those whom she never meant to engage herself with or trust. The fortunes of Crucifix and candles in that private chapel of the Queen, make a funny story, indicative of Elizabeth's temperament and fancies, and of her position and her policy both at home and abroad.34

34 See Strype, Annals of the Reformation, I, I, p. 259 sqq.; W. H. Frere, English Church in the reigns of Elizabeth and James 1, pp. 53-54; F. W. Maitland in the Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, pp. 575 sqq.

CHAPTER XXIV

HUGH LATIMER

AN institution, once it is established, becomes somewhat of a husk to the historian, whose interest should lie in following advancing endeavor and achievement. The means by which the established institution maintains and defends itself may enlighten us as to human resourcefulness and policy; yet our inquisitiveness turns rather to the growing and developing antagonist attacking it. For the time of Henry VIII, it is the story of the establishment of the Church of England that holds us. Roman Catholic defense has nothing new to offer to our minds, nor has its fortuitous reestablishment in Mary's reign. And, under Elizabeth, Catholic recusancy and treasonable plotting present but the barren reactionary side of the religious conflict.

The

As for the Church of England, its progressive protestantism under Edward is still new and interesting; and we watch to see what form its re-establishment and final settlement will take through the first years of Elizabeth. Then it too becomes dry for the historian; and his regard is turned to Puritanism, to the content of its convictions, and to the Puritan attack upon the vestments and ceremonies, upon the prelacy and autocracy, of the Church of England. This deflection of our interest does not reflect upon the balanced and Catholic excellences of the English Church or applaud the deterrent qualities of Puritanism. And, for a time at least, our sympathy and interest are likely to turn back to Anglicanism as we see its positions turn to principles in the hands of that young Anglican genius, Richard Hooker.

In via media tutissime ibis — especially when thou art thyself the via media. A via media was the English people, composite in race and language; a twisting via

media was their great Queen; a seemly via media was the Anglican Church. On the one side of it the Catholic road deflected Romeward, somewhat evacuated of onward-pressing English viatores. On the other side, may we find the path of Lollardy, blazed by Wyclif, worked upon by Luther, by Zwingli and others, and next to be straightened (in both senses!) by Calvinistic Puritans? Was it the old promiscuous Lollard path which was still offering itself, with some discernible continuity, to be trodden by Elizabethan dissent and Puritanism? Can we make out any line of march from Lollardy to Puritanism?

It is to the purpose to see where marched the feet of brave old Hugh Latimer, who feared not the face of man, nor the stake at last. His father was a yeoman, and he was born in Leicestershire not later than 1490. While a boy he was sent to Cambridge University, where he spent many years in study and godly living. A zealous Catholic and student of Duns Scotus, Aquinas, and Hugo of St. Victor, he is reported to have advocated scholastic theology as a more profitable study than Scripture. As strong an opponent of the Lutherans as Henry himself, his bachelor's oration was an attack upon Melancthon. But by the time he was licensed to preach by the University in 1522, his thoughts must have been turning against the superstitions and practices, if not the doctrines, of the Church, which was still Catholic and Papal. He was roused by the indolence and worldliness of priests and bishops, the "dumb mouths" who cared so slackly for their flocks.

In 1525 the Bishop of Ely came in unexpectedly where the already noted preacher was preaching in Latin to the University. Latimer paused respectfully till bishop and retinue were suitably placed, and then began quite a different sermon upon "the honorable estate of a bishop," whereof Christ was himself "the true and perfect pattern." He handled this theme "fruitfully," impressing the bishop, who was of another breed. Yet his lordship chose to thank him for having so excellently set forth the bishop's office; only he would have him preach yet another

sermon "against Martin Luther and his doctrine." Latimer, perceiving how the wind sat, answered that he was unacquainted with Luther's doctrine, seeing they were all forbidden to read his works: " I have preached before you this day no man's doctrine, but only the doctrine of God out of the Scriptures. And if Luther do none otherwise than I have done, there needeth no confutation of his doctrine. Otherwise, when I do understand he doth teach against the Scripture, I will be ready with all my heart to confound his doctrine, as much as lyeth in me.

"Well, well, Mr. Latimer," replied the bishop, "I perceive that you somewhat smell of the pan: you will repent this gear some day." So the bishop joined with Latimer's foes, and forbade his preaching in the University, which lay within his diocese of Ely. And it was complained of Latimer to Cardinal Wolsey that he was preaching Lutheran heresy. Wolsey sent for him, and after examining the man, his learning and his preaching, bade him go back and preach; and restored his license.1

The bishop and the others who complained of Latimer were mistaken in the turn of their accusation. For he was no follower of Luther, though, like thousands of Englishmen, he was moved by the great German's inspiration. He was not, like Luther and Calvin, predominantly Pauline, though he might have gained a vivid sense of Paul through some indirect influence from Colet's lectures on Romans and Corinthians, which had been delivered at Oxford. Broadly evangelical, he accepted Paul's teachings, and found no difference between them and the Sermon on the Mount. One may call him Biblical, for he drew upon the Old Testament as well as on the New, though it was the latter that he most constantly studied, reading it through seven times, as he says, in his last imprisonment, to see if he could find therein the doctrine of transubstantiation!

4:

One of the texts he liked to preach on was Romans xv, "All things that are written are for our instruction"; a text which was exemplified throughout his preaching; for he made the whole Bible teach. As Montaigne used 1 See Strype, Eccl. Memorials, III, 1, pp. 368 sqq.

Plutarch for a universal source of illustration of life and conduct, so with another spirit Latimer used the whole Bible, not only its precepts and exhortations, but its statements and narratives, which could point a moral, and aptly illuminate precept with example.

A touching but nondescript disturber of ecclesiastical quiet was Thomas Bilney, "little Bilney," as his friends lovingly called him, who was burned as a heretic in 1531, a year when Henry VIII was eager to evince his orthodoxy. His was a sensitive protesting soul, which could not adjust itself with clerical practices. A constant Bible reader, he found satisfaction in Paul's epistles, with their justification by faith, and disliked images and pilgrimages. But he was not a Lutheran; and the heresy in him was exceptionally intangible, for he accepted transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the Mass, and papal authority. Twenty years after his death, Latimer speaks movingly of what passed between them:

For

"Here I have occasion to tell you a story which happened at Cambridge. Master Bilney, or rather Saint Bilney, that suffered death for God's word sake; the same Bilney was the instrument whereby God called me to knowledge; for I may thank him, next to God, for that knowledge that I have in the word of God. I was as obstinate a papist as any was in England, in so much that when I should be made a bachelor of divinity, my whole oration went against Philip Melancthon and against his opinions. Bilney heard me at that time, and perceived that I was zealous without knowledge; and he came to me afterward in my study, and desired me for God's sake, to hear his confession. I did so; and, to say the truth, by his confession I learned more than before in many years. So from that time forward I began to smell the word of God, and forsook the school-doctors and such fooleries. Now, after I had been acquainted with him, I went with him to visit the prisoners in the tower at Cambridge; for he was ever visiting prisoners and sick folk. So we went together and exhorted them as well as we were able to do; moving them to patience and to acknowledge their faults." 2

Latimer was himself to be something of a greater Bilney; for his heresies were at first rather intangible, though later they became sufficiently pronounced. In 1529 he

2 Sermon on the Lord's Prayer, 1552. Sermons by Hugh Latimer, p. 334 (Parker Society).