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visits to the sick and the afflicted, were the topics of universal conversation.

At length heavy complaints were sent to the ministry in London, of the surprising increase of heresy, of which Latimer was accused as the principal propagator; and Wolsey in consequence, importuned by Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the prelates then at court, ordered Latimer to appear before him at York House. After some private conversation, however, he dismissed him courteously, and granted him a special license to preach wherever he chose.

Of this privilege Latimer speedily availed himself, in different parts of the kingdom: he had even once or twice the honor of preaching before Henry VIII, at Windsor, upon which occasions the king took particular notice of his discourses. This encouraged him to write a very bold letter to his majesty, when the royal proclamation was issued forbidding the use of the English Bible, and other books on religious subjects. But the influence of the Popish party was then so powerful, that his letter produced no effect. Henry, however, thanked him for his well-meant advice, and was so much impressed with his simple and familiar style, that from this time it appears he entertained thoughts of taking him into his service.

Favorable opportunities soon occurred to recommend Latimer to the royal favor: for on the grand points of the divorce and of the supremacy, he exerted himself strenuously at Cambridge in favor of

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the king's designs; especially upon the latter, on which occasion he joined with Dr. Butts, the king's physician, in obtaining the opinions of several divines and canonists in that University in its support. In return for this assistance, Butts took Latimer with him to court; and Cromwell, who was then rising into power, and a warm friend of the Reformation, having already conceived a high opinion of him, speedily procured him a benefice.

This living was in Wiltshire, whither he determined as soon as possible to repair, and keep a constant residence. Dr. Butts, surprised at his resolution, did what he could to dissuade him from it. "He was deserting," he told him, “the fairest opportunities of making his fortune." But Latimer was not a man upon whom such arguments could have any weight. He quitted the court, therefore, and entered immediately upon the duties of his parish. His behaviour was suitable to his resolutions. He had thoroughly considered the duties of clergyman, and he discharged them in the most conscientious manner. Not satisfied indeed with discharging them merely in his own parish, under the authority of a general license from his University he extended his labors throughout the county, wherever he observed the pastoral care to be neglected.

His preaching, which was in a strain wholly different from that of the times, rendered him highly acceptable to the people; among whom he quickly established himself in great credit. He was treated,

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likewise, with the utmost courtesy by the neighbouring gentry; and at Bristol, where he frequently occupied the pulpit, he was countenanced by the magistrates themselves. His growing reputation presently alarmed the orthodox clergy in those parts, and their hostility made its appearance upon the following occasion. The Mayor of Bristol had appointed him to preach in that city on Easter Sunday; when suddenly an order was issued by the Bishop of Bristol, prohibiting any one from preaching there without his license. Upon this the clergy of the place waited on Latimer, informed him of the inhibition, and knowing that he had no such license, were extremely sorry, that they were thus deprived of the pleasure of hearing his excellent discourse." Latimer received their hypocritical civility with a smile; for he had been apprized of the affair, and well knew that these were the very persons who had prejudiced the bishop against him.

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Their opposition to him became, subsequently, more public. Some of them in their zeal even ascended the pulpit, to inveigh against him with the utmost indecency of language. Of these the most forward was one Hubberdin, who could say nothing of his own, but any thing that was put into his mouth. Through this instrument and others of the same kind, such liberties were taken with Latimer's character, that he thought it proper at length to justify himself; and accordingly, he called upon his calumniators to accuse him publicly before the May

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or of Bristol.

And with all men of candor he was justified; for when that magistrate convened both parties, and put the accusers upon producing proof of what they had averred, the whole accusation was found to rest upon the miserable evidence of hearsay information.

His enemies, however, were not thus to be silenced. The party against him became, daily, stronger and more inflamed. It consisted in general of the country priests, headed by some divines of higher eminence. These persons after mature deliberation, drew up articles against him, extracted chiefly from his sermons; in which he was charged with speaking lightly of the worship of saints,' with asserting that there was no material fire in hell,' and that he had rather be in purgatory than in Lollard's Tower;' and laid them, in the form of an accusation, before Stokesley, Bishop of London. This prelate immediately cited Latimer to appear before him. But Latimer, instead of obeying the citation, appealed to his own ordinary, thinking himself wholly exempt from the jurisdiction of any other bishop. Stokesley, upon this, making a private cause of it, determined at any rate to get him into his power. He applied therefore to Archbishop Warham, who was prevailed upon to issue a citation from his own court, which Latimer obeyed. His friends persuaded him to leave the country; but their entreaties were fruitless, and he set out for London, though it was then the depth of winter, and he was actually laboring under a severe fit both of the

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stone and the colic. His bodily complaints, however, did not give him so much pain, as the thought of leaving his parish exposed, where the popish clergy, he feared, would not fail in his absence to undo all that he had hitherto been doing. Upon his arrival in London, he found a court of bishops and canonists assembled to receive him; but instead of being examined, as he had expected, about his sermons, he was ordered to subscribe a paper, declaring "his belief in the doctrine of purgatory, in the efficacy of masses, of prayers to the saints, and of pilgrimages to their sepulchres and relics, in the perpetual obligation of vows of celibacy, unless dispensed with by the pope, in the papal power to forgive sins, in the seven sacraments," and in the other absurd usages which at that time characterised the Romish Church.

Having perused the contents, he refused to sign it. The Archbishop with a frown desired him well to consider what he did. "We intend not," said he, "Mr. Latimer, to be hard upon you; we dismiss you for the present: take a copy of the articles; examine them carefully; and God grant that, at our next meeting, we may find each other in better temper."

At the next meeting, and at several succeeding ones, the same scene was acted over again; both sides continuing inflexible. The bishops however, being determined, if possible, to make him comply, began to treat him with greater severity. They examined him three times every week, with

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