[ARTICLES TO WHICH MR. LATIMER WAS REQUIRED TO SUBSCRIBE, MARCH 11, 1531.] [Harl. MS. 435, Art. 7.]\parTHE eleventh day of March, 1531, Master Hugh Latimer, Bachelor of Divinity, of Cambridge, noted and suspected of his faith and erroneous preachings, was called before the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of London, and other prelates and clerks of the province of Canterbury, in their Convocation holden at Westminster, did confess as followeth: 1. Inprimis, that there is a place of purgation for souls after this life. 2. That souls in purgatory are holpen by masses, prayer, and alms-deed. 3. That the holy apostles and martyrs of Christ, being dead, are in heaven. 4. That the same saints, as mediators, pray for us in heaven. 5. That the said saints are to be honored in heaven. That pilgrimages and oblations are meritorious for the sepulchers and relics of saints. 6. That whosoever hath vowed chastity may not marry, nor break their vow, without dispensation of the high bishop. 7. That the keys of binding and loosing, given unto Peter, doth remain to his successors bishops, although they live evil; and they were never given for any cause to laymen. 8. That it is profitable for christian men to invocate saints, that they, as mediators, may pray unto God for us. 9. That men by alms-deed, prayer, and other good works, may merit at God’s hands. 10. That men forbidden of the bishops, by reason of suspicion, ought not to preach till such time as they had purged themselves to them or their superiors, and be lawfully restored. 11. That the Lent, and their fasting-days, commanded by the canons, and used with the Christians, are to be kept, except necessity require otherwise. 12. That God, by the merits of Christ’s passion, doth give his grace in all the whole seven sacraments to the lawful receiver. 13. That the consecrations, sanctifications, and benedictions, received in the christian church, are laudable and profitable. 14. That [it] is laudable and profitable, that the images of the crucifix and saints are to be had in the church, in memory, honor, and worship of Jesus Christ and his saints. 15. That it is laudable and profitable for the saints to be decked and trimmed; and to set candles burning before them, in the honor of the said saints.

ARTICLES DEVISED BY THE BISHOPS, FOR MASTER LATIMER TO SUBSCRIBE UNTO. FH6 [Printed by Foxe, Acts and Mon. Vol. III. p. 383, edit. 1684; and in Latin, p. 1334, edit. 1563.] I BELIEVE that there is a purgatory, to purge the souls of the dead after this life.

That the souls in purgatory are holpen with the masses, prayers, and alms of the living.

That the saints do pray as mediators now for us in heaven.

That they are to be honored of us in heaven.

That it is profitable for Christians to call upon the saints, that they may pray as mediators for us unto God.

That pilgrimages and oblations done to the sepulchers and relics of saints are meritorious.

That they which have vowed perpetual chastity may not marry, nor break their vow, without the dispensation of the pope.

That the keys of binding and loosing, delivered to Peter, do still remain with the bishops of Rome, his successors, although they live wickedly; and are by no means nor at any time committed to laymen.

That men may merit and deserve at God’s hand by fasting, prayer, and other good works of piety.

That they which are forbidden of the bishop to preach, as suspect persons, ought to cease until they have purged themselves before the said bishop, or their superiors, and be restored again.

That the fast which is used in Lent, and other fasts prescribed by the canons, and by custom received of the Christians (except necessity otherwise require) are to be observed and kept.

That God in every one of the seven sacraments giveth grace to a man, rightly receiving the same.

That consecrations, sanctifyings, and blessings by use and custom received in the church, are laudable and profitable.

That it is laudable and profitable, that the venerable images of the crucifix and other saints should be had in the churches as a remembrance, and to the honor and worship of Jesus Christ, and his saints.

That it is laudable and profitable to deck and to clothe those images, and set up burning lights before them to the honor of the saints.

