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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Hugh Latimer Biography LATIMER, Hugh (c.1490–1555). One of the most distinguished of the English reformers. He was born at Thurcaston in Leicestershire. He was educated at Cambridge and became attached to the new learning and divinity which had begun to establish themselves there. He soon became a zealous preacher of the reformed doctrines and in consequence was embroiled in many controversies. The dispute about Henry VIII's marriage with Catharine of Aragon brought Latimer more into notice. He was one of the divines appointed by the University of Cambridge to examine as to its lawfulness, and he declared on the King's side. This secured Henry's favor, and he was appointed one of his chaplains and received a living in Wiltshire (1531). In 1535 he was appointed Bishop of Worcester, and at the opening of Convocation on June 9, 1536, he preached two very powerful and impressive sermons, urging the necessity of reform. After a while the work of reform rather retrograded than advanced, and Latimer found himself with his bold opinions in little favor at court. He retired to his diocese and labored there in a continual round of "teaching, preaching, exhorting, writing, correcting, and reforming, either as his ability would serve or the time would bear." This was his true function. He was an eminently practical reformer. Towards the close of Henry's reign, and when the reactionary party, headed by Gardiner and Bonner, was in the ascendant, Latimer resigned his bishopric (1539) and till 1546 lived in great privacy. He was looked upon with jealousy and closely watched, and finally, on coming up to London for medical advice, he was brought before the Privy Council and cast into the Tower. On the accession of Edward VI, the next year, he was released and again appeared in public. He declined, however, to resume his episcopal functions, although his old bishopric was offered to him. He devoted himself to preaching and practical works of benevolence. After the death of Edward and the accession of Mary (1553) he and other reformers were arrested in their career of activity. Latimer was put in prison, and examined at Oxford in 1554. After his examination he was transferred to the common jail there, where he lay for more than a year, feeble, sickly, and worn out with his hardships. On Sept. 30, 1555, he was summoned before certain commissioners appointed to sit in judgment upon him and Ridley, and after trial, on October 1, he was condemned to be burned. He suffered along with Ridley, opposite Balliol College, on Oct. 16, 1555. The account of his trial and execution is in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. His Remains and Sermons were issued by the Parker Society (2 vols., Oxford, 1844–45). Consult his biography by R. Demaus (London, 1869; new ed., 1881), and by R. M. and A. J. Carlyle (ib., 1899). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 594-595. |