16
October 1555 A.D. Bishop “Old Hugh” Latimer: “Be of
good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a
candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.”
Article reprinted from Cross†Way Issues Winter 1994, Spring
1995, Spring 1996, Summer 1996 & Autumn 1996 (Nos. 55, 56 60, 61 & 62)
(C)opyright
Church Society; material may be used for non-profit purposes provided that the
source is acknowledged and the text is not altered.
HUGH LATIMER – APOSTOLIC PREACHER
By
David Streater
Introduction
On
the morning of 16 October, 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, both
formerly bishops of the Church, were executed for heresy in Oxford. It was then
that Hugh Latimer uttered his famous sermon,
Be
of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a
candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.
The
execution was part of the outworking of May Tudor’s policy to re-establish the
Roman Church in England, and to redress the dishonour done to her mother,
Katharine of Aragon, by her divorce from Henry VIII. Mary blamed these two
bishops, with Thomas Cranmer, for the divorce, and for establishing Biblical
Christianity within the Church in England.
Latimer,
Ridley and Cranmer were all graduates of Cambridge, where Reformation teaching
had taken root in the early part of the sixteenth century, through the
influence of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament and Luther’s writings. Amongst others
involved at Cambridge were Thomas Bilney, a Fellow of Trinity Hall, William
Tyndale, who had left Oxford for Cambridge, and Matthew Parker, a future
Archbishop. All these men played significant roles in the work of the English
Reformation.
Bilney’s
early evangelistic influence at the University must be measured more by his
witness to others than in what he actually achieved. Tyndale would translate
the Bible from the original languages into English. Cranmer’s liturgical work
would produce the two Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552, while Latimer would come
to be acknowledged as possibly the greatest popular preacher in the English
language.
This
movement of protest in the Church in the West during the sixteenth century
evolved from a controversy over the nature of authority and the method of
achieving salvation. The crux of the debate centred upon the Reformers’
emphasis of sola scriptura and sola fides (scripture alone and faith alone). This was an intensely
theological debate carried on by scholars of both persuasions. It is evident
that in such a debate few, if any, of the common people would have understood
the precise issues unless they had been simplified. It is in Latimer’s
background and in his ability to communicate with the common people, that we
shall find his true significance in the work of Reformation in England.
The Ending of the Middle Ages
The
most likely date of Latimer’s birth was 1485, which was a milestone in English
history, as it saw the end of the Wars of the Roses, the death of the last
Plantagenet king, Richard III, and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty under
Henry VII. In the wider European scene, the year 1485 marked the closing of the
Middle Ages, in so far as any year can mark what is a process. The high point
of the Middle Ages, which had lasted a thousand years from the fall of the
Roman Empire in the West, had been the period from the eleventh to the
thirteenth centuries.
It
was during these centuries that the Church’s secular power had increased, and
there was a growing demand for money to finance it. In this, the Church had
lost much of its spiritual authority. There was dissatisfaction with the Church
as an institution, and there were constant demands for reform, even if there
was no consensus as to what should be reformed. Chadwick pertinently comments.
‘What one honest man believed to be an abuse, another honest man defended.’
Other
factors were now beginning to emerge. In England, there was a growing force of
nationalism, as the feudal system gave way to the personal monarchy of Henry
VIII, who wielded greater power than his predecessors, for the Wars of the
Roses had severely weakened the barons. Personal monarchy created a more
centralized government, which needed to be funded. Little wonder that covetous
eyes began to be cast on the Church’s wealth, which as Myers says, ‘ . . . owned
at least a fifth of the land in England, and its treasures were still
increasing in the early sixteenth century.’
Taxes
paid to Rome, in tithes and annates, continued to drain the nation’s wealth, so
that there were economic tensions between Church and State.
While
nationalism was increasing, education was also growing among the wealthier
classes. The Renaissance, which had its origin in Italy, was concerned
initially with the rediscovery of classical learning of Ancient Greece and
Rome. Later, as it spread to Northern Europe, it became more associated with
the reform of the Church. In England, by 1498, there was a band of scholars,
lecturing on Greek at Oxford. Amongst them was John Colet, who had studied in
Italy. He encouraged Erasmus to apply his scholarship to the revival of a more
primitive Christianity. It was Erasmus’ Greek New Testament of 1516, which
partly prepared the way for Luther’s protest.
