Latimer, Hugh, one of the most distinguished prel- ates of the Church of England, undoubtedly one of the ablest, if not the al)lest ecclesiastic among the English reformers of the IGth century, called by Froude {Hist, of England, i, 204 ; comp. ii, 101) the John Knox of Eng- land, the bearer of a name that " now shines over two hemispheres, and will blaze more and more till the last day," was born at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire, about 1470. His father, a farmer of good practical judgment, early discovering in Hugh talents that would tit him for a literary position of note, afforded him all the advan- tages of his time at school, and at fourteen Hugh was transferred to Cambridge, where he was soon known as a sober, hard-working student. At nineteen he was elected fellow of Clare Hall, took his degree at twenty, and at once entered on tlie study of theology, having decided to devote himself to the services of tlie Church. A sincere and devout believer in the doctrines and rites of the Church of IJomc, we need not wonder at finding him, at this period of his life, loud and freijuent in his deniniciation of the would-be reformers, seldom losing an opportunity of inveighing against them. •' He even held them," says Jliddleton (Memoirs of the Reformers, iii, 103), "in such horror that he thought they were the supporters of that Antichrist whose appearance was to precede the coming of the Son of Man, and conjectured that the day of judgment was at hand." Nt>r were the events of his day likely to cool his mistaken zeal. Lu- ther, who was making havoc in the ranks of the papacy, had just been assailed by " the defender of the faith" (kiiig Henry VIIIj ; and as a most fit subject for his disserta- tion for the divinity degree, Latimer could find no bet- ter worlc than " fleshing his maiden sword" in an attack upon Mtlaiicthon— surely no small task for a man not much beyond his teens. But even at this early age Hugh Latimer proved himself quite a formidable po- lemic, and, what is even more noteworthy, a man not afraid to speak his mind — a trait which distinguishes our subject in all the acts of his life. Immediately after his attack on Jlclancthon he came under the eye and tongue of Bilney, the famous advocate of the Reformed doctrines in the iMiirlish Church, and he was led to ex- amine more critically the doctrines and discipline of his
Church. The result was, naturally enough, conversion to the cause which Bilney so ably advocated. Latimer was at this time about thirty years of age, and as he was not a man accustomed to do things by halves, he became a zealous advocate for reform, and preached manfully and boldly against the false doctrines and va- rious abuses of Romanism ^vhich had crept into and pol- luted the Church of England. Naturally gifted with great oratorical powers, and inspired by the fitness of the subject with which he was dealing, he soon made himself famous as a preacher at Cambridge. "None, except the stiff-necked and uncircumcised, ever went away from his preaching, it was said, without being af- fected with high detestation of sin, and moved to aU godliness and virtue" {Jewel of Joy [Parker Society edi- tion], p. 224 sq.). Such preaching, however, greatly as it was needed by the times in which Latimer lived, could not meet the approval of the servile ecclesiastics. It was too much tinged by theological statements that "had originally sprouted in England, and, after being translated to Germany, had been brought back with im- proved fibre ;" and Latimer soon found himself surround-^ ed by a formidable opposition, daily growing in strength. His " heretical preaching," as it was then called, caused a remonstrance made to the diocesan bishop of Ely by a gray friar named Venetus, but really due to most of the divines of Cambridge, requesting episcopal inter- ference. Dr. West, then the incumbent of the bishopric of Ely, naturally a mild and moderate man, inclined to favor Latimer at first, and only mildly rebuked him. Here the matter might have ended, and it is more than likely that " he would not have been the Latimer of the Reformation, and the Church of England woidd not, per- haps, have been here to-day" (Froude, ii, 101), had not this bishop, while on a visit to Cambridge (1525), unex- pectedly attended one of Latmier's preaching services, and had not his prelatical dignity been sorely touched on the occasion. Latimer was right in the midst of his ser- mon when the bishop entered ; immediately he abandon- ed his subject, and, as soon as the bishop had been seated, according to Strype, addressed the audience as follows : "It is of congruence meet that a new auditory being more honorable, requireth a new theme, being a new ar- gument to entreat of. Therefore it behoveth me nov\f to deviate from mine intended purpose, and somewhat to entreat of the honorable estate of a bishop. There- fore let this be the theme, ' Christus existens poniifcx fu- turorum bonorum, etc.'" This text, says a contempo- rary, he so fruitfully handled, expounding every word, and setting forth the office of Christ so sincerely as the true and perfect pattern unto all other bishops that should succeed him in his Church, that the Inshop then present might well think of himself that neither he nor any of his fellows were of that race, but rather of the fellowship of Caiaphas and Annas. It cannot appear strange to any one that " the wise and politic man," as the bishop of Ely was generally called, thereafter also went over to the enemy, and forbade Latimer's preach- ing within the diocese over which he presided. Lati- mer, however, overcame this obstacle by gaining the use of a pulpit in a monastery of Austin friars, exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and the prior of which. Dr. Barnes, decidedly favored the reformed doctrines. This daring attitude of the yoiuig preacher so provoked Dr, West and the Cambridge clique that the bishop made complaint to cardinal Wt ilsey. " No eye saw more (juick- ly than the cardinal's the (litfcrcnce between a true man and an impostor," and when he had heard from the lips of Latimer himself the substance of the sennons that had given cause to the complaint, the cardinal, instead of punishing Latimer, replied to the accusations by granting the offender a license to preach in any church in England. " If the bishop of Ely cannot abide such doctrine as you have here repeated," he said, "you shall preach it to his beard, let him s:iy what he will" (Lati- mer, R( mains, p. 27 sq., as quoted by Froude, ii, 102). From this time forward the career of Latimer seems