Hugh Latimer

Hugh Latimer was born around 1487 in Thurcaston, Leicestershire, the son of a yeoman farmer. He studied at Cambridge, became a fellow and was ordained a priest. At first he opposed the new Protestant ideas, but around 1524 he was won over by the reformer Thomas Bilney. He became known for plain, forceful preaching in English, often criticizing the greed of the powerful. He supported King Henry VIII's break with Rome and in 1535 became bishop of Worcester, but he resigned in 1539 in protest against the king's Six Articles, which restored traditional doctrines, and he was imprisoned for a time. Under the young Protestant king Edward VI he returned to prominence as a preacher, delivering sermons such as the Sermon on the Plough. When the Catholic Queen Mary I came to the throne in 1553, he was arrested and tried for heresy with Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer. On 16 October 1555 he and Ridley were burned at the stake in Oxford. According to John Foxe, Latimer told Ridley that they would light such a candle in England as would never be put out.

Hugh Latimer is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: English bishop and preacher of the Reformation. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) (via Wikisource)