STOUT HUGH LATIMER; OR, IN THE BRIEF SUNSHINE
" 'Twas not thus in ages gone!
These isles in error's night lay dim:
God's jewels they in silence shone
Most beautiful, yet not for Him!
True Christian sympathy was ne'er designed
To be shut up within a narrow bound,
But sweeps abroad, and in its search to find
Objects of mercy goes the wide world round.”
—UPHAM.
“Lie not! but let thy heart be true to God,
Thy mouth to it, thy actions unto both.”
—GEORGE HERBERT.
ACCESSION OF KING EDWARD— LATIMER REFUSES OFFICE— BREAKING THE PEWS HOMILIES OR HOMELIES— THE PLOUGH SERMON— DEATH OF EDWARD.
ON the 31st of January 1547 King Henry's only son Edward was proclaimed King. He was but ten years of age at his accession, and during his minority the affairs of the kingdom were entrusted to a Council, from which Gardiner had been expressly excluded by the King. He was "a willful man, not meet to be about his son," Henry had said, and he might have said far more about Gardiner's vileness. The Council was mixed as to its religious views, but the Reformers were well represented upon it. The King's uncle was selected by them as Lord Protector of the realm, and Wriothesley, whose bands had been deeply imbued with the blood of the martyrs, was deprived of the authority which he had abused.
This was understood by the Romanists to be a defeat, and they were still further enraged when Ridley preached before the Court on the 23rd of February, and denounced the worship of images as idolatry and the use of holy water as superstitious. The King's sympathies were known to be with Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, and men naturally expected legislation that would favor the views that these three divines had taught. Of Edward himself, the verdict of history has confirmed the good opinions of his admirers; his reign, it is true, had many serious abuses, but they were the faults of his counselors, and cannot be attributed to the young King. The gentle, learned youth won all hearts, and had he lived to fulfill the promise of his boyhood, Edward the Sixth would have been one of the most charming characters in our annals.
“Brought up with noble counselors," says Latimer, "and excellent and well-learned schoolmasters, was there ever King so noble, so godly? I will tell you this, and I speak it even as I think, His Majesty hath more godly wit and understanding, more learning and knowledge, at his age, than twenty of his progenitors that I could name had at any time of their life.”
The accession of King Edward of course released Latimer from his confinement, but he was still unemployed. The House of Commons entreated him to resume his office as Bishop, but he preferred to continue a quondam, as he styled himself. "I thank God that I came by my quondamship by honest means," he said. The fact probably was, that the details of business and the many trivial cares that pertain to office were little to Latimer's taste. He had discovered that he was chiefly a preacher, and, like a wise and practical man as he was, he preferred to continue in the form of service which he could render best. His sermon before Convocation, from which an extract has already been given, had spread the fame of his eloquence over the land, and now that he could speak without endangering his life, Latimer became the foremost preacher in England. The Roman historian, whose dislike for Latimer is as bitter as it is unreasonable, says: "The character of the man, the boldness of his invectives, his quaint but animated eloquence, were observed to make a deep impression on the minds of his hearers." He resided in London under Cranmer's roof, and day after day the old man might have been seen with his staff firmly grasped in one hand, his Bible at his leathern girdle, and "his spectacles hanging by a string at his breast,” on his way to preach in one of the City churches or before the King and Court. As he passed along the streets the very boys cheered him as he went, while the citizens struggled for a touch of his gown, and as he approached his pulpit they greeted him with some hearty word of encouragement "to say on." Whenever he preached before the King, as he did from time to time, it was found necessary to set up a pulpit in the Royal gardens in order to provide sufficient space for the vast multitude that thronged to hear him; and on one occasion, when he preached at St. Margaret's, Wesminster, the crowd was so great that the pews in the church were broken in pieces.
“The practical abuses of the Roman faith," says Demaus, "the lying miracles, the debasing superstitions of that Church, the perversion of justice, the disregard of the legal rights of the poor, the corruption of morals, the tyranny of the nobles, the honesty of the traders, the insolent pride and luxury of the dignitaries of the Church,— such were the chief subjects which Latimer handled in his discourses, with that plain, picturesque, shrewd humor and honesty which carried his words home to the hearts of his hearers. Such a man was a power in the State as well as a pillar of the Church. The poor looked up to him, as the Israelites did to their prophets, as a protector raised up by Divine Providence to shield their weakness from the rapacity and tyranny of the rich and noble."'