With
nationalism and education, there were advances in science and discoveries of
the New World.
All
these began to widen men’s horizons, but it would be incorrect to view the
Reformation solely in these terms. They were important contributory factors,
but as Sykes points out, ‘Fundamentally, the Reformation was a revolution and
it was concerned ultimately with the deepest elements in religion.’
The
Middle Ages had a clearly defined set of beliefs. There was a Creator God and
Judge, there was heaven, purgatory and hell. Man entered both Church and
Society by baptism, and followed the teaching, and used the sacraments, of the
Church to avoid hell and enter heaven. This was illustrated dramatically by the
Mass, which set out liturgically, the redemptive work of Christ. The fact that
some had, in the sixteenth century, as Green puts it, ‘a penny-in-the-slot attitude’,
does not mean that there were none seeking a more satisfying personal religion.
It
is not surprising, therefore, that it was a monk’s personal reaction to the
promiscuous sale of indulgences which set the Reformation in progress. Luther
nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the Church at Wittenberg on All
Saints’ Day, 1517, intending to promote a serious debate, but he provoked a
disruption within the Western Church, changing the face of Western Europe and
bringing the Middle Ages to an end.
Rural Beginnings
Thurcastone,
where Latimer was born, in the fifteenth century, was a typical Anglo-Saxon
settlement of some twenty-five families. The village lies some seven miles
north of Leicester. From Latimer’s later comments, it appears that the village
still farmed in the old strip method, by which the Lord of the Manor allocated
yardlands to tenants:
My
father was a yeoman and had no lands of his own . . . he had a farm of three or
four pounds by year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept
half a dozen men. He had walk for a hundred sheep and my mother milked thirty
kine.
It
was normal in such communities for the farmhouse to be contained within the
village itself, and not isolated in the countryside. So Latimer would have
mixed with the village people in the daily round of country life, within the
shadow of the Church, and hard by the village green, where archery was
practised, not only for sport, but also for the purpose of defence:
In
my time my poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot as to learn any
other thing . . . he taught me how to draw a bow, and not to draw with the
strength of the arms as other nations do, but with the strength of the body.
It
appears that Latimer’s father took a deep interest in him, as his sole
surviving son, after his mother died. This may provide a partial answer as to
why he was sent to school and university, rather than working on the farm.
Perhaps Hugh Senior, concentrating his affection on the lad, perceived that, in
him, there was a sensitivity and lively wit, which fitted better in the life of
the Church than in the robust work of the farm. As Latimer said in a sermon
much later, mentioning his father, ‘He kept me to school, or else I had not
been able to preach before the king now.’
While
we do not know where Latimer went to school, it may have been a monastic
establishment, or a newly-founded grammar school - we may be certain that his
education would have consisted of the Trivium and Quadrivium. In the syllabus,
he would have learnt Latin grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. He would also have
been taught logic and disputation. Such an education would have fitted this
bright and sensitive child for the task of speaking publicly, but his
background of village life gave him understanding and sympathy for the poor,
preparing him to be a popular preacher:
The
tang of country clung to Latimer to the end of his life: the smell of the soil,
the song of the plow, the life of the farm, have all been preserved in his
sermons, and he never lost his large-hearted sympathy for the humble tenant who
had to toil for a living in the teeth of high rents and the policy of land
enclosure.
Cambridge Days
Latimer
went up to Clare College Cambridge in 1506. Cambridge was a bastion of the old
scholastic orthodoxy of Duns and Lombard. Latimer graduated B A in 1510. In
1514 he graduated M A, and received his B D in 1523. With this orthodox
background, Latimer “set his face resolutely against the new learning and
friends of reform”.
His
orthodoxy was noted and his eloquence in the pulpit and championship of the
poor led to his appointment in 1522 as one of the twelve Cambridge preachers,
licensed to preach anywhere in the land. In that same year the university
further honoured him by appointing him as crucifer to bear the silver cross
before king Henry VIII making a royal visit to Cambridge.
