CHAPTER 1
SPRUNG FROM THE RANKS; OR, A SON OF THE SOIL
"He was an English yeoman good,
And born in Leicestershire.”
—SCOTT (altered).
“By yeomen's sons the faith of Christ is, and hath been maintained chiefly. Is this realm taught by rich men's sons? No, no."
LATIMER TO KING EDWARD VI
A.D. 1485-1524.
“THE INTERPRETER"— SICKLY, YET STRONG— HONORS— BEARING THE CROSS— A REFORMER WITHOUT MEANING IT— WHAT A BOOK DID— GIVEN UP TO PUERILITIES.
“My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own; only he had a farm of three or four pounds by year at the uttermost; and hereupon he tilled as much as kept half-a-dozen men. He had walk for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty trine. He was able, and did bring 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 harness, when he went unto Blackheath Field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the King's Majesty now. He married my sisters with five pounds or twenty nobles apiece; so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbors, and some alms he gave to the poor." This extract, which is taken from a sermon that was preached by Latimer before King Edward the Sixth in the year 1549, is the only information that we possess as to the early life of the great Reformer.
The family name, Latimer, has been supposed to signify "interpreter;" and if so, certainly it was fitly conferred upon the sturdy yeoman who more than anyone else embodied the spirit of the new faith. It has been thought that Latimer was descended from an opulent family who once ruled in Leicestershire; be that as it may, his work and worth are Latimer's true patent of nobility. He was born at Thurcastone, a tiny village of remote antiquity which nestles at the foot of the Charnwood Hills, a few miles from Leicester. The exact year of his birth is somewhat uncertain, but the best authorities assign 1491 or 1492 as the probable date.
Richard Crookback was then ruling in England, and the long struggle between the rival dynasties of York and Lancaster, which is known as the Wars of the Roses, was about to be terminated by the accession and marriage of the avaricious King Henry the Seventh. England settled down peacefully under the new rule, except when, in the year 1497, the Cornish rebels rose; only, however, to be defeated after a brief struggle. Far away from the stirring life of towns, the boy with his brothers and sisters grew up in Thurcastone. At least six daughters and probably several sons gladdened the farmer's home, but the youngest boy, Hugh, although sickly himself at the time of his birth, survived his brothers. At that time England was largely a nation of yeomen; the people were then thinly scattered over the land, and not, as now, chiefly collected in large towns. We can imagine the boy rambling over his father's fields and enjoying the charming scenes of the country. Education was then confined to the few, but it would appear that, with a keen insight into his son's great talents, the honest yeoman did his utmost to secure for young Hugh the best education which lay within reach. Old Foxe says of Latimer: "Even at the age of four, or thereabout, he had such a ready, prompt, and sharp wit, that his parents purposed to train him up in erudition and knowledge of good literature." And of his training in archery, which was then compulsory by law, Latimer himself tells us: "My poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot as to learn me any other thing; and so I think other men did their children. He taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms as other nations do, but with strength of the body. I had my bows bought me according to my age and strength; as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger: for men shall never shoot well except they be brought up in it; it is a goodly art, a wholesome kind of exercise, and much commended in physic.”
During this quiet time of preparation for future service, while the sickly boy was growing into a sturdy man, America was discovered, and Europe, after centuries of torpor, awoke to a new sense of life and of responsibility. The revival of learning preceded and prepared for the Reformation which was to commence the period of commercial prosperity which has since followed, but as yet England was untouched by either movement.
One thing, however, was clear to the stout yeoman, and that was, that his boy Hugh would not be able to take his place in the homestead. The boy was not robust enough for a farmer, and his tastes were strongly for the acquisition of knowledge; and so, without realizing in the least degree what an important decision it was for the world, he was sent to Cambridge. Of his graduate life we have but little trace, but it was probably similar to that which is recorded of other Reformers.
So the days went by, and in February 1510 Hugh Latimer was elected to a fellowship in Clare Hall, of which college he had probably been a student. This honor relieved his father of all anxiety about Hugh's maintenance, for it involved an allowance which, at the present rate of money, amounted to nearly ₤60, per year. The villagers at Thurcastone had murmured at the folly of Hugh's father, who had not only dispensed with the services of his son upon the farm, but had further incurred the extravagant expenditure which his education had cost. Three years after this success, which must have gratified his father not a little, Latimer obtained his M.A. degree. In the year 1522 Hugh Latimer was further noticed by his University, for he was then licensed as one of twelve preachers who were permitted to officiate in any part of England without requiring to solicit Episcopal sanction. A further testimony to the high esteem in which he was held is to be seen in the fact that in the same year Hugh Latimer "for his gravity and years was preferred to keep the cross;" that is, he carried the silver cross of the University in the frequent processions a task which, says Strype, "was then reserved for such an one as in sanctimony of life excelled all other.”
