Latimer

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

HUGH, an English reformer; born in Thurcaston, Leicestershire, England, about 1490. He was educated at Cambridge, and received the degree of M.A. in 1514. He was then, as he says himself, "as obstinate a Papist as any in England ," but became a Protestant. He strenuously promulgated the doctrines of the Reformation, and being an admired preacher, his influence on his hearers was consequently very great. His fame reaching Henry VIII., the King made him bishop of Worcester . Latimer expostulated with the king on his cruelties; afterward resigned his bishopric; and, on the fall of Lord Cromwell, his patron , he was sent to the Tower, where he remained till the accession of Edward VI. When Mary came to the throne, he was committed to the Tower, whence he was sent, with Ridley and Cranmer, to Oxford, to hold a conference with several doctors from the universities. He pleaded poor health and was permitted to give in a long profession of faith in writing , for which he was condemned as a heretic , and imprisoned for more than a year in the common jail of Oxford. He was summoned before the commissioners, but refusing to recant, he was condemned and burned, near Balliol College, at the same stake with David Ridley, Oct. 16, 1555. Latimer, after commending his soul to God, thus cheered his brother sufferer: "We shall this day , my lord , light such a candle in England as shall then again never be extinguished." His sermons have often been printed .