CONCERNING MR. LATIMER’S COMMUNICATION WITH MR. BAINHAM IN THE DUNGEON OF NEWGATE. [Printed by Strype, Eccl. Mem. III. i. 372 Oxf. edit.] AFTER Mr. Bainham had been condemned between More the lord chancellor and the bishops, and committed unto the secular power to be brent; and so, immediately after his condemnation, lodged up in the deep dungeon in Newgate, ready to be sent to the fire, Edward Isaac, of the parish of Well, in the county of Kent, and William Morice of Chipping Ongar in the county of Essex, esquires, and Ralph Morice, brother unto the said William, being together in one company, met with Mr. Latimer in London: and for that they were desirous to understand the cause of the said Bainham’s condemnation, being to many men obscure and unknown, they entreated Mr. Latimer to go with them to Newgate, to the intent to understand by him the very occasion of his said condemnation; and otherwise to comfort him to take his death quietly and patiently. When Mr. Latimer and the other before-named, the next day before he was brent, were come down into the dungeon where all things seemed utterly dark, there they found Bainham, sitting upon a couch of straw, with a book and a wax candle in his hand, praying and reading thereupon. And after salutation made, Mr. Latimer began to commune with him in this sort: “Mr. Bainham, we hear say that you are condemned for heresy to be brent, and many men are in doubt wherefore you should suffer; and I, for my part, am desirous to under- stand the cause of your death; assuring you that I do not allow that any man should consent to his own death, unless he had a right cause to die in. Let not vain-glory over- come you in a matter that men deserve not to die for; for therein you shall neither please God, do good to yourself, nor your neighbor: and better it were for you to submit yourself to the ordinances of men, than so rashly to finish your life without good ground. And, therefore, we pray you to let us to understand the articles that you are condemned for.” “I am content,” quoth Bainham, “to tell you altogether. The first article that they condemn me for is this: that I reported that Thomas Becket, sometime archbishop of Canterbury, was a traitor, and was damned in hell if he repented not: for that he was in arms against his prince, as a rebel; provoking other foreign princes to invade the realm, to the utter subversion of the same.”

Then said Mr. Latimer, “Where read you this?”

Quoth Mr. Bainham, “I read it in an old history.” “Well,” said Mr.

Latimer, “this is no cause at all worthy for a man to take his death upon; for it may be a lie, as well as a true tale, and in such a doubtful matter it were mere madness for a man to jeopard his life. But what else is laid to your charge?” “The truth is,” said Bainham, “I spake against purgatory, that there was no such thing; but that it picked men’s purses; and against satisfactory masses: which [assertions of mine] I defended by the authority of the scriptures.” “Marry,” said Mr. Latimer, “in these articles your conscience may be so stayed, that you may seem rather to die in the defense thereof, than to recant both against your conscience, and the scriptures also. But yet beware of vain-glory; for the devil will be ready now to infect you therewith, when you shall come into the multitude of the people.” And then Mr. Latimer did animate him to take his death quietly and patiently.

Bainham thanked him heartily therefore. “And I likewise,” said Bainham, “do exhort you to stand to the defense of the truth; for you that shall be left behind had need of comfort also, the world being so dangerous as it is.” And so spake many comfortable words to Mr. Latimer.

At the length Mr. Latimer demanded of him, Whether he had a wife or no? With that question Bainham fell a weeping. “What,” quoth Latimer, “is this your constancy to God-wards? What mean you, thus to weep?” “O sir,” said Bainham to Mr. Latimer, “you have now touched me very nigh. I have a wife, as good a woman as ever man was joined unto; and I shall leave her now, not only without substance, or any thing to live by, but also for my sake she shall be an opprobrie unto the world, and be pointed at of every man on this sort, ‘Yonder goeth the heretic’s wife.’

And therefore she shall be defamed for my sake; which is no small grief unto me.” “Marry, sir,” quoth Latimer, “I perceive that you are a very weak champion, that will be overthrown with such a vanity. Where are become all those comfortable words, that so late you alleged unto us that should tarry here behind you? I marvel what you mean! Is not Almighty God able to be husband to your wife, and a father unto your children, if you commit them to him as a strong father? I am sorry to see [you] in this taking; as though God had no care of his; when he numbereth the hairs of a man’s head. If he do not provide for them, the fault is in us that mistrusteth him; it is our infidelity that causeth him to do nothing for ours: and therefore repent, repent, Mr. Bainham, for this mistrusting of Almighty God’s goodness. And be you sure, and I do most firmly believe it, that if you do commit your wife with a strong faith to the government of Almighty God, and so die therein, that within these two years — peradventure in one year — she shall be better provided for, as touching the felicity of this world, than you with all your policy could for yourself, if you were presently here.” And so with such like words, expostulating with him for his feeble faith, he made an end.

Mr. Bainham, calling his spirits to himself, most heartily thanked Mr.

Latimer for his good comfort and counsel, saying plainly, that he would not for much good but he had come thither to him; for nothing in the world so much troubled him as the care of his wife and family. And so they departed. And the next day Bainham was burnt.

