Bishop's horrific death at the stake

Hugh Latimer was publicly executed in the centre of Oxford, in 1555, and became a martyr for his religious beliefs.

I've been learning all about him from a lengthy essay, Hugh Latimer, Martyr of Worcester, written by Elizabeth Long of Belmont Street, Worcester.

She has kindly sent us a copy but, alas, I am only able here to quote some passages from her superb essay to give broad insight into the life and agonising death of Hugh Latimer.

Mrs Long reminds us that Latimer was a Fellow of Cambridge University, a Roman Catholic priest, who turned Protestant Preacher, a Royal Chaplain to Henry VIII and Court Preacher to Edward VI, and was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London, on trial for his life.

He was eventually among more than 200 people ordered to be burnt at the stake by "Bloody" Queen Mary I.

"They were the English martyrs who resisted the return of the Catholic faith under Mary's reign," explains Elizabeth.

Hugh Latimer was born around 1480 at a small village near Leicester, the son of a "yeoman" (farmer). His parents taught him his lessons and, so effectively, that at only 14 he gained a place at Cambridge University, where he studied to become a Roman Catholic priest. He was ordained at Lincoln and, at only 25, was elected to be a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge.

In the face of Martin Luther and other reforming figures, Latimer remained deeply Catholic but, after visiting prisons and the poor sick, his public preaching was transformed, and he raised a host of enemies, some claiming he had become "infected with the new fantastical doctrine of Luther".

Henry VIII summoned Latimer to preach before him, and the controversial priest moved to Windsor. However, preaching only at court became dull to Latimer and, in 1531, the king offered him a benefice at Chippenham, Wiltshire, which he accepted.

Then four years later, in 1535, he was appointed Protestant Bishop of Worcester. He was to be a devout and dedicated bishop and lived at Hartlebury Castle. In 1539, however, Henry VIII wrote his Six Articles for the churches to be reconciled back to the Catholic doctrine, and Latimer, in visiting Worcester Cathedral, found its Lady Chapel in use. He was dismayed and immediately resigned as bishop.

In 1546, Latimer was committed to the Tower of London, probably for not accepting Henry's Six Articles, and remained there until the king's death. Released, Latimer later became a Court Preacher to Edward VI, but when this boy king died of smallpox at the age of 16 in 1553, the throne was taken by Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon.

As a further Worcester connection, Catherine had, of course, been the wife previously of Henry's older brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, heir to Henry VII. Prince Arthur died at only 15 and is buried in Worcester Cathedral.

Within a year of succeeding to the throne, Mary had married Philip II of Spain in order to fully restore Catholicism, and she then set out on a zealous campaign to persecute all those who had stood out against Rome. More than 200 men and women, including clergy and scholars, were burnt at the stake.

Latimer once again found himself imprisoned in the Tower of London and, after three years, was hustled before the Papal Tribunal at Oxford. He was then 75 and an old, feeble man. An eye-witness account of the trial records: "He was old and infirm and his memory no longer strong, and he could not bear a dispute. He spoke gently and calmly but they clamoured against him with such noise and crying out that his mild voice could not be heard."

On trial with Latimer were Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Nicholas Ridley, the former Bishop of London.

All three were found guilty and sentenced to be burnt at the stake in public outside Oxford University. However, Cranmer, fearful of such a terrible fate, recanted, but on October 16, 1555, Latimer and Ridley were taken from their prison cells, with their hands tied behind their backs, and marched almost at a run to a place where two rough wooden stakes had been erected in Broad Street, Oxford.

A large crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle but Latimer was heard to say loudly above the din: "Take heart brother Ridley, we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."

Thomas Cranmer could not live with his recantation and, 18 months later, he too was burnt alive, bound to a wooden stake, holding first the hand that had written the recantation in the flames!

The spot in Broad Street, Oxford, where Latimer and Ridley died is marked by a bronze cross set into the pavement.