“I am no sooner in the garden," says Latimer himself, "and have read awhile, but by-and-by cometh there someone or other knocking at the gate. Anon cometh my man and saith, ' Sir, there is one at the gate that would speak with you.' When I come there, then is it someone or other that desireth me that I will speak that his matter might be heard.”
Meanwhile the Reformation was slowly progressing, and as a first measure it was resolved to put forth a book of homilies. Of these discourses, which were ridiculed as homilies by many of the priests who disliked them, Latimer said: "Though the priest read them never so well, yet if the parish like them not, there is such talking and babbling in the church that nothing can be heard; and if the parish be good and the priest naught, he will so hack it and chop it, that it were as good for them to be without it, for any word that shall be understood." This led to the setting apart of Latimer, Knox, and other celebrated preachers as preachers at large, a method which was calculated to do more for the spread of the Reformation than all the decrees of Parliament and Convocation combined together. A general visitation of the clergy was also ordered, and in every church it was decreed that a chapter of the New Testament should be read every Sunday morning, and one from the Old Testament in the afternoon all good and useful legislation, but such legislation as required a hearty co-operation on the part of the parish ministers which it was not likely to receive. A far more effective agency were Latimer's sermons: says Stow, "On the 1st of January (1548) Dr. Latimer preached at St. Paul's Cross;" on the 8th , 15th , and 29th of January he again preached, but only the last of the discourses has been preserved. This is the famous "Sermon of the Plow," and as it is the best specimen of Latimer's pulpit style, we shall now submit portions of it to our readers: —" For preaching of the Gospel is one of God's plow-works, and the preacher is one of God's plowmen. Ye may not be offended with my similitude, in that I compare preaching to the labor and work of plowing, and the preacher to a plowman: ye may not be offended with this my similitude; for I have been slandered of some persons for such things. It hath been said of me, ' Oh, Latimer! nay, as for him, I will never believe him while I live, nor never trust him; for he likened our blessed lady to a saffron-bag: ' where indeed I never used that similitude. But it was, as I have said unto you before now, according to that which Peter saw before in the spirit of prophecy, and said, that there should come after men per quos via veritatis maledictis afficeratur; there should come fellows by whom the way of truth should be evil spoken of, and slandered.' But in case I had used this similitude, it had not been to be reproved, but might have been without reproach. For I might have said thus: as the saffron-bag that hath been full of saffron, or hath had saffron in it, doth ever after savor and smell of the sweet saffron that it contained; so our blessed lady, which conceived and bare Christ in her womb, did ever after resemble the manners and virtues of that precious babe that she bare. And what had our blessed lady been the worse for this? or what dishonor was this to our blessed lady? But as preachers must be wary and circumspect, that they give not any just occasion to be slandered and ill spoken of by the hearers, so must not the auditors be offended without cause. For heaven is in the Gospel likened to a mustard-seed: it is compared also to a piece of leaven; and as Christ saith, that at the last day He will come like a thief: and what dishonor is this to God? or what derogation is this to heaven? Ye may not then, I say, be offended with my similitude, for because I liken preaching to a plowman's labor, and a prelate to a plowman. But now you will ask me, whom I call a prelate? A prelate is that man, whatsoever he be, that hath a flock to be taught of him; whosoever hath any spiritual charge in the faithful congregation, and whosoever he be that hath cure of souls. And well may the preacher and the plowman be likened together: first, for their labor of all seasons of the year; for there is no time of the year in which the plowman hath not some special work to do: as in my country in Leicestershire, the plowman hath a time to set forth, and to assay his plow, and other times for other necessary works to be done. And then they also may be likened together for the diversity of works and variety of offices that they have to do. For as the plowman first setteth forth his plow, and then tilleth his land, and breaketh it in furrows, and sometimes ridgeth it up again; and at another time harroweth it and clotteth it, and sometimes dungeth it and hedgeth it, diggeth it and weedeth it, purgeth and maketh it clean: so the prelate, the preacher, hath many diverse offices to do. He hath first a busy work to