ARTICLES FH22 UNTRULY, UNJUSTLY, FALSELY, UNCHARITABLY IMPUTED TO ME, [HUGH LATIMER,] BY DR POWELL FH23 OF SALISBURY. [Printed in Foxe, ed. 1563, p. 1309.] FIRST, THAT “OUR LADY WAS A SINNER.”

Occasioned of some, not only laymen, but also priests and beneficed men, which gave so much to our lady of devotion without judgment, as though she had not needed Christ to save her: to prove Christ her Savior, to make Christ a whole Savior of all that be or shall be saved, I reasoned after this manner: that either she was a sinner, or no sinner: there is no mean. If she were a sinner, then she was redeemed or delivered from sin by Christ, as other sinners be: if she were no sinner, then she was preserved from sin by Christ; so that Christ saved her, and was her necessary Savior, whether she sinned or no. Now certain authors (said I), as Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others, writeth as though she had been something faulty in her time. Also I said that certain scriptures standeth something to the same, unless they be the more warily understood and taken; as in Romans 3:10,19, “All have declined, that every mouth be stopped, and all the world be bounden or in danger to God.” And after in the same chapter, “All have sinned, and need the glory of God.” And in the fifth, “And so death passed through into all men and women, forasmuch as all have sinned.” But to these scriptures, I said, it might be answered, that the privilege of one, or of a few, doth not derogate or minish the verity of a universal exposition in scriptures.

And as to the doctors, I said, that other more say otherwise: and forasmuch as now it is universally and constantly received and applied that she was no sinner, it becometh every man to stand and agree to the same; “and so will I,” quoth I, “nor any man that wise is will the contrary.

But to my purpose, it is neither to nor from, to prove neither this nor that; for I will have her saved, and Christ her Savior, whether ever she was,” etc.

And to that, “What need you to speak of this?” I answered, “Great need: when men cannot be content that she was a creature saved, but as it were a Savioress, not needing salvation, it is necessary to set her in her degree to the glory of Christ, Creator and Savior of all that be or shall be saved.”

Good authors have written that she was not a sinner; but good authors never wrote that she was not saved: for though she never sinned, yet she was not so impeccable, but she might have sinned, if she had not been preserved: it was of the goodness of God that she never sinned; it had come of her own illness if she had sinned: there was difference betwixt her and Christ: and I will give as little to her as I can (doing her no wrong), rather than Christ her Son and Savior shall lack any parcel of his glory: and I am sure that our lady will not be displeased with me for so doing; for our lady sought his glory here upon earth; she would not defraud him now in heaven. But some are so superstitiously religious, or so religiously superstitious, so preposterously devout toward our lady, as though there could not too much be given to her. Such are zeals without knowledge and judgment, to our lady’s displeasure.

No doubt our lady was, through the goodness of God, a good and a gracious creature, a devout handmaid of the Lord, endued with singular gifts and graces from above, which, through the help of God, she used to God’s pleasure, according to her duty; so giving us ensample to do likewise: so that all the goodness that she had, she had it not of herself, but of God the author of all goodness. The Lord was with her favorably, and poured graces unto her plenteously, as it is in the Ave Maria. The Son of God, when he would become man, to save both man and woman, did choose her to his mother, which love he shewed to her alone, and to none other, of his benign goodness, by the which she was the natural mother of Christ: and through faith in Christ she was the spiritual sister of Christ, saved by Christ, blessed by hearing Christ’s word, and keeping the same. It should not availed her to salvation to have been his natural mother, if she had not done the will of his heavenly Father. By him she was his mother: by him she did the will of his Father: she the handmaiden, he the Lord. The handmaiden did magnify her Lord, the handmaiden would that all should magnify the Lord, to whom be honor and glory. Amen, etc. To honor him worthily is not to dishonor our lady: he is as able to preserve from sin, as to deliver from sin. He was then subject to Joseph, his father-in-law, his mother’s husband; Joseph is now subject to him. He never dishonored Joachim and Anna, his grandfather and grandmother; and yet I have not read that he preserved them from all sin.

To say that Peter and Paul, David and Mary Magdalene, were sinners, is not to dishonor them: for then scripture doth dishonor them. It had not been for our profit to have preserved all that he could have preserved.

For remembrance of that fall and uprising keepeth us in our fall from despairing: both is of God, to have not sinned, and to have forsaken and left sin. And as sure is this of heaven, as that; and this more common than that, and to us that have been sinners more comfortable.

It hath been said in times past, without sin, that our lady was a sinner; but it was never said, without sin, that our lady was not saved, but a Savior. I go not about to make our lady a sinner, but to have Christ her Savior.

