LATIMER, HUGH, Bishop of Worcester, the son of a farmer in Leicestershire, was born about the year 1472. He was educated fif-st at a grammar-school, aud afterwards at Cambridge, where he took a degree, previous to entering into holy orders. The preaching of Bilney directed his attention to errors in the doctrines and discipline of the Church of Rome ; the subject soon engrossed his mind, and his "here tical preaching," as it was then called, caused a remonstrance to be made by the divines of Cambridge to the diocesan Bishop of Ely, and his interference was requested. The bishop, a mild and moderate man, visited Cambridge, but used no further harshness towards him than to forbid his preaching within the diocese, an obstacle which he overcame by gaining the use of a pulpit in a monastery exempt from episcopal jurisdiction. Latimer's eloquence, his moral conduct and kindness of disposition, together with the merits of his caueo, gained him a largo number of hearers. He was at this time a person of sufficient import ance to be esteemed worthy of persecution, and was dealt with accordingly, but it was not until Henry VIII. had been thirty years jupon the throne, that he became distinguished as one of the principal reformers.
Thomas Cromwell, the king's favourite, had already given him a benefice in Wiltshire, where he had preached the Reformed doctrines with such plainness as to cause the bishops to cite him to London to answer for his heretical opinions. Cromwell continued afterwards to be his friend and patron : he rescued him from the perils of the cita tion, recommended Win to Anne Boleyn, who appointed him her chaplain, and soon afterwards the bishopric of Worcester was conferred on him (1535). The duties of this see he performed in the moat active and exemplary manner, and while holding visitations, giving instruc tions, and correcting abuses, never failed to promote the Reformation to the utmost of his power. Thus did lie employ himself for three years, at the expiration of which passed the act of the Six Articles (Burnet, vol. i.), from which he so totally dissented, that he resigned his bishopric. Shaxton, bishop of Winchester, followed his example, but Cranmer retained his offices Latimer now sought retirement in the country, where he would have continued to reside, had not an accident befallen him, the effects of which he thought the skill of London surgeons would alleviate. He arrived in London when the power of Cromwell was nearly at an end, and the mastery in the hands of Gardiner, who no sooner disco vered him in his privacy, than he prooured accusations to be made against him for his objections to the Six Articles, and he was com mitted to the Tower. Different causes being alleged against him, be
remained a prisoner for sixyears ; and not until the accession of Edward VI. did ho obtain lila liberation. The parliament then offered to restore him to his see, but he was firm in his refusal to receive it : his great age, he said, made him desirous of privacy. In this reign we find him the accuser of Bonner, occasionally the adviser of the king, and continually the strenuous reprover of the vices of the age; but the reign was short, and with it expired Latimer's prosperity. In July 1553 Kiug Edward died; in September Mary had begun to take vengeance on the Reformers, and among others Latimer was committed to the Tower. Though ho was at least eighty years old, no consi deration was shown for his great age ; and he was sent to Oxford to dispute on tho corporal presence. He had never been accounted very learned : he had not used Latin much, he told them, these twenty years, and was not able to dispute; but he would declare his faith, and then they might do as they pleased. He declared, that he thought the presence of Christ in the sacrament to be only spiritual: "he enlarged much against the sacrifice of the mass ; and lamented that they had changed the communion into a private mass ; that they had taken the cup away from the people ; and, instead of service in a known tongue, were bringing the nation to a worship that they did not understand." (Burnet, vol. ii.) They laughed at him, and told him to answer their arguments; he reminded them that he was old, and that his memory bad failed; the laughter however continued, and there was great disorder, perpetual shoutings, tauntiugs, and reproaches. When he was asked whether he would abjure his principles, lie only answered, " I thank God most heartily that he bath prolonged my life to this end, that I may in this case glorify God with this kind of death." On the 16th of October 1555 he was led to the stake with Ridley, gunpowder being fastened about his body to hasten his death ; it took fire with the first flame, and he died immediately. Latimer published several of his sermons at different times. They have been reprinted in 2 vols. Svo, London, 1825.
Latimer was remarkable for moral excellence and simplicity rather than for learning, and for zeal rather than for ability : he was a good but not a great man.