At
this time George Stafford was lecturing in the university on the Bible from the
original languages. Latimer as the defender of scholastic orthodoxy and an
ardent ritualist made it his business to dissuade students from attending these
lectures and to return to the study of the Schoolmen. He carried his defence
further by attacking the works of Philip Melanchthon, the colleague of Martin
Luther at Wittenberg in his oration on the occasion of his receiving the B D in
1523. Among those listening was Thomas Bilney.
Bilney
had great influence in the early part of the English reformation at Cambridge.
His conversion to the Protestant cause had occurred through reading Erasmus’
New Testament, and the passage concerned was from St Paul’s First Epistle to
Timothy, “It is a true saying and worthy of all men to be received, that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners...” (1 Timothy 1, 15).
Bilney
had become the centre of a small group which met at the White Horse Inn, known
locally, if somewhat jocularly, by the name of Little Germany because of the
discussions of Lutheran doctrine and the New Testament which took place there.
It was the application of the theology of Paul which was the catalyst for the
reformation. After hearing Latimer’s oration, Bilney went to him with the
request that Latimer would hear his confession. This was probably in the spring
of 1524. Latimer said much later, ‘ Master Bilney... was the instrument whereby
God called me to knowledge.”
How
may this be explained humanly? It is possible that Latimer’s high moral
standards, coupled with a deep sensitivity, led him to a profound sense of
guilt before the righteous demands of a holy God, which in turn led him to
conviction of sin. In this there are similarities with Martin Luther’s own
experience of grace.
Latimer
remarked later in a sermon, “I remember how scrupulous I was...” and the
teaching of St Paul that God Himself had provided this righteousness in Christ
crucified and risen to be received by faith came without doubt as a great
relief to a burdened conscience. But Latimer quickly grasped that such a full
and free salvation by faith must be demonstrated by a life of practical
holiness.
Before the King
Latimer
and Bilney became constant companions, searching the Scriptures, discussing
doctrine and visiting the sick and prisoners. Latimer’s conversion to Christ
and to the protestant cause was not immediately recognised and it was nearly
two years before complaints began to be received by the Bishop of Ely. This led
the Bishop to consider Latimer’s preaching for himself.
At
the end of 1525 Latimer was preaching at Great St Mary’s when the Bishop of
Ely’s party entered the Church. Latimer stopped his sermon and began a new one
on the duty of bishops!
However,
Ely was not fooled by this and shortly after Latimer was inhibited from
preaching in the diocese. Barnes, the Prior of the Austin Friars, which as a
monastic house was not under episcopal jurisdiction opened his pulpit to
Latimer so that his preaching ministry might continue.
All
would have been well, save that Barnes launched a fiery attack upon Cardinal
Wolsey and the bishops from St Edward’s pulpit. Latimer, Barnes and Bilney were
all summoned to appear before Wolsey. Barnes had to recant, Bilney was warned,
but Latimer so impressed Wolsey by his defence that he was licensed by Wolsey
to preach anywhere in the kingdom. So instead of being silenced, Latimer
returned to Cambridge, making the most of the opportunity.
Becon,
a contemporary, has left a record of the powerful preaching of Latimer at this
time, when he “rebuk(ed) all sins, namely idolatry, false and idle swearing,
covetousness and whoredom.” Few slept under Latimer’s ministry, but such
preaching is always liable to stir up unexpected reactions.
Such
was the case in Advent 1529.
The
occasion was Latimer’s “Sermon on the Cards”. In it Latimer sought to teach the
undergraduates
Christian truths, but it provoked a tremendous storm which only subsided when
the Royal Almoner let the Vice-chancellor of the University know that the king
believed that the trouble had arisen through Latimer favouring the king’s
cause.
This
cause was the vexed question of the legitimacy of Henry’s marriage to Katharine
of Aragon. Because the ‘divorce question’ plays such an important part in the
events of the English reformation, and it is so often mischievously
misrepresented as the cause of the reformation, rather than its occasion, it is
necessary to return to events which had occurred many years before.
