other effect, than to shew the malice and wickedness of his enemies. However, it pleased God, in a short time, to remove his servant out of this turbulent world, and to bring him happily, where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. He was taken away by

a short sickness in January, 1560.

King Sigismund, as we have observed, very highly esteemed him, and advised with him upon his most weighty affairs. John à Lasco continued in the Helvetic or Zu inglian doctrine of the sacrament, without any variation; but took very great pains to conciliate the difference, which subsisted upon that article, in the Protestant churches. He was a man of peace, a minister of the Gospel of peace, and peace he wished to promote.

The historians of his time speak very highly in his praise. Erasmus, who much esteemed him, declares, that he had learned sobriety, temperance, modesty, discretion, and chastity of him; although being then old, and John à Lasco yet young, he ought to have been the master, and not the scholar. And Zanchius, in a letter to him, writes thus: "Servavit te huc usque Deus, ut sicut Lutherus suæ Germaniæ, Zuinglius suæ Helvetiæ, Calvinus suæ Galliæ, ita tu tuæ Poloniæ sis Apostolus:" i. e. “God hath hitherto preserved you, that as Luther, Zuinglius, and Calvin, were the apostles of their own respective countries of Germany, Switzerland, and France; so You, in like manner, might be the apostle of Poland, your native land."

His writings were: 1. "A book upon the Lord's Supper."2. "An Epistle, containing a Brief Discussion of the Controversy upon the Lord's Supper."-3. "A Confession of our Communion with the Lord Christ, and the Exhibition of his Body in the Sacrament; addressed to the Ministers of the Churches in East Friesland.”—4. “ An Epistle to the Ministers of the Church at Bremen."-5. "A Tract against Mennon, the Chief of the Catabaptists."-6. "Three Epistles, concerning the right Method of Church Government."-7. "An Epistle Apologetical to King Sigismund and the States of Poland."-8. "A Defence of the Church of Refugees at Frankfort, upon the Calumny about the Lord's Supper."-9. "An Answer to the virulent Address of Joachim Westphale upon the same Subject."-10. "The Manner and Reason of the whole Ecclesiastical Conduct of Edward the VIth. towards the Church of Refugees in London."

LATIMER,

LATIMER, HUGH, bishop of Worcester, was descended of mean but honest parents at Thurcaston, near Mount Sorrel, in Leicestershire, where his father lived in good reputation. Hugh, who was born in the farm house about 1470, and put to the grammar school at Thurcaston, and afterwards at Leicester, took his learning so well, that it was determined to breed him to the church. With this view, so soon as he was fit, he was sent to Cambridge, in 1484, where, at the usual time, he took his degrees in arts, and, entering into priest's orders, behaved with remarkable zeal and warmth in defence of Popery, against the reformed opinions. If any, inclined to the Reformation, and particularly good Mr. Stafford, divinity lecturer in Cambridge, read lectures in the schools, Mr. Latimer was sure to be there to drive out the scholars; and, when he commenced batchelor of divinity, (which was in 1515, when he was forty-five years of age,) he took occasion to give an open testimony of his dislike to their proceedings, in an oration, which he made against Philip Melancthon, whom he treated with great severity, for his "impious innovations (as he called them) in religion." His zeal was so much taken notice of in the university, that he was elected, in the next year, into the office of cross bearer in all public processions; an employment which he accepted with reverence, and discharged with solemnity for the space of seven years,

Among those, who about this period favoured the Reformation, the most considerable was Mr. Thomas Bilney*. It was Mr. Latimer's happiness to be well acquainted with this good man, who had indeed long conceived very favourable sentiments of him. He had known Latimer's life in the university to be a life strictly moral and devout; he ascribed his failings to the genius of his religion, and, notwithstanding his more than ordinary zeal in the profession of that religion, he could observe in him a very candid temper, prejudiced by no sinister views, and an integrity, which gave him great hopes of his Reformation. Induced by these favourable appearances, Mr. Bilney failed not, as opportunities offered, to suggest many things to him about corruptions in religion in ge peral, whence he used frequently to drop a hint concern* Whose life see, vol. I. p. 246. Bb

YOL. III,-No. 58.

ing

ing some in the Romish church in particular, till having prepared the way by degrees, he at length made an earnest persuasion, that his friend would endeavour to divest himself of his prejudices, and place the two sides of the question before him. How Mr. Latimer at first received these few declarations, and by what steps, he came to be settled in the truth of the Gospel, we have no particular account; only we find in general, that his friend's application had its desired effect. This was in 1523, when Latimer had nearly attained the fifty-third year of his age.