With all his heart Latimer embraced the creed that he had been taught, and having now reached the age of forty years, it seemed to be probable that he would die as he had lived. But Erasmus had visited Cambridge, and the new learning, as it was called, was beginning to displace the follies of the Schoolmen. Men grew tired of discussing such follies as the inquiries upon which time and strength had been wasted, and they longed for the Gospel. "Erasmus, like Caiaphas, prophesied without knowing it," says D'Aubigne; and what was more, Erasmus put forth a good edition of the Greek New Testament without intending what it accomplished. From whatever motives he undertook this task, whether from dislike to the priests or from mere love of letters, after two years of careful study, Erasmus issued the first reliable version of the Greek Testament. This was in 1516, and the advent of the book was hailed by the learned generally with delight. Latimer's college, however, obtained an evil notoriety by prohibiting the pestilential book within its halls, but in spite of them the Greek New Testament was read, and with saving effect.
A student at Cambridge, Thomas Bilney by name, had been long seeking for peace and comfort in the vain puerilities of Popery—of course without finding any solid comfort or satisfaction, until one day Bilney heard of this new book which Erasmus put forth.
“At the first reading," says Bilney, "as I well remember, I chanced upon this sentence of St. Paul: ' It is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be embraced, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief and principal.' This one sentence, through God's instruction and inward working, which I did not then perceive, did so exhilarate my heart, being before wounded with the guilt of my sins, and almost in despair, that immediately I felt a marvelous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones leaped for joy. Jesus saves; yes, Jesus Christ saves! I see it all. My vigils, my fasts, my pilgrimages, my purchase of masses and indulgences were destroying instead of saving me. All these efforts were, as St. Augustine says, a hasty running out of the right way.'”
In the nature of things it was quite impossible for Bilney to keep this new experience of his a secret. His very countenance betrayed the profound joy which he felt, and he was compelled to speak of it to his friends. But cautiously and by stealth at first, yet still with no small success, so that he became the center of a little knot of disciples, who, like him, learned to love the Scriptures. Among these there was one George Stafford by name, who, when he lectured upon Divinity at Cambridge, ventured upon the daring innovation, as it was considered at the time, of expounding the Holy Scriptures themselves, instead of reading from the so-called Fathers. The change shocked Latimer, who was "the most obstinate Papist in England” at that time, and he was so vehement in his opposition that he publicly opposed the new teachers, and warned the students as to the peril of the new discoveries. He was naturally lively and of a playful disposition, and it is related that one day he was dining with some of his fellow-collegians, when one of the guests exclaimed, "Nil melius quam lœtari et facere bene!"—"There is nothing better than to be merry and to do well!" "A vengeance on that bend!" replied a monk. "I wish it were beyond the sea; it mars all the rest." This exclamation extremely surprised Latimer at the time. "I understand it now," he exclaimed afterward; "that will be a heavy bene to these monks when they have to render God an account of their lives. I remember," he adds, "how scrupulous I was in my time of blindness and ignorance; when I should say mass, I have put water into the wine twice or thrice for fear of failing; insomuch when I have been at my memento, I have had a grudge in my conscience that I had not put in water enough." He also relates the following incident of this period, which is worth transcribing: "I was once called," he says, " to one of my kinsfolk (it was at that time when I had taken degree in Cambridge, and was made Master of Arts); I was called, I say, to one of my kinsfolk which was very sick, and died immediately after my coming. Now there was an old cousin of mine, which after the man was dead gave me a wax candle in my hand, and commanded me to make certain crosses over him, that was dead; for she thought the devil should run away by-and-by. Now I took the candle, but I could not cross him as she would have me to do; for I had never seen it afore. Now she perceiving that I could not, with a great anger took the candle out of my hand saying, It is pity that thy father spendeth so much money upon thee.' And so she took the candle and crossed and blessed him so that he was sure enough.”
“In him, as in many others," says D'Aubigne," attachment to puerile ordinances occupied in his heart the place of faith in the great truths.”
Yet, superstitious as he was, and hating the Bible with all the intensity of a strong nature, Latimer was now slowly preparing for the great change which was not only to open all the windows of his soul to God, but which in doing so was to make him one of the most memorable figures in English history.