Who is hugh latimer

While the Reformation had advanced under his reign, many had also turned against it. Her goal was to restore the Church of England to the authority of the Pope. Latin mass, images and holy water were all reintroduced. It was forbidden to preach without a royal licence. For his commitment to the cause of Christ, Latimer became a prime target. Despite being an old man in poor health, an example had to be made. In September he was arrested on charges of treason and dispatched to the Tower of London.

They were asked to agree or disagree with three articles of teaching on the physical presence of the body of Christ in the mass. Latimer held up his copy of the New Testament and said he could not find the mass in it. As he was led away, he knew he would be burned alive. He was eventually sentenced to be burned at the stake, which was carried out outside Balliol College on 16 October Nicholas Ridley was beside him.

Cranmer reportedly wept as he watched from his prison cell. Latimer, until , had been a vigorous opponent of the young Lutheran scholars at Cambridge. However, he gradually came under their influence. Notable elements in his conversion were the rejection of the works of the Fathers and the Schoolmen, an acceptance of the Bible as the solely sufficient authority in matters of faith, and the agreement with Martin Luther's principle that men are justified by faith alone.

By his campaign for an English Bible brought him an examination and a caution from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey himself. Undeterred, however, Latimer continued to preach at Cambridge, and fierce controversies arose over his assertions.

In addition, Latimer worked hard and successfully to get a majority of opinion at the university to support the annulment of King Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon. Royal favor followed in the shape of an invitation to preach before the King and of an appointment to the parish of West Kington in Wiltshire as rector. It culminated in his nomination to the bishopric of Worcester in By , however, the King was dissatisfied with the rapid development of reforming views and approved the conservative Act of Six Articles as fundamental expressions of Church doctrine; in consequence Thomas Cromwell prompted Latimer's resignation, the cessation of his preaching, and the restricting of his liberty.

During the subsequent reign of King Edward VI, who acceded to the throne in January , Protestantism rose in favor. For a time it was thought that Henry would order their execution as heretics.

He eventually decided against this measure and instead they were ordered to retire from preaching. However, Latimer's close friend and mentor, Robert Barnes was burnt at the stake on 30th July, In February conservatives in the Church of England, led by Stephen Gardiner , bishop of Winchester, began plotting to destroy the radical Protestants.

As Alison Weir has pointed out: "Henry himself had never approved of Lutheranism. In spite of all he had done to reform the church of England, he was still Catholic in his ways and determined for the present to keep England that way. Protestant heresies would not be tolerated, and he would make that very clear to his subjects. This included Latimer. He appeared before the Privy Council but it is not recorded what Latimer said at this meeting.

However, he was released without being charged with heresy. Anne Askew was also arrested. Kingston complained about having to torture a woman it was in fact illegal to torture a woman at the time and the Lord Chancellor Thomas Wriothesley and his assistant, Richard Rich took over operating the rack.

Despite suffering a long period on the rack, Askew refused to name those who shared her religious views. According to Askew: "Then they did put me on the rack, because I confessed no ladies or gentlemen, to be of my opinion I fainted After that I sat two long hours arguing with the Lord Chancellor, upon the bare floor With many flattering words, he tried to persuade me to leave my opinion I said that I would rather die than break my faith.

Askew was removed to a private house to recover and once more offered the opportunity to recant. Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Shaxton both went to see her in an attempt to save her life.

It is reported that Askew told Shaxton that she wished he had never been born. On 16th July , Agnew "still horribly crippled by her tortures" was carried to execution in Smithfield in a chair as she could not walk and every movement caused her severe pain. Chains were used to bind her body firmly to the stake at the ankles, knees, waist, chest and neck.

Edward VI was only nine years old and was too young to rule. In his will, Henry had nominated a Council of Regency, made up of 16 nobles and churchman to assist his son in governing his new realm. It was not long before his uncle, Edward Seymour , Duke of Somerset, emerged as the leading figure in the government and was given the title Lord Protector. He was sympathetic to the religious ideas of people like Latimer and he was therefore released from prison.

This gave the opportunity for Latimer and his friends such as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer their long-awaited opportunity to implement the doctrinal changes they had desired. Later that year the Six Articles were repealed. Latimer did not wish to be a bishop again but instead he was appointed to preach before the young King at court. According to Jasper Ridley , the author of Bloody Mary's Martyrs : "In a series of vigorous sermons he dealt, among other things, with the grievances of the common people and their resentment against the enclosure of common lands by the noblemen and gentlemen.

Many of his sermons at Edward's court seem to have been fuelled by a desire to get his own back against those who had thwarted him under Henry. He had wit, and he knew how to turn phrases that stayed in his listeners' memories: on one occasion he shocked his audience by claiming that the busiest bishop in all England was the devil. Hugh Latimer retired in March and went to live the the village of his birth, Thurcaston. His peaceful retirement was brought to an end on the death of Edward VI on 6th July, As soon as she gained power, Queen Mary ordered the arrests of the leading Protestants in England.

When he was arrested Latimer told the officer that Smithfield , the place where heretics were burned, "had long groaned for him". Latimer was taken to the Tower of London. In March the three former bishops were moved to the Bocardo Prison in Oxford. Latimer, Cranmer and Ridley refused to recant and spent the succeeding months waiting for the inevitable. Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were sentenced to be burnt at the stake for heresy on 16th October, John Foxe recalled that Latimer followed Ridley to the stake in Oxford in "a poor Bristol style frock all worn" and underneath a new shroud hanging down to his feet.

Ridley was burnt first and Foxe recorded Latimer's defiant proclamation: "Be of good comfort 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". Foxe claimed that after Latimer "stroked his face with his hands, and as it were bathed them a little in the fire, he soon died with very little pain. Nicholas Ridley took some time to die: "Ridley, by reason of the evil making of the fire unto him Yet in all this torment he forgot not to call upon God Let the fire come to me, I cannot burn.

In which pains he laboured, till one of the standers by with his bill, pulled the faggots above, and when he saw the fire flame up, he wrested himself into that side. And when the flame touched the gunpowder, he was seen to stir no more. At the age of four, he was sent to school and trained in literature; at fourteen, he entered the University of Cambridge to study divinity, becoming a scrupulously observant Catholic priest. But Thomas Bilney felt pity for Latimer and decided to try to win him to the true knowledge of Christ.

Bilney asked Latimer to hear his confession of faith, and Latimer was so moved by what he heard that he left his study of the Catholic doctors to learn true divinity. Where before he was an enemy of Christ, he now became a zealous seeker of Him, even asking Stafford's forgiveness before that man died. In a great number of friars and doctors of divinity from all schools at Cambridge began to preach against Latimer and his new beliefs. West, bishop of Ely, forbade him to preach within the churches of that university, but Dr.

Barnes, the prior of the Augustine friars, licensed Latimer to preach in his church. Like a true disciple, Latimer spent the next three years working to convert his brothers of the university and the parishioners of his church, speaking Latin to the educated and English to the common people.

After preaching and teaching at Cambridge for three years, Latimer was called before the cardinal for heresy.