Mr. Latimer no sooner ceased from being a zealous Papist, than he became, with the same zeal and integrity, a zealous Protestant, very active in supporting and propa gating the reformed doctrine, and assiduous to make converts both in the town and university. He preached in public, exhorted in private, and every where pressed the necessity of true faith and holiness, in opposition to those outward performances, which were then esteemed the very essentials of religion. A behaviour of this kind was immediately taken notice of; Cambridge, no less than the rest of this kingdom, was entirely Popish; every new opinion was watched with the utmost jealousy; and Mr. Latimer soon perceived, how noxious he had made himself. The first remarkable opposition he met with from the Popish party, was occasioned by a course of sermons he preached, during the Christmas holidays, before the university; in which he spoke his sentiments with great freedom upon many opinions and usages maintained and practised in the Romish church, and particularly insisted upon the great abuse of locking up the Scripture in an unknown tongue. Few of the tenets of Popery were then questioned in England, but such as tended to a relaxation of manners; transubstantiation, and other points rather speculative, still held their dominion; Mr. Latimer therefore chiefly dwelt upon those of immortal tendency. shewed what true religion was; that it was seated in the heart; and that, in comparison with it, external appointments were of no value. Great was the outcry occasioned by these discourses.

He

Learning was at a very low ebb, in both the universities, in 1526. Cambridge was then the seat and asylum of ignorance, bigotry, and superstition; and every reformed opinion and person was persecuted with the most

inveterate

inveterate hatred and zeal. Latimer had, by this time, through his daily and indefatigable searching of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, made himself a complete master of all the scriptural arguments, proper to confute the reigning errors of the church of Rome.-He spoke largely against the abominable superstition and idle. usage of saying mass in an unknown tongue, and gave the most solid reasons, why the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments should be translated into English, printed, and put into the hands of the most illiterate. This preaching of his had a very great effect; and, with great truth, it may be said, that we owe, under God, to Mr. Latimer the inestimable blessing of reading the Bible in our own language.

Mr. Latimer now became a preacher of particular eminence, and displayed a remarkable address in adapting himself to the capacities of the people. The orthodox clergy, observing him thus followed, thought it high time to oppose him openly. This task was undertaken by Dr. Buckingham, or Buckenham, prior of the Black Friers, who appeared in the pulpit against him, and with great pomp and prolixity, shewed the dangerous tendency of Mr. Latimer's opinions; particularly, he inveighed against his heretical notions of having the Scriptures in English; laying open the ill effects of such an innovation. Mr. Latimer could not but smile at the trifling, though ingenious reasoning of the prior; and promised to balance accounts with him on the next Sunday, and to expose his ridiculous arguments. The whole university accordingly met together on the next Sunday; as the news was gene rally spread, that Mr. Latimer would preach. That vein of pleasant and humour which ran through all his words and actions, would here, it was imagined, have its full scope. Mr. Latimer, with great gravity, recapitulated the doctor's arguments, placed them in the strongest light, and then rallied them with such a flow of wit, and at the same time with so much good humour, that, without the appearance of ill-nature, he made his adversary in the highest degree ridiculous.

Latimer's advantages over his adversaries increased the credit of the Protestant party in Cambridge, of which Bilney and Latimer were at the head. The meekness, gravity, unaffected piety of the former, and the chearful

Bb 2

ness,

1

ness, good humour, and eloquence of the latter, wrought much upon the junior students.

These things greatly alarmed the Popish clergy. Frequent convocations were held, tutors were admonished to have a strict eye over their pupils, and academical censures of all kinds were inflicted. But academical censures were found insufficient. Mr. Latimer continued to preach, and heresy (as they called it) to spread. The heads of the Popish party applied to the bishop of Ely, as their diocesan; but that prelate was not a man for their purpose; it is true he was a Papist, but he was a moderate person. He came to Cambridge, however; examined the state of religion; and, at their intreaty, preached against heretics; but he would do nothing farther. Only indeed he silenced Mr. Latimer. This occurred in 1529. But it gave no great check to the Reformers. There was at that time a Protestant prior in Cambridge, Dr. Barnes *, of the Austin Friers: his monastry was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and being a great admirer of Mr. Latimer, he boldly licensed him to preach there. Hither his party followed him; and the late opposition having greatly excited the curiosity of the people, the friers' chapel was soon incapable of containing the crouds that attended. Among others, it is remarkable that the aforesaid bishop of Ely was often one of his hearers, and had the ingenuousness to declare, that Mr. Latimer was one of the best preachers he had ever heard, and that he wished, he had the same grace and abilities for himself.

The credit to the Protestant cause, which Latimer had thus gained in the pulpit, he maintained by a holy life out of it. Mr. Bilney and he did not satisfy themselves with acting unexceptionably, but were daily giving instances of goodness, which malice could not scandalize, nor envy misinterpret. They visited the prisoners, relieved the poor, and fed the hungry. They were always together concerting their schemes. The place where they used to walk, was long afterwards knowu by the name of the Heretics Hill. Cambridge, at that time, was full of their good works; their charities to the poor, and friendly. visits to the sick and unhappy, were common topics of

We have mentioned this excellent person in the life of Luther He loved the truth, and suffered for it with great boldness and con-stancy.

discourse.