Fac-simile example of Printing and Engraving in the Sixteenth Century 20 54 PAGE FROM THE VIGILS OF THE DEAD 126 Fac-simile Illumination of the Fifteenth Century EARLY VENETIAN PRINTING 208 Fac-simile of a Title-page printed at Venice in 1511 HUGH LATIMER 1485-1555 Latimer was one of the great figures and, with his friend Ridley, among the foremost leaders of the Reformation in England. His father, a sturdy yeoman, cultivated a small farm in Leicestershire, but found the means to send his son to school and later to Cambridge. Dates of events connected with Latimer's early life-even that of his birth—are uncertain. We know, however, that at the time of his conversion to Protestantism Latimer had passed the age of thirty. While a student at Cambridge Latimer was most conscientious in observing the minutest rites of his faith and was a devout Catholic. So severe was he on the innovations of the religious reformers that he made an attack on the opinions of Melanchthon the subject of his oration on taking the degree of bachelor of divinity. In Lent of the year 1530 he preached before the King at Windsor and received distinct marks of royal favor. To the bishops, however, his sermons were distasteful. Wolsey, however, granted him license to preach throughout all England, though the Bishop of Ely had prohibited him from preaching in his diocese. Made chaplain to Henry VIII in 1530, he was incited to put forth still greater energies in the cause that lay nearest to his heart: the freer circulation of the Scriptures, and a wider dissemination of religious truths. He had no liking for mere theological discussions, though his opponents were often disconcerted and confused by his ready wit and his keen satire. His sermons were on the practical duties and issues of every-day life. He desired to point out errors and abuses and to correct them, being fully in sympathy with the besetting hardships and temptations in every station of life. He was imprisoned and excommunicated in 1531, but set at liberty by the direct intervention of the King. In 1535 Latimer was consecrated Bishop of Worcester. His position had in the mean time changed much in his favor, for when Henry in 1534 repudiated the Pope, Latimer became with Cranmer and Cromwell the chief adviser of the King in ecclesiastical matters. Shortly after the accession of Mary, Latimer, together with Ridley, was led to the stake at Oxford in 1555. It has been truly said that the preaching of Latimer, more than the edicts of Henry, established the principles of the Reformation in the hearts of the English people. In many of his sermons he gives us a truthful picture of the social and political conditions of his time. They are also curious and valuable as a monument of the language of his time. We may fittingly reproduce here the words of a competent critic and acute observer: "The homely terseness of Latimer's style, his abounding humor, rough, cheery, and playful, but irresistible in its simplicity; his avoidance of dogmatic subtleties and noble advocacy of practical righteousness, his bold and open denunciation of the oppression of the powerful, his scathing diatribes against ecclesiastical hypocrisy, the transparent honesty of his zeal tempered by moderation these are the qualities which not only rendered his influence so paramount in his lifetime, but have transmitted his memory to posterity.' "The Ploughers" is a practical lesson taken from life suitable alike to the daily life of the most humble as well as to the daily life of the most exalted. |