The Marriage of Blood
In
1485, Richard III had been defeated by the first of the new Tudor dynasty Henry
VII, at the battle of Bosworth. This was the final round of the long-running
Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York. Henry VII’s claim
to the throne was not a strong one and was founded upon his marriage to
Elizabeth of York. This insecurity plagued the whole House of Tudors, and is
one of the main planks of their policy from 1485 to 1603 which only ceased with
the death of Elizabeth I.
Henry
VII was not a cruel king by nature but he was both ambitious and avaricious
which is a dangerous combination. He trained Arthur, his eldest son for the
crown and Henry, his second son was trained for the priesthood with a view to
him being placed in high ecclesiastical office. But Henry needed a strong
foreign ally, particularly to restrain French ambitions. Spain was the obvious
choice and such alliances were more often than not cemented by the union of the
houses through marriage.
Ferdinand
of Spain’s daughter, Katharine of Aragon, was a suitable choice and the
marriage was arranged. However, while Henry VII was not cruel, Ferdinand was
and there still remained a claimant to the English throne with a better title
than the House of Tudor. That was Warwick, the last of the Plantagenets. The
demand for the execution of Warwick to remove the threat to the throne was
amplified by the further demand that the Spanish Ambassador should be present
to witness the execution.
With
the execution of Warwick confirmed, the marriage of Arthur and Katharine took
place on 14th November 1501, popularly known as the marriage of
blood. By the spring of 1502 Arthur was dead and Katharine, the bride of a few
months, was widowed. When it became clear that the marriage would produce no
heir, Henry, the second son was declared to be the heir to the throne and a
Papal Bull was issued clearing the way for the marriage of Henry to Katharine
amidst growing indignation by the people that this was against God’s Law.
(Leviticus 20, 21 and Mark 6, 18).
On
the eve of Henry’s fourteenth birthday, he declared that he would not marry
Katharine and not until after his father’s death did he change his mind. In
this way events were set afoot which would lead to the deaths of Latimer and
Cranmer as well as Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher of Rochester and hasten
the coming of the English Reformation. Cardinal Wolsey had already fallen from
favour when Latimer was called to preach before the king at Windsor in Lent
1530.
Back to the Country
The
invitation to Latimer to preach at Windsor before the king in Lent was the
first of a number of opportunities and Latimer’s preaching ability was used to
bring home reformed principles.
Exposure
to the king meant that Latimer was invited to sit on a commission called by the
king to discuss the “new” doctrines. The outcome was that Latimer was forced
into signing with the rest of the Commission a condemnation of Tyndale’s works
which by 1531 included, amongst others, the 1526 New Testament and The Parable
of the Wicked Mammon.
Yet
in Tyndale’s writings and Latimer’s preaching there is a similarity, for
example:-
...as touching to please God, there is no work better
than another...whether thou be an apostle or a shoemaker...thou art a kitchen
page and washest thy master’s dishes, another is an Apostle and preacheth the
Word of God. ...Now if thou compare deed to deed there is difference betwixt
washing of dishes and preaching of the Word of God. But as touching to please
God none at all.1
In
brief, Tyndale is demonstrating that as far as the life of a Christian is
concerned, there is nothing to debar the humblest layman from reaching
spiritual maturity. Many received Tyndale’s teaching and loved it. The prelates
hated it because it struck at foundations of the hierarchy and Sir Thomas More
sneered at the simplicity of the gospel because it attacked the favoured
position of the scholar.
But
Latimer’s sermons echoed it and it is a measure of the difficult and dangerous
position that he found himself in that he had to sign the condemnation.
Little
wonder that he excused himself from London and the court and was instituted to
the living of West Kington, near to Bristol in January 1531. The four years
that he was there, were momentous ones for the Church and nation. Cardinal
Wolsey had fallen and although a greedy and devious man, he was not cruel.
Those who succeeded him were.
John
Wesley once remarked that the world was his parish. It might equally be stated
that for these four years the parish of West Kington was Latimer’s world. He
threw himself immediately into the work, and writing to Sir Edward Baynton, he
commented, “Sir, I have had more business in my little cure...what with sick
folk and matrimonies...than I would have thought a man should have in a great
cure”.