bring his parishioners to a right faith, as Paul calleth it, and not a swerving faith; but to a faith that embraceth Christ, and trusteth to His merits; a lively faith, a justifying faith; a faith that maketh a man righteous, without respect of works: as ye have it very well declared and set forth in the Homily. He hath then a busy work, I say, to bring his flock to a right faith, and then to confirm them in the same faith: now casting them down with the law, and with threatenings of God for sin; now ridging them up again with the Gospel, and with the promises of God's favor: now weeding them, by telling them their faults, and making them forsake sin; now clotting them, by breaking their stony hearts, and by making them supple-hearted, and making them to have hearts of flesh; that is, soft hearts, and apt for doctrine to enter in: now teaching to know God rightly, and to know their duty to God and their neighbors: now exhorting them, when they know their duty, that they do it, and be diligent in it; so that they have a continual work to do. Great is their business, and therefore great should be their hire. They have great labors, and therefore they ought to have good livings, that they may commodiously feed their flock; for the preaching of the Word of God unto the people is called meat: Scripture calleth it meat; not strawberries, that come but once a year, and tarry not long, but are soon gone: but it is meat, it is no dainties. The people must have meat that must be familiar and continual, and daily given unto them to feed upon. Many make a strawberry of it, ministering it but once a year; but such do not the office of good prelates. For Christ saith, Quis putas est servos prudens et fidelis? Qui dat eibuin in tempore'— ‘Who think you is a wise and a faithful servant? He that giveth meat in due time.' So that he must at all times convenient preach diligently: therefore saith He, 'who trow ye is a faithful servant? ‘He speaketh it as though it were a rare thing to find such a one, and as though He should say, there be but a few of them to find in the world. And how few of them there be throughout this realm that give meat to their flock as they should do, the Visitors can best tell. Too few, too few; the more is the pity, and never so few as now....
“Now what shall we say of these rich citizens of London? What shall I say of them? Shall I call them proud men of London, malicious men of London, merciless men of London? No, no, I may not say so; they will be offended with me then. Yet must I speak. For is there not reigning in London as much pride, as much covetousness, as much cruelty, as much oppression, and as much superstition, as was in Nebo? Yes, I think, and much more too. Therefore I say, Repent, O London; repent, repent. Thou hearest thy faults told thee; amend them, amend them. I think, if Nebo had had the preaching that thou hast, they would have been converted....
“But London was never so ill as it is now. In times past men were full of pity and compassion, but now there is no pity; for in London their brother shall die in the streets for cold, he shall lie sick at the door between stock and stock, I cannot tell what to call it, and perish there for hunger: was there ever more unmercifulness in Nebo? I think not. In times past, when any rich man died in London, they were wont to help the poor scholars of the Universities with exhibition. When any man died, they would bequeath great sums of money toward the relief of the poor. When I was a scholar in Cambridge myself, I heard very good report of London, and knew many that had relief of the rich men of London: but now I can hear no such good report, and yet I inquire of it, and hearken for it; but now charity is waxen cold, none helpeth the scholar, nor yet the poor. And in those days, what did they when they helped the scholars? Marry, they maintained and gave them livings that were very papists, and professed the Pope's doctrine: and now that the knowledge of God's Word is brought to light, and many earnestly study and labor to set it forth, now almost no man helpeth to maintain them.
“O London, London I repent, repent; for I think God is more displeased with London than ever He was with the city of Nebo. Repent therefore, repent, London, and remember that the same God liveth now that punished Nebo, even the same God, and none other; and He will punish sin as well now as He did then: and He will punish the iniquity of London, as well as He did them of Nebo. Amend therefore. And ye that be prelates, look well to your office; for right prelating is busy laboring, and not lording. Therefore preach and teach, and let your plow be doing. Ye lords, I say, that live like loiterers, look well to your office; the plow is your office and charge. If you live idle and loiter, you do not your duty, you follow not your vocation: let your plow therefore be going, and not cease, that the ground may bring forth fruit....
