fice of a clergyman, and difcharged it in the most confcientious manner, not confining his labours to his own parish only, but extending them throughout the county; that he was greatly diftreffed and perfecuted by the orthodox clergy; and that, upon the recommendation of Ann Boleyn and Cromwell, he was raised to the bishopric of Worcester. How he difcharged his new office,' fays he, may eafily be imagined. An honeft confcience, which was his rule of ⚫ conduct in one station, might be supposed such in another. But we are not left to conjecture. All the hiftorians of thefe times mention him as a perfon remarkably zealous in the difcharge of his duty. In overlooking the clergy of his diocefe, which he thought the chief branch of the epifcopal office, exciting in them a zeal for religion, and obliging them, at least, to a legal performance of their duty, he was "uncommonly active, warm, and refolute. With the fame fpirit he prefided over his ecclefiaftical court; and either rooted out fuch crimes as were there cognizable, or prevented their becoming exemplary, by forcing them into corners. In vifiting, he was frequent and obfervant; in ordaining, ftrict and wary; in preaching, indefatigable; in reproving ⚫ and exhorting, fevere and perfuafive. • Thus far he could act with authority: but in other things ⚫ he found himself under difficulties. The ceremonies of the • popish worship gave him great offence; and he neither durst, in times fo dangerous and unfettled, lay them entirely afide; < nor, on the other hand, was he willing to retain them. In this dilemma his addrefs was admirable. He inquired into ⚫ their origin; and when he found any of them, as some of them were, derived from a good meaning, he took care to inculcate the original meaning, tho' itself a corruption, in the room of a more corrupt practice. Thus he put the people in mind, when holy bread and water were distributed, that these elements which had long been thought endowed with a kind of magical influence, were nothing more than appendages to the two facraments of the Lord's fupper, and C baptifm; the former, he faid, reminded us of Chrift's death; and the latter, was only a fimple representation of our being purified from fin. By thus reducing popery to its principles, he improved, in fome measure, a bad ftock, by lopping from it a few fruitless excrefcences.' While this good bishop's endeavours to reform were thus confined within his own diocefe, he was called upon to exert them in a more public manner, having received a fummons to attend attend the parliament and convocation in the year 1536. As he did not diftinguifh himself in the debates of this convocation, for debating was not his talent, Mr. Gilpin does not enter into a detail of the several transactions of it. The reformation was daily gaining ground; the bible was tranflated into English, and recommended to a general perufal; and the bifhop of Worcester, highly fatisfied with the profpect of the times, repaired to his diocefe, having made no longer stay in London than was abfolutely neceflary. His talents were those of a private ftation; and within that he was determined to confine them. If he behaved in his diocese like a true chriftian bishop, and did all in his power to root out fuperftition, and encourage the practice of piety and virtue, he was fatisfied in his confcience, that he did all towards the fettlement of religion that could be expected from him. His whole ambition was, to discharge the paftoral functions of a bishop, neither aiming to display the abilities of a statesman, nor those of a courtier. The following story fhews, indeed, that he was but poorly qualified to fupport the latter of thefe characters. It was the cuftom in thofe days for the bifhops, upon the coming in of the new year, to make presents to the king; and many of them would prefent very liberally, proportioning their gifts to their expectances. Among the reft, the bishop of Worcester, being at this time in town, waited upon the king with his offering: but, inftead of pure gold, which was the common oblation, he prefented a new teftament, with a leaf doubled down in a very confpicuous manner, to this paffage, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. After having been about two years refident in his diocese, he was called up again to town in the year 1539, to attend the bufinefs of parliament: a parliament which was productive of great events. As a new spirit had now infused itself into the counfels of those times, Mr. Gilpin briefly traces it, from its first efforts, into thofe violent workings and agitations which it foon produced. He lays open the character and dark defigns of Gardiner, bishop of Winchefter; gives an account of the act of the fix articles drawn up by the duke of Norfolk; and informs us, that the bishop of Worcester, as he could not give his vote for the act, thought it wrong to hold any office in a church where fuch terms of communion were required, refigned his bishopric, and retired into the country. The popish party now triumphed, and the proteftants, of course, were perfecuted. During the heat of this perfecution Bishop Latimer refided in the country, where he thought of nothing, for the remainder of his days, but a fequestered life. He He knew the storm which was up could not foon be appeased; and he had no inclination to trust himself in it. In the midft of his ferenity, however, an unhappy accident carried him. again into the tempeftuous weather that was abroad. He received a bruife by the fall of a tree, and the contufion was fo dangerous that he was obliged to look out for better affiftance than could be afforded him by the unfkilful furgeons in thofe parts. With this view he repaired to London, where he found the profpect ftill more gloomy, and had the mortification to fee his great patron, the Lord Cromwell, in the hands of his enemies. Several caufes, confpired in the ruin of this great patriot; but this affair, together with many others, which were directed by the dark counfels of Gardiner, as our author obferves, is still involved in obfcurity. Upon Cromwell's fall the perfecution against the protestants broke out in earneft, under the direction of the duke of Norfolk, and the bishop of Winchester, who were now at the head of the popish party, the sword was presently unfheathed, and fuch a fcene of blood was opened, as England had not yet seen. Mr. Latimer, among others, felt the lofs of his great patron. Gardiner's emiffaries foon found him out in his concealment, for he was still in London; and