years of King Henry's reign. He was thus employed during the remainder of that reign, and continued the same course, for a short time, in the begin introduction of popery was resolved on, the first step toward it was the prohibition of all preaching, and licensing only such as were known to be popishly inclined. The bishop of Winchester, who was now prime-minister, having proscribed Mr. Latimer from the first, sent a message to cite him before the council. He had notice. of this design some hours before the messenger's arrival, but he made no use of the intelligence. The messenger found him equipped for his journey, at which, expressing his surprise, Mr. Latimer told On the death of Henry, the protestant interest revived under his son Edward; and Latimer, immediately upon the change of the government, was set at liberty. An address was made by the protector, to re-him, that he was ready to attend him to Lonstore him to his bishopric: the protector don, thus called upon to answer for his was very willing to gratify the parliament, faith, as he ever was to take any journey and proposed the resumption of his bishop-in his life; and that he doubted not but ric to Mr. Latimer; who now thinking him- that God, who had enabled him to stand self unequal to the weight of it, refused to re- before two princes, would enable him to sume it, choosing rather to accept an invi- stand before a third. The messenger then tation from his friend, Archbishop Cranmer, acquainting him, that he had no orders to and to take up his residence with him at seize his person, delivered a letter and Lambeth; where his chief employment was departed. However, opening the letter, to hear the complaints, and redress the and finding it a citation from the council, grievances of the poor people; and his he resolved to obey it, and set out immecharacter, for services of this kind, was so diately. As he passed through Smithfield, universally known, that strangers from every he said, cheerfully: "This place of burnpart of England would resort to him. ing hath long groaned for me." The next morning he waited upon the council, who having loaded him with many severe reproaches, sent him to the Tower, whence, after some time, he was removed to Oxford. In these employments he spent more than two years, during which time he assisted the archbishop in composing the homilies, which were set forth by authority, in the first year of King Edward: he |