“Forever since the prelates were made lords and nobles, the plow standeth; there is no work done, the people starve. They hawk, they hunt, they card, they dice; they pastime in their prelacies with gallant gentlemen, with their dancing minions, and with their fresh companions, so that plowing is set aside: and by their lording and loitering, preaching and plowing is clean gone. And thus if the plowmen of the country were as negligent in their office as prelates be, we should not long live, for lack of sustenance. And as it is necessary for to have this plowing for the sustentation of the body, so must we have also the other for the satisfaction of the soul, or else we cannot live long ghostly. For as the body wasteth and consumeth away for lack of bodily meat, so doth the soul pine away for default of ghostly meat. But there be two kinds of inclosing, to let or hinder both these kinds of plowing; the one is an inclosing to let or hinder the bodily plowing, and the other to let or hinder the holiday-plowing, the church-plowing....
“And now I would ask a strange question: Who is the most diligent bishop and prelate in all England, that passeth all the rest in doing his office? I can tell, for I know him who it is; I know him well. But now I think I see you listening and hearkening that I should name him. There is one that passeth all the other, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all England:, And will ye know who it is? I will tell you: it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all other; he is never out of his diocese; he is never from his cure; ye shall never find him unoccupied; he is ever in his parish; he keepeth residence at all times; ye shall never find him out of the way, call for him when you will, he is ever at home; the most diligent preacher in all the realm; he is ever at his plow: no lording nor loitering can hinder him; he is ever applying his business, ye shall never find him idle, I warrant you. And his office is to hinder religion, to maintain superstition, to set up idolatry, to teach all kind of popery. He is ready as he can be wished for to set forth his plow; to devise as many ways as can be to deface and obscure God's glory. Where the devil is resident, and hath his plow going, there away with books and up with candles; away with Bibles and up with beads; away with the light of the gospel and up with the light of candles, yea, at noondays.
Where the devil is resident, that he may prevail, up with all superstition and idolatry; tensing, painting of images, candles, palms, ashes, holy water, and new service of men's inventing; as though man could invent a better way to honor God with than God Himself bath appointed. Down with Christ's cross, up with purgatory pickpocket, up with him, the popish purgatory, I mean. Away with clothing the naked, the poor and impotent; up with decking of images, and gay garnishing of stocks and stones: up with man's traditions and his laws, down with God's traditions and His most Holy Word. Down with the old honor due to God, and up with the new god's honor. Let all things be done in Latin: there must be nothing but Latin, not so much as `Memento, home, quod cinis es, et in cinerem reverteris'—‘Remember, man, that thou art ashes, and into ashes thou shalt return: ' which be the words that the minister speaketh unto the ignorant people, when he giveth them ashes upon Ash-Wednesday; but it must be spoken in Latin: God's Word may in no wise be translated into English " Oh that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the corn of good doctrine as Satan is to sow cockle and darnel ! And this is the devilish ploughing, the which worketh to have things in Latin, and letteth the fruitful edification. But here some man will say to me, ' What, sir, are ye so privy of the devil's counsel, that ye know all this to be true?' Truly I know him too well, and have obeyed him a little too much in condescending to some follies; and I know him as other men do, yea, that he is ever occupied, and ever busy in following his plough. I know by St. Peter, which saith of him, Sicut leo rugiens circuit quœrens quern, devoret'—` He goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.' I would like this text well viewed and examined, every word of it: ' Circuit,' he goeth about in every corner of his diocess ; he goeth on visitation daily, he leaveth no place of his cure unvisited : he walketh round about from place to place, and ceaseth not. Sicut leo,' as a lion, that is, strongly, boldly, and proudly; stately and fiercely with haughty looks, with his proud countenances, with his stately braggings. ‘Rugiens; roaring; for he letteth not slip any occasion to speak or to roar out when he seeth his time. Quœrens,' he goeth about seeking, and not sleeping, as our bishops do; but he seeketh diligently, he searcheth diligently all corners, where as he may have his prey. He roveth abroad in every place of his diocese; he standeth not still, he is never at rest, but ever in hand with his plow, that it may go forward. But there was never such a preacher in England as he is. Who is able to tell his diligent preaching, which every