A COMPANION OF WISE MEN; OR, TAKING SIDES.
"Life, I repeat, is energy of love,
Divine or human; exercised in pain,
In strife and tribulation, and ordained,
If so approved and sanctified; to pass
Through shades and silent rest, to endless joy."
—WORDSWORTH.
“What would become of mankind if the arena where must be fought out the great battle of right against wrong should be deserted by the champions of the good cause with—disguise it as we may the selfish motive of rendering easier to their souls the struggle which all earnest men must wage to the end against their own infirmities?" —LIFE OF SIR WM. NAPIER.
LEAVING PRICKS AND STINGS IN THE HEART "SERMONS ON THE CARD" —A FOX IN A MONK'S DRESS— THE QUESTION OF THE DIVINE— BEFORE THE KING REMONSTRATING WITH A CRUEL TYRANT— RETIRING INTO OBSCURITY.
UNDER the protection of Wolsey, Latimer could preach in perfect safety, and he used to the utmost the liberty which was thus unexpectedly granted to him. Latimer was pre-eminently the popular preacher of the English Reformation, and as such he did more than any of his colleagues to make it a movement of the nation. "He spake nothing," says Thomas Brecon, "but it left, as it were, certain pricks and stings in the hearts of his hearers which moved them to consent to his doctrine." "I have an ear for other preachers," Sir John Cheke said, "but I have a heart for Latimer." For three years Latimer was permitted to preach without molestation, and with gracious results to the nation.
“It is enough for me," he said, when speaking of his own faith, "that Christ's sheep hear no man's voice but Christ's; and, for my part, I have a heart that is ready to hearken to any voice of Christ that you can bring me.”
On the 19th of December 1529 Latimer preached in St. Edward's Church his two famous sermons which are entitled "Sermons on the Card." These are almost too well known to require any lengthy extracts, but perhaps a few words may be devoted to them: —
"Whereas you are wont to celebrate Christmas in playing at cards, I intend, by God's grace, to deal unto you Christ's cards, wherein you shall perceive Christ's rule. The game that we will play at shall be called the triumph, which if it be well played at, he that dealeth shall win; the players shall likewise win; and the standers and lookers upon shall do the same; insomuch that there is no man that is willing to play at this triumph with these cards but they shall be all winners, and no losers.
“Let therefore every Christian man and woman play at these cards, that they may have and obtain the triumph: you must mark also that the triumph must apply to fetch home unto him all the other cards, whatsoever suit they be of. Now then, take ye this first card, which must appear and be showed unto you as followeth: you have heard what was spoken to men of the old law, Thou shalt not kill; whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment: but I say unto you' of the new law, saith Christ, that whosoever is angry with his neighbor shall be in danger of judgment; and whosoever shall say unto his neighbor, "Raca," that is to say, brainless,' or any other like word of rebuking, shall be in danger of council; and whosoever shall say unto his neighbor, "Fool," shall be in danger of hellfire.' This card was made and spoken by Christ, as appeareth in the fifth chapter of St. Matthew.
“Now, it must be noted, that whosoever shall play with this card must first, before they play with it, know the strength and virtue of the same: wherefore you must well note and mark terms, how they be spoken, and to what purpose. Let us therefore read it once or twice, that we may be the better acquainted with it.
“Now behold and see, this card is divided into four parts: the first part is one of the commandments that was given unto Moses in the old law, before the coming of Christ; which commandment we of the new law be bound to observe and keep, and it is one of our commandments. The other three parts spoken by Christ be nothing else but expositions unto the first part of this commandment: for in every effect all these four parts be but one commandment, that is to say, Thou shalt not kill.' Yet, nevertheless, the last three parts do show unto thee how many ways thou mayest kill thy neighbor contrary to this commandment: yet, for all Christ's exposition in the three last parts of this card, the terms be not open enough to thee that dost read and hear them spoken. No doubt the Jews understood Christ well enough, when He spake to them these three last sentences; for He spake unto them in their own natural terms and tongue. Wherefore, seeing that these terms were natural terms of the Jews, it shall be necessary to expound them, and compare them unto some like terms of our natural speech, that we in like manner may understand Christ as well as the Jews did. We will begin first with the first part of this card, and then after, with the other three parts. You must therefore understand that the Jews and the Pharisees of the old law, to whom this first part, this commandment, Thou shalt not kill,' was spoken, thought it sufficient and enough for their discharge, not to kill with any manner of material weapon, as sword, dagger, or with any such weapon; and they thought it no great fault whatsoever they said or did by their neighbors, so that they did not harm or meddle with their corporal bodies: which was a false opinion in them, as prove well the three last other sentences following the first part of this card.
