Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XXI.HUGH LATIMER.A.D. 1549.born A.D. 149 1.Hugh Latimer, the son of a farmer in Leicestershire, wasHe was, as a young man, to use his own expression,' as obstinate a papist as any in England,' but altered hisopinions in consequence of his acquaintance with Thomas Bilney,a celebrated defender of the doctrines of Luther. He was educatedat Cambridge, it is said at Clare Hall, was elected fellow ofhis college, and in 15 16 was Professor of Greek in the University,In 1535 he was appointed Bishop of Worcester by Henry VHI,but resigned his bishopric in 1539, owing to the passing of The'Act of Six Articles.' In 1548 he resumed preaching, and frequentlypreached at St. Paul's Cross. He suffered at the stakebeside Bishop Ridley at Oxford, Oct. 16, 1555. We have novery correct copies of his remarkably popular sermons, as theyhave been chiefly preserved by the diligence of others, especiallyof Thomas Some, who calls himself the ' humble and faithfuloratour' of the Duchess of Suffolk, and of Augustine Bernher,Latimer's Swiss servant and faithful friend. One of the most' notable' of his sermons is that which has been called the ' Sermonon the Ploughers,' preached at St. Paul's on Friday, Jan. 18,1548-9 (i.e. 1548, according to the Old Style, when the yearbegan on the ist of March, but 1549 according to our modernreckoning). An extract from this sermon is here given, fromthe first edition, published within a few weeks of the day of itsdelivery.See Mr. Arber's reprint of the whole sermon.