this article greatly beyond the limits we could afford it, and to attempt difentangling fome from the reft, would be to render them very little entertaining.

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ART. IV. The Life of Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. By William Gilpin, M. A. Mafter of a Boarding-School at Cheam, near Epfom in Surry. 8vo. 2s. Rivington.

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HIS work comes doubly recommended to the favourable regards of the public; it prefents us with an account of the life of one of thofe illuftrious martyrs who introduced the reformation amongst us, one eminently diftinguished by the plainnefs and fimplicity of his manners, by honefty and fincerity of heart, by a noble firmness of mind, and a truly apoftolic zeal in the caufe of religion. The account too is drawn up with judgment and elegance, in a manner both inftructive and entertaining: our readers, we hope, will not be difpleafed with a fhort abstract of it.

Hugh Latimer, our ingenious biographer tells us, was born at Thirkefon in Leicestershire, about the year 1470. His father was a yeoman of good reputation; had no land of his own, but rented a fmall farm, on which, in thofe frugal times, he maintained a large family, fix daughters and a fon. Mr. Latimer, in one of his court fermons, in King Edward's time, inveighing against the oppreffion then exercifed in the country, by the nobility and gentry, and fpeaking of the moderation of landlords a few years before, and the plenty in which their tenants lived, tells his audience, in his familiar way, That upon a farm of four pounds a year at the utmost, his father tilled as much ground as kept half a dozen men; that he had it ftocked with an hundred fheep, and thirty cows; that he found the king a man and horfe, himself remembring to have buckled on his father's harness, when he went to Black-heath; that he gave his daughters five pounds a-piece at marriage; that he lived hofpitably among his neighS bours; and was not backwards in his alins to the poor.

• We meet with nothing about Mr. Latimer worth relating' continues Mr. Gilpin, till we find him a master of arts, in prieft's orders, at Cambridge. Here his youth had been wholly employed on the divinity of the times. He read the schoolmen and the fcriptures with the fame reverence, and held Thomas a-Becket and the apostles in equal honour; in a word, he was a zealous papift.

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Many of the reformed opinions, which were then fermenting in Germany, had by this time difcovered themselves in England. The legislature had not yet interfered; but the watchful priefts had taken the alarm, and the danger of the church was already become the popular cry. Mr. Latimer, among others, heard, with high indignation, these novel teachers zeal wrought the fame effect in him that interest • did in the many; and while others were apprehenfive that their temporals might be in danger, he was concerned for the fouls of men. The laft times, he thought, were now approaching: impiety was gaining ground apace. What lengths might not men be expected to run, when they began to question even the infallibility of the pope?

As his well-meant zeal was thus inflamed, it of course • broke out into all the effects of bigotry. He inveighed publicly and privately against the reformers. If any read lectures in the fchools fufpected of their tenets, Mr. Latimer C was fure to be there to drive out the fcholars; and having an opportunity, when he commenced batchelor of divinity, to give an open teftimony of his diflike to their proceedings, he made an oration against Melanthon, whom he treated with great feverity for his impious innovations in religion. His zeal was fo much taken notice of in the university, that he was elected into the office of cross-bearer in all public proceffions; an employment which he accepted with reverence, and difcharged with becoming folemnity.'

Mr. Gilpin goes on to inform us, that Mr. Latimer ceased from being a zealous papift, and became a zealous proteftant, by converang frequently with Thomas Bilney, a very religious man, and the moft confiderable perfon at Cambridge, of all thofe who, at this time, favoured the reformation. As Mr. Latimer had nothing of that natural coolnefs in his temper, which the Athenian law-giver difcouraged in a commonwealth, he was very active in fupporting and propagating the reformed opinions; endeavoured, with great affiduity, to make converts; preached in public; exhorted in private; and every where prefied the neceffity of a holy life, in oppofition to those outward performances which were then thought the effentials of religion. A behaviour of this kind was immediately taken notice of; and as Cambridge was then the feat of ignorance, bigotry, and fuperftition, Mr. Latimer foon perceived how obnoxious he had already made himself.

The first remarkable oppofition he met with from the popifh party,' fays our author, was occafioned by a course of • fermons he preached during the holidays of Christmas, be

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•fore the university; in which he spoke his fentiments with great freedom upon many opinions and ufages, maintained and practifed in the Romish church. In these fermons he fhewed the impiety of indulgences, the uncertainty of tradition, and the vanity of works of fupererogation: he inveighed against that multiplicity of ceremonies with which true religion was encumbered, and the pride and ufurpation of the Romish hierarchy. But what he most infifted upon was, that great abuse of locking up the scripture in an unknown tongue; giving his reafons without any reserve, why it ought to be put in every one's hands.

Few of the tenets of popery were then queftioned in England, but fuch as tended to a relaxation of morals. Tranfubftantiation, and other points, rather fpeculative, ftill • held their dominion. Mr. Latimer therefore chiefly dwelt upon those of immoral tendency. He fhewed what true religion was; that it was feated in the heart; and that, in comparison with it, external appointments were of no va⚫lue.