“Now, as touching the three other sentences, you must note and take heed what difference is between these three manner of offenses: to be angry with your neighbor; to call your neighbor ' brainless,' or any such word of disdain; or to call your neighbor fool.' Whether these three manner of offenses be of themselves more grievous one than the other, it is to be opened unto you. Truly, as they be of themselves divers offenses, so they kill diversely, one more than the other; as you shall perceive by the first of these three, and so forth. A man which conceiveth against his neighbor or brother ire or wrath in his mind, by some manner of occasion given unto him, although he be angry in his mind against his said neighbor, he will peradventure express his ire by no manner of sign, either in word or deed: yet nevertheless he offendeth against God, and breaketh this commandment in killing his own soul; and is therefore in danger of judgment.'
“Now, to the second part of these three: That man that is moved with ire against his neighbor, and in his ire calleth his neighbor ' brainless,' or some other like word of displeasure; as a man might say in a fury, I shall handle thee well enough; ' which words and countenances do more represent and declare ire to be in this man than in him that was but angry, and spake no manner of word nor showed any countenance to declare his ire. Wherefore as he that so declareth his ire either by word or countenance offendeth more against God, so he both killeth his own soul, and doth that in him is to kill his neighbor's soul in moving him unto ire, wherein he is faulty himself; and so this man is in danger of council.'
“Now to the third offense, and last of these three: That man that calleth his neighbor `fool' doth more declare his angry mind toward him than he that called his neighbor but brainless,' or any such words moving ire: for to call a man fool,' that word representeth more envy in a man than brainless' doth. Wherefore he doth most offend, because he doth most earnestly with such words express his ire, and so he is in danger of hell-fire.'
“Wherefore you may understand now, these three parts of this card be three offenses, and that one is more grievous to God than the other, and that one killeth more the soul of man than the other....
“The great occasion of the loss of Rhodes is by reason that Christian men do so daily kill their own nation, that the very true number of Christianity is decayed; which murder and killing one of another is increased specially two ways, to the utter undoing of Christendom; that is to say, by example and silence. By example, as thus: when the father, the mother, the lord, the lady, the master, the dame, be themselves overcome with these Turks, they be continual swearers, disposers to malice, never in patience, and so forth in all other vices: think you not, when the father, the mother, the master, the dame, be disposed unto vice or impatience, but that their children and servants shall incline and be disposed to the same? No doubt, as the child shall take disposition natural of the father and mother, so shall the servants apply unto the vices of their masters and dames: if the heads be false in their faculties and crafts, it is no marvel if the children, servants, and apprentices do joy therein. This is a great and shameful manner of killing Christian men, that the fathers, the mothers, the masters, and the dames shall not alone kill themselves, but all theirs, and all that belongeth unto them: and so this way is a great number of Christian lineage murdered and spoiled.
“The second manner of killing is silence. By silence also is a great number of Christian men slain; which is on this fashion: although that the father and mother, master and dame, of themselves be well disposed to live according to the law of God, yet they may kill their children and servants in suffering them to do evil before their own faces, and do not use due correction according unto their offenses. The master seeth his servant or apprentice take more of his neighbor than the King's laws, or the order of his faculty, doth admit him; or that he suffereth him to take more of his neighbor than he himself would be content to pay, if he were in like condition: thus doing, I say, such men kill willingly their children and servants, and shall go to hell for so doing; but also their fathers and mothers, masters and dames, shall bear them company for so suffering them.
