LAIMER . HUGH LATIMER was born at Thurcaston in Leicestershire, about the year 1484.* In one of his sermons before King Edward, he says himself, -"My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own, only he had a farm of three or four pounds by the year, at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled as much as kept half a dozen men.

He had a walk for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able, and he did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, while he came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember that I buckled his har

* The year of his birth is not known. Some place it in 1470, which must be too early; others in 1491, which must be far too late. The date of 1484 has been chosen, after carefully balancing all the evidence. If 1491 were taken, he could not in 1497 have been old enough to buckle his father's harness, nor of such advanced years at his death, as all accounts agree in stating; and if 1470, he would have been older than incidental statements allow.

ness when he went into Blackheath field.* He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to preach before the king's majesty now. He married my sisters with five pounds, or twenty nobles a-piece; so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor. And all this he did of the said farm, where he that now hath it payeth sixteen pounds by the year, or more; and is not able to do anything for his prince, for himself, or for his children, or to give a cup of drink to the poor.'

This honest yeoman finding that his son Hugh gave promise of a ready wit, was tempted to make a scholar of him; and after having previously given him the best education that the common schools of the neighbourhood afforded, sent him at the age of fourteen to Christ's College, Cambridge. He was chosen fellow of Clare Hall in 1509 while yet an under-graduate. In the following year he proceeded to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1514 commenced Master of Arts. He states himself that about the age of thirty he proceeded to the degree of Bachelor in Divinity ; but it does not appear that he ever took the degree of Doctor in that faculty; and indeed he is never called Doctor, but is always, even when a bishop, styled “ Master Hugh Latimer.” After completing his degrees he was admitted to the order of the priesthood by the Bishop of Lincoln.

At the university Latimer was distinguished for his

sanctimony of life,” as well as for his studious habits. He was besides a most fervent and zealous Romanist, and a bitter opposer of all who favoured the Reformation. He had at one time serious thoughts of taking the cowl, under the impression that he should never go to hell if he once became a friar; and such was the respect in which he was held that he was appointed to the charge of keeping the University Cross, in token of preference for his extraordinary sanctity. It seems

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he was so shocked at the impiety of the " new learning.” that he actually feared the end of the world to be at hand. On proceeding Bachelor of Divinity, his whole oration was levelled against Philip Melanchthon and the opinions entertained by that eminent person : and it is related that he used sometimes to go to the divinityschool to oppose George Stafford, the divinity lecturer, who had embraced the views of the Reformers, and to dissuade the students from attending his instructions.

It was soon after he took his bachelor's degree in divinity that a change came over his views. The zeal which he on that and other occasions manifested, attracted the attention of Thomas Bilney, then at Cambridge, who conceived an ardent desire to enlist that zeal in the cause to which it was now opposed. His hope that this might be possible, arose from perceiving that the rage which he now manifested against the Reformation, was founded more on an intimacy with the scholastic divinity than on a knowledge of the Scriptures. The method Bilney adopted of making an impression upon Latimer was this; he came to his study, and asked him to hear him make his confession. Hé readily assented ; and Bilney proceeding with his confession, he was so touched, that inquiry was awakened, and, under the instructions of Bilney, he was led to forsake his former modes of study and devote himself more entirely to the Scriptures. Many years after Latimer said to Ridley,_"By travailing thus with me, you use me as Bilney did once, when he converted me,--pretending as though he would be taught of me, he found ways and means to teach me; and so do you.”

Latimer was all his life incapable of doing anything by halves. The simple earnestness of his character rendered any temporising medium impossible to him. Under his altered views, he became as zealous in behalf of the new learning as he had lately been against it. One of his first acts was to seek out Stafford and implore his forgiveness for the outrages against him of which he had formerly been guilty. His hostilities against the ancient abuses were now carried on with the most incescant