day, and every hour, laboreth to sow cockle and darnel, that he may bring out of form, and out of estimation and room, the institution of the Lord's Supper and Christ's cross? For there he lost his right; for Christ said, ‘Nunc judicium, est mundi, princeps seculi hujus ejicietur foras. Et sicut exaltavit Moses serpent em in deserto ita exaltari oportet Filizem hominis. Et cum exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum,'—‘ Now is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world shall be cast out. And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lift up. And when I shall be lift up from the earth, I will draw all things unto Myself.' For the devil was disappointed of his purpose: for he thought all to be his own; and when he had once brought Christ to the cross, he thought all cocksure. But there lost he all reigning: for Christ said, Omnia traham ad meipsum,'—`I will draw all things to Myself.' He meaneth, drawing of man's soul to salvation. And that He said He would do per semetipsum, by His own self; not by any other body's sacrifice. He meant by His own sacrifice on the cross, where He offered Himself for the redemption of mankind; and room, the institution of the Lord's Supper and Christ's cross? For there he lost his right; for Christ said, Nunc judicium, est mundi, princeps seculi hujus ejicietur foras. Et sicut exaltavit Moses serpent em in deserto ita exaltari oportet Filizem hominis. Et cum exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum,'—‘Now is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world shall be cast out. And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lift up. And when I shall be lift up from the earth, I will draw all things unto Myself.' For the devil was disappointed of his purpose: for he thought all to be his own; and when he had once brought Christ to the cross, he thought all cocksure. But there lost he all reigning: for Christ said, Omnia traham ad meipsum’—’ I will draw all things to Myself.' He meaneth, drawing of man's soul to salvation. And that He said He would do per semetipsum, by His own self; not by any other body's sacrifice. He meant by His own sacrifice on the cross, where He offered Himself for the redemption of mankind; and not the sacrifice of the mass to be offered by another. For who can offer Him but Himself? He was both the offerer and the offering. And this is the prick, this is the mark at the which the devil shooteth, to evacuate the cross of Christ, and to mingle the institution of the Lord's Supper; the which although he cannot bring to pass, yet he goeth about by his sleights and subtle means to frustrate the same; and these fifteen hundred years he hath been a doer, only purposing to evacuate Christ's death, and to make it of small efficacy and virtue.”
“If England ever had a prophet, Latimer was one," was a common saying among the people, to which it was added by others, that" Moses, Jeremiah, and Elias did never declare the true message of God to their rulers and people with a more sincere spirit, faithful mind, and godly zeal than godly Latimer.”
During the last two years of King Edward's life Latimer was practically silent, his preaching was far too plain to suit the tastes of the greedy horde of nobles who approved of the Reformation in order that they might enrich themselves with the lands and goods of the clergy. It is a shameful story of greed and ungodliness; indeed all spiritual religion would have died out among us if the rule of these men had been prolonged. Had the young King been able to make his will felt in the councils of the nation it would have been well, but a regency under such men as ruled latterly in his name, must have produced a revolution within a very short space of time. Yet, with human short-sightedness, the Reformers dreaded Edward's death. They well understood that if Mary came to the Crown the fires of persecution would be relighted for them. Preaching in London in 1549, Latimer said: "Oh, what a plague were it, if a strange king of a strange land should reign over us! Where now we be governed in the true religion, he would extirp and pluck it away altogether, and then plant again all abomination and Popery. God keep such a king from us!... To avoid this plague let us amend our lives, and put away pride, covetousness, lechery, and other excessive vices, provoking God's wrath to take from us our natural king and liege lord yea, and to plague us with a stranger king for our unrepentant heart! If then, as ye say, ye love your King, amend, and then ye shall be a mean, that God will lend him to us, long to reign over us.... Make haste, make haste, and let us learn to convert, to repent. If not, I fear lest, for our sins and unthankfulness, a hypocrite shall reign over us, which shall bring in again all Papistry, hypocrisy, and idolatry.”
On the 6th of July 1553 King Edward died, and after a vain attempt on the part of her relatives to secure the throne for Lady Jane Gray, Mary succeeded to the crown. The Reformers relied upon her promises of toleration, and therefore they loyally recognized her title, with what consequences to themselves is well known.