“Wherefore I exhort all true Christian men and women to give good example unto your children and servants, and suffer not them by silence to offend. Every man must be in his own house, according to St. Augustine's mind, a bishop, not alone giving good ensample, but teaching according to it, rebuking and punishing vice; not suffering your children and servants to forget the laws of God. You ought to see them have their belief, to know the commandments of God, to keep their holy-days, not to lose their time in idleness: if they do so, you shall all suffer pain for it, if God be true of His saying, as there is no doubt thereof. And so you may perceive that there be many a one that breaketh this card, Thou shalt not kill,' and playeth therewith oftentime at the blind trump, whereby they be no winners, but great losers.”
One is somewhat amazed at the terrible excitement which these sermons caused at the time of their delivery. So effective was the attack, that the Papists felt that they must not permit it to pass unchallenged, and accordingly one of their ablest champions, Buckenham, Prior of the Dominican Friars, undertook to refute the troublesome publication. Buckenham attempted an imitation of Latimer, which proved to be a failure. He promised to teach his hearers how to cast quatre and sin que; the quatre being the four doctors or fathers, Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, and Gregory, and the cinque five passages from the Scriptures. The main offense of Latimer had been his assumption that the Scripture might be read and understood by the people, and this Buckenham attempted to disprove. His method of argument was most unfortunate, and Latimer easily turned his own guns against him. "Where Scripture saith, No man that layeth his hand to the plow and looketh back is meet for the kingdom of God; ' will not the plowman when he readeth these words be apt forthwith to cease from his plow, and then where will be the sowing and the harvest? Likewise, also, whereas the baker readeth, 'A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,' will he not forthwith be too sparing in the use of leaven, to the great injury of our health? And so also when the simple man reads the words, `If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee,' immediately he will pluck out his eyes, and the whole realm will be full of blind men, to the great decay of the nation and the manifest loss of the King's grace. And thus, by the reading of Holy Scriptures will the whole kingdom come in confusion; so, when Master Latimer deals out his cards, we cast our cinque, quatre upon them, and lo! we have won the game!”
Latimer without any difficulty retorted upon the prior, and with deserved severity. He replied to the effect that both the baker and the plowman might be safely trusted to perform their daily tasks in spite of occasional figurative expressions. "Every speech hath its metaphors, so common and vulgar to all men," he continued, "that the very painters do paint them on walls and in houses. As, for example,' and as he spoke he looked steadily at Buckenham," when they paint a fox preaching out of a friar's cowl, none is so mad as to take this to be a fox that preacheth, but know well enough the meaning of the matter, which is to point out unto us what hypocrisy, craft, and dissimulation lie hid many times in these friars' cowls, willing us thereby to beware of them.”
A similar defeat awaited Latimer's other assailants, and thus, snarled at by those who would have wounded him, if they had dared to do so, the sturdy preacher held on his course. At length the strife was further complicated by the question of the King's divorce, upon which the Reformers and the Papists took different views. The character of King Henry the Eighth, it must be confessed, is very far from perfect, but after making all allowances for the times in which he lived and the souring influence of disappointment, it was not so bad as some have depicted. That he was ever a subject of experimental or vital religion cannot be supposed, but the praise of delivering his people from a tyrannical foreign supremacy must be conceded to him. Nor is it too much to assert that, in common with the bulk of his subjects, Henry really believed that his marriage with Catharine was illegal (so indeed it was), and hence he sought relief from the then supreme ecclesiastical power. Had not Catharine been a near relative of Charles the Fifth, the Pope would have at once acceded to the King's request, but the Pontiff, embarrassed by the fear of offending either party, pleased neither, and lost his hold upon England.
The whole incident is a wonderful example of the Divine Wisdom, which overrules the mean purposes and sins of men in order by them to promote righteousness and peace.