We
may be sure that Latimer was in his element among the country folk, preaching
to them and teaching them from God’s Word. No doubt, some of the material used
later in ‘The Sermon on the Plough’ first saw the light of day here. Latimer
was a popular preacher, and not a profoundly theological one. He used humour
such as the story of the woman who could not sleep and who was going to church
for the reason that she, “never failed of a good nap there.” Such a story would
raise some mirth, particularly, if someone was dozing.
His
vocabulary was simple, and full of witty and alliterative phrases such as
‘merit-mongers’ and ‘pot-gospellers’. It was country humour in a land where
even the cities were closely connected to the countryside, and it was
recognised and understood by the people. With a wealth of anecdote, Latimer
preached simply to the simple people without whose support no national
reformation can succeed.
But
he was not to be left in peace to pursue his gospel ministry. The new Bishop of
London summoned him for trial which opened early in 1532. Bilney, his friend
and brother in the Lord had been martyred for the faith. Latimer realised that
if he were found guilty he would share the same fate. For six weeks he was
examined but no charge of heresy could be laid upon him. Fifteen articles were
drawn up but he refused to subscribe. They dealt with pilgrimages and pardons.
In
a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Warham, Latimer did not deny they
were lawful but stated that they were inexpedient. He writes, “What can be more
unseemly than to employ our preaching in that which God would neither command
nor counsel...” . A compromise was eventually reached and he subscribed the
articles concerning Lent and the crucifix. Further trouble broke out when he
replied rashly to a letter. Latimer appealed to the king who upheld his appeal,
but he was compelled to confess error, “in doctrine and discretion”.
Latimer
had returned to West Kington when in 1533 Warham died and was succeeded by
Thomas Cranmer, who recalled Latimer to preach before the king again. Cranmer’s
salutary advice to him was to “stand no longer than an hour, or a hour and a
half at the most.” In the following September Latimer was consecrated Bishop of
Worcester.
From
1497 to 1535, absentee Italian bishops had left Worcester a neglected diocese,
so that there was much to be done. The ignorance and the apathy of the people
concerned Latimer greatly. He attempted to improve the situation in two ways.
Firstly, the ignorance of the clergy needed to be dealt with, and he began a
visitation. There are in existence sixteen itemised injunctions, dealing with
the possession of Bibles and Testaments, and enforcing preaching instead of bead-telling
or processions. His sermons complain of preachers who are like ‘bells without
clappers’, and of people
who
are more in ‘love with Robin Hood than the Word of God’. Secondly, he came to
believe that the enforcement of discipline within the Church was necessary. In
a later sermon before Edward VI he stated ‘Bring into the church open
discipline of excommunication, that open sinners may be stricken withal.’
Beside
his preaching and administrative duties, Latimer was involved with the
dissolution of the lesser monasteries. Although he strongly disapproved of
monastic disorders, he more strongly disapproved of the greed of the nobility.
Even Henry came under his strictures. Latimer said, ‘Abbeys were ordained for
the comfort of the poor; wherefore I said it was not decent that the king’s
horses should be kept in them.’
His
convocation sermon of 1536 was a forceful attack upon the apathy of the clergy.
Laying aside doctrine, he attacked the clergy for their lack of effort: ‘If ye
will not be the children of the world, be not stricken with the love of worldly
things... Feed ye tenderly with all diligence the flock of Christ. Preach truly
the Word of God. Love the light, walk in the light, and so be ye children of
light while ye are in the world’. Here was bold prophetic preaching which
applied the Word of God to the consciences of the hearers whoever they might
be. Although the sermon was originally delivered in Latin, it was translated
and circulated widely in English. The clergy did not like it but
the
common people received it gladly. Latimer became involved with the campaign
against superstition. There were many shrines in the country at which the
people regularly worshipped. The best known was that of Thomas à Beckett at
Canterbury, immortalised by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (14th
century) as the ‘blissful martyr’. Chaucer satirises the various characters,
especially the religious. In Latimer’s own diocese was the famous image at
Hailes Abbey, near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, which was reputed to contain
a phial containing some of the original blood of Christ! The blood was found to
consist of melted honey.