fomething that fome body had fome where heard him say to somebody, against the fix articles, being alledged against him, he was fent to the Tower. Into what particulars his accufation was afterwards digested, or whether into any, Mr. Gilpin fays he has met with no account, and thinks it probable, that nothing formal was brought against him, as he does not find that he was ever judicially examined. He fuffered, however, through one pretence or other, a cruel imprisonment during the remainder of King Henry's reign. Upon the death of King Henry, and the acceffion of his fon to the throne, the proteftant intereft revived; the act of the fix articles was repealed; images were removed out of the churches; the liturgy was amended; and all minifters were confined to their parish churches. Mr. Latimer had now lived above fix years in the Tower, in the conftant practice of every chriftian virtue that becomes a fuffering ftate. Immediately, upon the change of the government, he was fet at liberty, and received by his old friends, who were now in power, with every mark of affection. An address was made by the parlia ment, to the protector, to restore him to his bifhopric: the protector was very well inclined to gratify the parliament, and propofed the refumption of his bishopric to Mr. Latimer, who thought himfelf now unequal to the weight of it, had no inclination inclination to incumber himself with it, and accordingly refused to accept of it. Having rid himself entirely of all entreaty on this head, he accepted an invitation from his friend Archbishop Cranmer, and took up his refidence at Lambeth, where his chief employment was to hear the complaints, and to redrefs the injuries of poor people: and his character for fervices of this kind was fo univerfally known, we are told, that ftrangers, from every part of England, would refort to him, vexed either by the delays of public courts and offices, which were furely at that time exceedingly out of order, or harraffed by the oppreffions of the great. Thus employed he spent more than two years; interfering as little as poffible, during that time, in any public tranfaction. During the three firft years of King Edward, he was appointed to preach the lent-fermons before the king. The choice of fuch a preacher was approved by all good men: great irregularities were known to prevail, and Mr. Latimer was acknowledged to be as fit a man as any in the nation to detect and cenfure them. King Edward's court, and indeed the whole frame of his government, was in as great diforder as almost any court or any government could be, in the worst of times. Infatiable avarice, and a licentioufnefs of manners, prevailed beyond the example of former times. Never was juftice worfe adminiftered: never were the difpenfers of it more venal. The gentry in the country practifed those arts of avarice and rapine, which they had learned at court; and taught the people all thofe vices to which indigence gives birth. The clergy, inftead of qualifying, in fome degree, this corrupt mafs, by a mixture of piety and devotion, incorporated with it, and even increafed its malignity, by an addition of as bad, if not of worfe ingredients. Such was the state of practical religion in the nation, when Mr. Latimer was called to the office of a court-preacher. In regard to his fermons, which are ftill extant, they are far, as Mr. Gilpin obferves, from being exact pieces of compofition;, elegant writing being then little known. His fimplicity, however, and low familiarity, his humour, and gibing drollery, were well adapted to the times; and his oratory, according to the mode of eloquence at that day, was exceeding popular. His. manner of preaching too was very affecting: and no wonder,, fays our author, for he spoke immediately from his heart. What particularly recommends him, is, that noble and apoftolic zeal which he exerts in the cause of truth. No one had an higher fenfe of what became his office, was lefs influenced by by any finifter motive, or durft with more freedom reprove vice, however dignified by worldly distinctions. Mr. Gilpin gives feveral inftances, in Mr. Latimere's own words, of that spirit with which he lafhed the courtly vices of his time. Some of thefe we fhall lay before our readers, as many of them may not have chanced to fee the fermons themselves. In his fecond fermon he lashes the clergy. ་ It is a marvel,' fays he, if any mischief be in hand, if a priest be not at one end of it.-I will be a fuitor to your grace, to give your bishops charge ere they go home, upon their allegiance to look better to their flocks; and if they be found negligent, out with them. I require it in God's behalf, make them Quandoms, all the pack of them; your majefty hath divers of your chaplains, well learned men, and of good knowledge, to put in their place: and yet you have some that are bad enough, hangers on of the court: I ⚫ mean not these. But if your majesty's chaplains, and the lord protector's be not able to furnish their places, there is in this realm, thanks be to God, a great fight of lay men, ⚫ well learned in the fcriptures, and of a virtuous and godly converfation, better learned than a great fight of us the clergy. This I move of confcience to your grace. And let them not only do the function of bishops, but live of the fame: and not, as in many places, that one should have the <name, and another the profit. What an enormity is this, for a man to serve in a civility, and have the profit of a provostship, and a deanery, and a parfonage. But I will tell you what is like to come of it; it will bring the clergy fhortly into very flavery.-But I fear one thing, that for faving a little money, you will put chantry priests into benefices. Chrift bought fouls with his blood; and will you fell them for gold and filver? I would not have you do with chantry-priefts as was done with abbots. For when their ⚫ enormities were first read in the parliament, they were fo abominable, that there was nothing but, Down with them: but within a while after, the fame abbots were made bifhops, as there be fome of them yet alive, to fave their pen⚫ fions. O Lord! think you that God is a fool, and feeth it < not?' · Afterwards, warning the king against flatterers, he tells him, that God fays, if the king fhall do his will, he shall reign long, he and his children. Wherefore,' fays he, I would have your grace remember this, and when any of these flatterers, and flibber-gibbers another day fhall come, and claw you by the back, and fay, Sir, trouble not your felf: |