By Cranmer's advice, the question, which had been long played with by the Papal Consistory, was referred to the University, and the fact that Latimer and other Reformers were with the King secured for them that monarch's protection and help. Naturally enough, Henry desired to make the personal acquaintance of so stout a defender of his cause as Latimer, and therefore it fell out that, upon the 13th of March 1530, Latimer preached before the Court, which was then at Windsor. The King was delighted with the sermon, but also still more with the preacher, and he rewarded Latimer with a gift which amounted to above ₤75 in the present value of money. The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, who was present at the sermon, speaks of the King thus: "By-and-by he greatly praised Mr. Latimer's sermon;" and Latimer himself informs us that "His Majesty after the sermon was done did most familiarly talk with me in a gallery.”
Latimer had need of a powerful protector, for now Wolsey was tottering to his downfall. The people had for a long time groaned under his exactions, and Henry could not but be aware of his Minister's unpopularity. But it was the Cardinal's double dealing in the matter of the divorce that sealed his doom. Perhaps confident because he knew that he was a favorite with the King, but more probably relying upon God for protection, Latimer said in the course of one of his University sermons, "Ye think my license decayeth with my Lord Cardinal's temporal fall; but I take it nothing so. For he being, I trust, reconciled to God, from his pomp and vanities, I now set more by his license than ever I did before when he was in his most felicity.”
The downfall of the great Cardinal was followed by a Royal proclamation that forbade the reading of the Bible in English, and Latimer's name was affixed to the decree, probably without his consent having been previously asked. This was in May 1530, and upon the first day of the following December, Latimer wrote to the King pleading for the free circulation of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. "It is an address of almost unexampled grandeur," says Froude of this epistle; and Demaus remarks: "No nobler letter exists in the whole wide compass of English literature.... The letter, indeed, is almost equally honorable to Henry and to Latimer; for if we admire the preacher who so faithfully discharged his duty, and so honestly spoke the truth, we cannot refuse to admire the sovereign also who, with all his imperious will, was yet courteous and magnanimous enough to listen to such admonitions as are too seldom whispered in Courts." The letter undoubtedly deserves this high praise, but our limits forbid the transcription of more than the two concluding paragraphs:—
“Take heed," says Latimer, "whose counsels your Grace doth take in this matter, that you may do that which God commandeth, and not that which seemeth good in your own sight without the Word of God: that your Grace may be found acceptable in His sight, and one of the members of His Church, and according to the office that He hath called your Grace unto, you may be found a faithful minister of His gifts, and not a Defender of His Faith: for He will not have it defended by man or man's power, but by His Word only, by the which He hath evermore defended it, and that by away far above man's power or reason, as all the stories of the Bible make mention.
“Wherefore, gracious King, remember yourself; have pity upon your soul, and think that the day is even at hand when you shall give account of your office and of the blood which hath been shed with your sword. In the which day that your Grace may stand steadfastly and not be ashamed, but be clear and ready in your reckoning, and to have, as they say, your quietus est sealed with the blood of our Savior Christ, which only serveth at that day, is my daily prayer to Him that suffered death for our sins, which also prayeth to His Father for grace for us continually, to whom be all honor and praise forever! Amen. The Spirit of God preserve your Grace!”
Although the prayer of the letter was not immediately answered, and the time was not yet come for the free circulation of the Word of God in the tongue of the people, the noble plea was not lost. Henry himself was so far from being offended by Latimer's plain and faithful dealing, that he shortly afterward made him one of his chaplains.
Perhaps a little disappointed by the result of the letter, which must have cost him much prayer and anxious thought, Latimer resolved to quit the Court. He was weakly in health, moreover, and his tastes were not for the pursuits of courtiers, and therefore, while place and wealth were within his grasp, Latimer retired to the quiet country Rectory of West King-ton. It was on the 14th of January 1531 that he was instituted, and there for four years Latimer was to be further prepared for the greater work which lay beyond him in the then unknown future. Thus, step by step, he was led and trained for the important service which he was afterward to crown and complete with his blood, for the liberties and religion of England.