But
Latimer’s days were now numbered as a diocesan bishop, for Henry was about to
reverse his religious policy which looked to the German Lutheran princes as
allies. In that policy, he had endeavoured to show that he was truly a
Protestant. Now he reversed that policy and endeavoured to prove he was a true
Catholic. The Six Articles of 1539 were Roman in doctrine, and Latimer could
only agree to the first concerning transubstantiation. The devious Thomas
Cromwell indicated that the king wished Latimer to resign. This Latimer did. It
was a blow to the reformers and left
Cranmer
in a very isolated and difficult position. Latimer was placed under house
arrest and for some months from 1539 to 1540 his life was in grave danger.
In
the spring of 1540, the worst of the danger had passed and he was given
provisional liberty provided that he travelled no nearer to London, Oxford, Cambridge
or Worcester than six miles. So the preacher was publicly silenced for nearly
six years, although we may be sure that Latimer continued to preach and teach
privately. He returned to the Midlands but after an accident in which he was
seriously injured by a falling tree, Latimer returned to London and was
arrested and sent to
the
Tower for the last year of Henry VIII’s reign. Unknown to Latimer there was
soon to be a further door of opportunity opened to him for proclaiming God’s
Word. In January 1547, Henry VIII died, attended by Cranmer, and Edward VI,
although still a minor came to the throne. The tide of English Protestantism
was about to reach its high water mark.
With
the accession of Edward VI at the beginning of 1547, the danger to Latimer’s
life receded and he was released from the Tower of London under a general
pardon. He returned to preaching and as Darby says in his book, Hugh Latimer (1953):-
Latimer’s
fame is most secure as a preacher. It was in that way that he served best in
the days of Henry VIII: it was almost the only way that he served during the
short reign of his son. The six years gave him his fullness of opportunity to
follow his natural bent.
It
was during these years that the First Prayer Book of 1549 and the Second, more Protestant,
Prayer Book of 1552 were drawn up with the Forty Two Articles and the First
Book of Homilies.
With
such a programme of reform, it was clear that Latimer would be the natural
choice to return to the See of Worcester. He was invited to do so but he
declined the appointment on the ground of age and infirmity. This was accepted,
and as preaching was his high calling, he preached extensively before the young
king. Most of our knowledge of his sermons dates from this period of his
ministry.
He
became a champion, not only of the spoken word, but of the Word preached
directly to the present congregation. It was a word relevant to the condition
of the nation as a whole.
His
earlier convocation sermon which had attacked the lethargy and worldliness of the
clergy had won Latimer the respect of the nation. His refusal of high office
and the wealth which went with it gained their hearts. It would be true to say
that no other English preacher has ever been held in such high esteem,
including the Wesleys and George Whitefield, as well as Charles Spurgeon. It
would also be true to say that no other preacher has ever accomplished as much
good in the life of the nation. The records of the State Paper Office and
British Museum bear out this testimony. But
Latimer
was now ageing and after Lent 1550, he resigned as the King’s preacher and he
returned to his home country, his beloved Midland Counties, continuing to
preach from Lincolnshire to Warwickshire.
Edward
VI died in 1553, and in spite of the Earl of Northumberland’s plot to seize the
throne for Lady Jane Grey, which resulted in his execution and that of Lady
Jane Grey and her husband, Mary Tudor came to the throne with the acclamation
of the people as the rightful Tudor heir. The high water mark of Protestantism
had been reached and was now about to give way under Mary’s Catholic
revisionist policies. Although Protestantism had been owned by many of the
influential and by large numbers of the ordinary people, it would take the
death of many martyrs before the
nation
would wholeheartedly embrace its doctrines under Elizabeth I. Latimer was to be
numbered among those who sealed their witness to the Word of God and the
testimony of Jesus Christ.
