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fession was not necessary to salvation, should suffer death as felons, without benefit of clergy.'

Thus were Papists and Protestants, by the versatility and violence of Henry's disposition, equally exposed to the flames: the first, if they denied the king's supremacy; the latter, if they opposed the Six Articles. Latimer was one of the first who took offence at these articles: he not only refused indeed to give his vote in favor of them, but thinking it wrong even to hold any office in a church where such terms of communion were required, he also resigned his bishopric. Returning from the parliament-house to his lodgings he threw off his robes, and leaping up, declared to those who stood about him, that "he felt lighter than he had ever found himself before."

After this, he immediately retired into the country, where he resolved to spend the remainder of his days in a sequestered life. But a dangerous bruise, occasioned by the fall of a tree, obliging him to seek better assistance than could be afforded by the surgeons in his immediate neighbourhood, he again repaired to London. Here he found things in a still worse condition than he had left them. The Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop of Winchester, who had been the principal instruments in the ruin of the Earl of Essex, were now at the head of the popish party; and, under their direction, such a scene of blood was exhibited, as England had never before been doomed to behold. Latimer, among others, felt the effects of their

bigotry; and, being accused of having spoken against the Six Articles, was in consequence committed to the Tower. It does not appear, indeed, that any formal process was carried on against him, or that he was ever judicially examined. But, under one pretence or another, he suffered a cruel confinement during the remainder of Henry's reign.

After having spent upward of six years in the Tower, on the accession of Edward VI, Latimer, with all the rest who had been imprisoned in the same cause, was set at liberty; and as his old friends were now in power, he was received by them with every mark of affection. The parliament even addressed the Protector to replace him in the bishopric of Worcester. But on the resumption being proposed to Latimer, he desired to be excused, alleging his advanced age, and the claim which he consequently had to privacy and quiet. Having thus freed himself from all encumbrances, he accepted an invitation from his friend Archbishop Cranmer, and took up his residence at Lambeth, where he led a very retired life.

His chief employment was to hear the complaints, and to redress the injuries of the poor people; and his character for services of this kind was so universally known, that strangers from every part of the kingdom resorted to him for the redress of their grievances. In these occupations, and in assisting Cranmer to compose the Homilies, he spent upward of two years.

But as he was one of the most eloquent preach

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ers in England, he was appointed during the first three years of the new reign, to preach the Lent sermons before the King.* Upon these occasions, he attacked the vices of the great with honest freedom; charging them in particular with covetousness, bribery, and extortion so emphatically, that it was impossible for them by any self-deceit to avoid the direct application of his reproofs to themselves.

Upon the revolution at court, which took place after the Duke of Somerset's death, he retired into the country, and availed himself of the royal license, as a general preacher, in those parts where he thought his labors might be most useful: but on the accession of Mary, this privilege was withdrawn. The Bishop of Winchester, who had proscribed him among the first, cited him before the Council. Of this summons he had notice some hours before the messenger's arrival, but he made no use of the intelligence; like other eminent Reformers of the time, choosing rather to meet, than to avoid persecution.

*At this time there were no sermons, except in the principal churches, and upon some particular fasts and festivals. Such crowds, we are informed by Heylin, went to hear Latimer, that the pulpit was removed out of the Royal Chapel into the Privy Garden; and so great was the effect of his discourses, that restitution was made to the king of very considerable sums, of which he had been defrauded.

The messenger, therefore, found him equipped for his journey; at which expressing his surprise, Mr. Latimer told him, "that he was as ready to attend him to London, thus called upon to answer for his faith, as he ever was to take any journey in his life; and that he doubted not but that God, who had already enabled him to stand before two princes, would enable him to stand before a third." The messenger then acquainting him that he had no orders to seize his person, delivered a letter, and departed. Hence it appears, that their object was rather to drive him out of the kingdom, than to bring him to any public examination.

Latimer, upon opening the letter, and finding in it a citation from the Council, resolved to obey it. He set out, therefore, immediately for London. As he passed through Smithfield, where heretics were usually burnt, he said cheerfully. "This place hath long groaned for me. ." The next morning he waited upon the Council, who, after loading him with reproaches, sent him to the Tower.

This was but the repetition of a former part of his life, accompanied however with harsher treatment, and giving him more frequent occasions to exercise his resignation, a virtue which no man more eminently possessed. Neither did the usual hilarity of his disposition now forsake him; of which we have a remarkable instance left on record. A servant going out of his apartment, Latimer called after him, and bid him "tell his master, that unless he took better care of him, he should cer

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tainly escape him." Upon this message the lieutenant, with some discomposure in his countenance, came to him, and desired an explanation of the message. "Why, you expect, I suppose, Mr. Lieutenant, (replied Mr. Latimer,) that I shall be burnt; but, if you do not allow me a little fire this frosty weather, I can tell you I shall first be starved."

About the same time Archbishop Cranmer, and Ridley, Bishop of London, were committed to the Tower.

After they had remained there some months, the convocation sent them to Oxford, to attend a public disputation, where (it was said) the long-pending controversy between the Papists and the Protestants would be finally decided by the most eminent divines of both parties. But upon their arrival, in March, 1554, they were all closely confined in the common prison, and denied the use of pen, ink, and paper; a plain proof that no free discussion was intended. In this comfortless situation, their chief resource was prayer, in which they spent great part of every day. Latimer, in particular, would often continue kneeling, till he was unable to rise without help. The principal subject of his petitions was, that "God would enable him to maintain the profession of his religion to the last; that he would again restore his gospel to England; and that he would preserve the Princess Elizabeth to be a comfort to the land."

The commissioners from the convocation arrived at Oxford in April, and assembled in St. Mary's