• Great was the outcry occafioned by thefe difcourfes. Mr. Latimer was then a preacher of fome eminence, and began to display a remarkable address in adapting himself to the capacities of the people. The orthodox clergy obferving him thus followed, thought it high time to oppofe him openly. This talk was undertaken by Dr. Buckenham, prior of the black friers, who appeared in the pulpit a few Sundays after ; and, with great pomp and prolixity, fhewed the dangerous. tendency of Mr. Latimer's opinions: particularly he inveighed against his heretical notions of having the fcriptures in English; laying open the ill effects of fuch an innovation. If that herefy, faid he, fhould prevail, we should foon fee an end of every thing ufeful among us: the ploughman reading, that if he put his hand to the plough, and fhould happen to look back, he was unfit for the kingdom of God, would foon lay afide his labour; the baker likewife reading, that a little leven will corrupt his lump, would give us very • infipid bread; the fimple man likewife finding himself com'manded to pluck out his eyes, in a few hours we should have the nation full of blind beggars.

• Mr. Latimer could not help liftening, with a fecret pleafure, to this ingenious reafoning. Perhaps he had acted as • prudently, if he had confidered the prior's arguments as unanfwerable; but he could not refift the vivacity of his temper, which ftrongly inclined him to expose this folemn trifler.

The whole univerfity met together on Sunday, when it was known Mr. Latimer would preach. That vein of pleafantry and good humour, which ran through all his words and actions, would have here full fcope; and, to say the truth, the preacher was not a little confcious of his own fuperiority. To complete the fcene, juft before the fermon began, prior Buckenham himself entered the church, with his coul about his fhoulders, and feated himself with an air of importance before the pulpit.

• Mr. Latimer, with great gravity, recapitulated the learned doctor's arguments, placed them in the ftrongeft light, and then rallied them with fuch a flow of wit, and, at the fame time, with fo much good humour, that, without the appearance of ill-nature, he made his adverfary in the highest degree ridiculous. He then, with great addrefs, appealed to the people; defcanted upon the low efteem in which their holy guides had always held their underflandings; expreffed the utmost offence at their being treated with fuch contempt; and withed his honeft countrymen might only have the use of the fcripture till they fhewed themfelves fuch absurd interpreters."

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Mr. Gilpin tells us, that the meckness, gravity, and unaffected piety of Bilney, the chearfulness, good humour, and eloquence of Latimer, wrought greatly upon the junior students at Cambridge, and increafed the credit of the proteftant party in that univerfity; that the orthodox clergy was greatly alarmed; that frequent convocations were held; tutors admonished to have a frict eye over their pupils; and academical cenfures of all kinds inflicted. But academical censures were found infufficient: Mr. Latimer continued to preach, and herefy to spread; upon which the true fpirit of popery began to exert itself, and to call aloud for the fecular arm. heads of the popifh party applied to their diocefan Dr. West, bishop of Ely, who filenced Mr. Latimer. Dr. Barnes, of the Auftin-friers, however, whofe monaftry was exempt from epifcopal jurifdiction, being a great admirer of Mr. Latimer, boldly licenfed him to preach: and the late oppofition having greatly excited the curiofity of the people, the friers chapel was foon unable to contain the crowds that attended. Among others, 'tis faid, that the bishop of Ely was often one of his hearers; and had the ingenuity to declare, that Mr. Latimer was one of the beft preachers he had ever heard.

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The credit to his caufe,' fays our author, which Mr. Latimer had thus gained by preaching, he maintained by a holy life, Mr. Bilney and he did not fatisfy themfelyes with

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acting unexceptionably, but were daily giving instances of goodness, which malice could not fcandalize, nor envy mif⚫ interpret. They were always together concerting their fchemes. The place where they ufed to walk, was long after known by the name of the Heretics-hill. Cambridge was full of their good actions: their charities to the poor, and friendly vifits to the fick and unhappy, were then com6 mon topics.

But their good lives had no merit with their adverfaries. With them it mattered not what a man's life was, if his ' opinions were orthodox. They could give great allowances for the former; but the leaft mistake in the latter was unpardonable. Such is the true fpirit of bigotry and priestcraft; that pharifaical spirit, which, inverting the tables of the law, places points of leaft importance uppermoft.

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More of this fpirit never reigned than at this time in Cambridge. The popish party, among whom every spark of charity feemed extinguifhed, were now inflamed to the uttermoft. The good actions of their adverfaries ferved only as fuel to increafe the heat of perfecution. Impotent themfelves, and finding their diocefan either unable or unwilling to work their purposes, they determined at length upon an appeal to the higher powers. Here at least they expected countenance. Heavy complaints were accordingly carried 'to court of the increase of herefy; and formal depofitions against the principal abetters of it.'

Mr. Gilpin now proceeds to give a fhort account of the fituation of things, and of the moft confiderable perfons in power, at the time when complaints came from Cambridge of the daily increase of herefy. He likewife briefly relates the sufferings and death of Bilney; and tells us that Mr. Latimer began now to exert himself more than he had yet done, and fucceeded to that credit with his party, which Mr. Bilney had fo long fupported. Among other inftances of his zeal and refolution. in the cause he had efpoufed, we are told, that he had the courage to write to the king against a proclamation then just publifhed, forbidding the ufe of the bible in English, and other books on religious fubjects. The king, tho' naturally of a hafty and impetuous temper, and impatient of controul, was no way displeased with the freedom of his addrefs, received it not only with temper, but with great condefcenfion, and graciously thanked him for his well-intended advice.

Our biographer goes on, after this, to inform us, that Mr. Latimer, by the intereft of the great Lord Cromwell, obtained a benefice in Wiltshire; that he thoroughly confidered the of