It
would be facile to believe that Mary simply misjudged the mood of the English
people. Her policy towards Protestants was guided by two factors. Those two
factors were that a great wrong had been done to her mother and that a great
wrong had been done to Holy Mother Church. Both these wrongs needed to be
redressed. Those responsible were to be punished and England’s relationship to
Rome re-established. In simple terms that meant the death of those heretics by
fire. There was to be no mercy and in this Mary showed herself to be the
daughter of her mother with a
haughty
Spanish temperament and a zeal for the Roman Church but she lacked the sure
political touch of her father and the carefully considered pragmatism of her
half-sister Elizabeth. To silence old Latimer was one thing, to burn him quite
another for the English people.
Latimer
was in the countryside when he was given forewarning of his imminent arrest
with the possibility of escape to the Continent. He made no attempt to escape
and welcomed the rather surprised officer who arrived to arrest him with the
words, ‘I go willingly to London.’ This was the hour of trial which was to come
upon him. He had lived with this possibility for thirty years.
Several
times he had extricated himself from difficult situations, and had seen the
damage that recantations had done to the cause of Reformation. He had also
witnessed the deep pangs of remorse demonstrated by some of his colleagues. If
he were to give way, or attempt to escape as the most popular preacher in
England, an enormous amount of damage would be done to the cause of Christ. He
was now an old man who had ‘fought the good fight’ and it only remained for him
to
finish
his course by sealing the testimony in his death. As he travelled through
Smithfield, he wryly remarked that the place had ‘long groaned for him.’ But it
was to Oxford that his final journey would take him.
Latimer
was incarcerated in the Tower, where Cranmer and Ridley were already
imprisoned. Although separately housed and strictly guarded, they were able to
communicate through their servants. In this way, they encouraged one another
and prepared themselves for the examination.
Latimer
decided that, by reason of his age, it would be futile to enter into a
theological dispute and that his best approach would be, ‘not to contend much
with them in words, after a reasonable account of my faith is given.’
By
Lent 1554, the Tower was so overcrowded with prisoners that Cranmer, Ridley and
Latimer were all housed together, to their great mutual satisfaction. By the
middle of April, they were in Oxford for the disputation, which centred largely
on the Mass.
Latimer’s
mind was now set, having been convinced by Cranmer. Latimer’s written answer
made it clear that he would not submit. He was formally condemned by the Bishop
of Lincoln, and handed over to the Mayor of Oxford to await degradation and
execution by fire on the morning of October l6th, 1555.
The
Reformation occurred in the sixteenth century as Green says, ‘... because a
certain set of circumstances created a situation which made its outbreak both
possible and probable.’ What must be borne in mind in any discussion is the
differentiation between the occasion and the cause. This is particularly true
of the English Reformation. The characters of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli on
the Continent, made a profound impact. Yet, it is often claimed that no
comparable English Reformer
exists
and that, in England, it was the circulation of the Scriptures which effected
the change. This ignores the significance of Hugh Latimer, as well as the
movement which took place between 1520 and 1556.
The
protest, as it developed the finer points of doctrine, sharpened by
controversy, needed another medium with which to instruct the people, other
than the Mass, or miracle play. It was the pulpit, not the altar, and preaching
rather than liturgy, which persuaded the people. This was the medium in which
Latimer excelled.
It
was through preaching that he first won fame at Cambridge. It was as a preacher
that he did all his best work. On his last day, he turned the flames that
flared about him ... into an unquenchable metaphor. That word about the
lighting of the candle that by God’s grace should never by put out, reveals the
man. His message was simple, homely and directly to the point. None could miss
it. He applied the truth of God’s Word, in doctrine and precept, to bring men
and women to the ‘obedience of faith’. He did this for thirty years throughout
the heart of England, from London to
Lincoln,
and from Lincoln to Bristol. Latimer founded no sect, endowed no school, made
no translation of the Scriptures and left no great liturgy for posterity, yet
when all the preaching was done, the most significant fact was that his final
sermon was from the flames and his most eloquent pulpit, his funeral pyre.
Latimer died in the flames but Mary Tudor had alienated the affection of a
large number of her English subjects.
David Streater (at the time of publication) was
Director of Church Society.
Endnotes:
1) Daniel D William Tyndale, Yale U P 1994 New Haven and
London p167/8.
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