I could not think so great danger in.

should make answer.

And when I

'I pray you, Master Latimer,'

said he, 'speak out; I am very thick of hearing, and

here be many that sit far off.' I marvelled at this that I was bidden speak out, and began to misdeem, and to give an ear to the chimney. And, sir, there I heard a pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth. They had appointed one there to write all mine answers; for they made sure work that I should not start from them; there was no starting from them. God was my good Lord and gave me answer; I could never else have escaped it. The question was this: 'Master Latimer, do you not think on your conscience that you have been suspected of heresy?' A subtle question, a very subtle question. There was no holding of peace would serve. To hold my peace would have been to grant myself faulty. To answer it was every way full of danger. But God, which alway hath given me answer, helped me, or else I could never have escaped it, and delivered me out of their hands." 1

In one of his letters to Sir E. Baynton, he defends himself against conscious disobedience to the Bishop of London. "Forsooth, I preached in Abb-Church, not certain then whether in his diocese or no" (some of the London churches were attached to monasteries and exempt from episcopal jurisdiction), "intending nothing less than to contemn his authority, and this I did not of mine own seeing . . . but at the request of honest merchantmen, as they seemed to me, whose names I do not know . . they required me very instantly they showed not only themselves but 1 Sermons, pp. 394-5.

also many other to be very desirous to hear me, pretending great hunger and thirst of the word of God and ghostly doctrine . . . I put them off and refused them twice or thrice, till at the last they brought me word that the parson and curate were not only content but also desired me." "I marvel," he goes on, "not a little that my lord Bishop of London, having so broad, wide, and large a diocese committed to his cure, and so peopled as it is, can have leisure . . to trouble me or to trouble himself with me, so poor a wretch, a stranger to him and nothing pertaining to his cure, but as every man pertaineth to every man's cure. . Meseems it were more comely for my (if it were comely for me to say so) to be a preacher himself . . . than to be a disquieter and a troubler of preachers."

" 1

lord

In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury,2 he begs to be excused coming up to London again. "Pain of my head prevents me from expostulating with you for detaining me so long from my cure. The examination (before the Bishop of London) seemed endless. I am considered intractable for refusing compliance with what I deem unjust importunities. . . . I have never preached anything contrary to the truth nor contrary to the decrees of the Fathers, nor, as far as I know, contrary to the Catholic faith.. I have desired, I own, and do desire, a reformation in the judgment of the vulgar . . . that they should distinguish between duties. . . that all men should know that there is a very great difference between those works which God hath prepared for each of us, zealously discharging the duties of our respective 1 Foxe, vii. 485. 2 State Papers (1532), 859.

callings, to walk in, and those that are voluntary, which we undertake by our own strength and pleasure. It is lawful, I own, to make use of images, to go on pilgrimage, to pray to saints, to be mindful of souls abiding in purgatory; but these things which are voluntary are to be so moderated that God's commandments of necessary obligation which bring eternal life to those that keep them, and eternal death to those who neglect them, be not deprived of their just value." 1

This is the very keynote of all Latimer's teaching and preaching. His heart and mind were filled with the necessity of stirring up the people to fresh spiritual life, of reforming them morally, and bringing them to a new and clear understanding of the Christian life; and with these great thoughts to absorb him, he felt the comparative insignificance of discussions about pilgrimages, the use of images, prayers for the dead-these were among the many things which, "done in a simple and honest heart, God does not condemn, yet rather . . . does in some degree approve, yet . . . would neither command nor counsel." 2 The purpose of this letter is to expostulate with the archbishop for detaining him so long from his parish, and to explain that it is impossible for him to subscribe certain articles that had been submitted to him, because, knowing the many existing abuses, he wished to do nothing by which he would help towards the continuance of superstition among the people. "Why should a preacher be called upon to recommend from the pulpit works which, though

1 State Papers for résumé in English (1532), v. 854; Foxe, vii. 456. 2 Same Letter, original in Latin.

they were seldomer performed (not to say never), I do not see that the Christian religion would suffer any loss? Let us so exert ourselves as with one accord to preach the doctrine of God, lest we become as they who corrupt and make a traffic of preaching rather than true ministers of God." These were bold words to be addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the parson of a small country parish; they are a fair example of the straightforward, plain speaking which was gaining for Latimer a reputation throughout and beyond the diocese where he laboured. The exact date of this letter is uncertain, but it belongs to the spring of 1532, probably to the beginning of March, for it refers to his refusal to sign the articles. But Latimer was not ready yet for martyrdom; possibly he thought it was hardly worth while to make a stand for such small points as those dealt with in the articles, knowing as he did his power as а preacher, and the probability that he would be permanently silenced did he continue to refuse compliance. More probably his mind was not ripe on these matters; he was tending ever to the reformed teaching, but he was not yet clear as to the essential character of some points of the doctrine.

On the 11th March 1532, Latimer, along with two other heretics, was required to sign a number of articles drawn up by the bishops, and on refusing was pronounced contumacious, and committed to prison at Lambeth. He finally consented to subscribe the 11th and 14th articles, was absolved and warned to appear again on 15th April to hear further proIt might seem that Latimer only subscribed to two of the articles; but subsequent references

cess.

seem to imply that eventually he signed them all. It is interesting to note the articles, as their subscription marks a stage in Latimer's mind. 1. There is a place of purgatory. 2. Souls in purgatory are helped by masses and alms-deeds. 3. The apostles and martyrs are in heaven. 4. They pray for us. 5. They are to be honoured. 6. Pilgrimages and oblations are meritorious. 7. Vows of chastity must not be broken without dispensation of the bishop. 8. St. Peter's keys remain to his successors, the bishops, though they live evil lives, and were never given to laymen. 9. It is profitable to invocate saints. 10. Almsdeeds and other good works are meritorious. 11. Men forbidden by bishops to preach ought not to do so, until they have purged themselves and been lawfully restored. 12. Lent and fasting days should be kept. 13. God gives grace to those who receive the seven sacraments. 14. The consecrations, sanctifications, and benedictions received in the Christian Church are laudable and profitable. 15. Images are profitable. 16. It is profitable for them to be decked and trimmed and to have candles set before them.

There is a touch of sadness in a letter to Dr. Greenwood (of St. John's, Cambridge), belonging to this time. Latimer is evidently depressed and a trifle disheartened by the constant petty persecutions to which he was subjected. "As to what I have preached... I may at times have been a little indiscreet; yet, peradventure the misbehaviour of the people might as well be imputed to other things as to my preaching; but yet I will not be contentious. As to the people, though I will have more respect to their capacity, yet as to my old preaching I will