When mine adversaries cannot reprove the thing that I say, then they will belie me, to say the thing that they can reprove. They will sin to make our lady no sinner, to prove that that no man denieth: so hot provers and so cold probations saw you never. It were better unproved, than so weakly proved. But they be devout towards honoring of our lady, as though there was no other honoring of our lady but to sin to have our lady no sinner. I would be as loth to dishonor our lady as they: I pray God we may honor her as she would be honored; for verily she is worthy to be honored. To make a pernicious and a damnable lie, to have our lady no sinner, is neither honor nor yet pleasure to our lady; but great sin, to the dishonor and displeasure both of God and our lady. They should both please and honor our lady much better, to leave their sinful living, and keep themselves from sinfulness, as our lady did, than so sinfully to lie, to make our lady no sinner; which if they do not, they shall go to the devil certainly, though they believe that our lady was no sinner never so surely.

As for the Ave Maria, they lie falsely; I never denied it. I know it was a heavenly saluting or greeting of our lady, spoken by the angel Gabriel, and written in holy scripture of St Luke: but yet it is not properly a prayer, as the Pater noster is. Saluting or greeting, lauding or praising, is not properly praying. The angel was sent to greet our lady, and to annunciate and shew the good will of God towards her; and therefore it is called the Annunciation of our lady; and not to pray her, or to pray to her properly. Shall the Father of heaven pray to our lady? When the angel spake it, it was not properly a prayer; and is it not the same thing now that it was then? Nor yet he that denieth the Ave Maria to be properly a prayer, denieth the Ave Maria; so that we may salute our lady with Ave Maria, as the angel did, though we be not sent of God so to do, as the angel was. So though we may so do, yet we have no plain bidding of God so to do, as the angel had: so that the angel had been more to blame peradventure to have left it unsaid, than we be; forasmuch as he was appointed of God to say it, and not we. But as I deny not but as we may say the Pater noster and the Ave Maria together, that to God, this to our lady, so we may say them sunderly, the Pater noster by itself, and the Ave by itself; and the Pater noster is a whole and a perfect prayer, without the Ave Maria; so that it is but a superstition to think that a Pater noster cannot be well said without an Ave Maria at its heel. For Christ was no fool; and when he taught the people to say a Pater noster to God, he taught them not to say neither Pater noster neither Ave Maria to our lady, nor yet Pater noster to St Peter, as master Hubberdin doth: therefore to teach to say twenty Ave Marias for one Pater noster, is not to speak sermones Dei ut sermones Dei, “the word of God as the word of God.” And one Ave Maria well said, and devoutly, with affection, sense, and understanding, is better than twenty-five said superstitiously.

And it is not unlike but our lady said many times the Pater noster, forasmuch as her Son Christ, whom she loved and honored over all, did make it, and taught it to be said. Whether she made an Ave Maria with all, or ten or twenty Ave Marias for one Pater noster, I will leave that to great clerks, as Hubberdin and Powell, to discuss and determine. She was not saved by often saying of the Ave Maria, but by consenting to the will of him that sent the angel to salute her with Ave Maria. Wherefore, if the praying of them which decline their ear from hearing the law of God is execrable in the sight of God, yea, though they say the Pater noster, I doubt not but the salutation of the same be unpleasant to our lady in her sight: for whatsoever pleaseth not her Son, pleaseth not her; for she hath delight and pleasure in nothing but in him, and in that that delighteth and pleaseth him. Now we will be traitors to her Son by customable sinful living; and yet we shall think great perfection and holiness in numbering every day many Ave Marias to our lady. And so we think to make her our friend and patroness, and then we care not for God: for, having ore’ lady of our side, we may be bold to take our pleasure. For we fantasy as though the very work and labor of flummering the Ave Maria is very acceptable to our lady; and the more, the more acceptable: not passing how they be said, but that they be said.

If the Pater noster, which Christ both made and bade us say it, may be said to Christ’s displeasure, much more the Ave Maria, which neither Christ nor our lady bade to be said, may be said to our lady’s displeasure; and better never once said, than often so said. So that I would have a difference betwixt well saying, and often saying; and betwixt that that Christ bid us say, and that that he bid not say. And whether Ave Maria be said in heaven or no, who can tell but Dr Powell? And if it be said alway there without a Paternoster, why may not Pater noster be said here without Ave Maria? And whether doth our lady say it in heaven or no? Which thing I speak, not to withdraw you from saying of it, but to withdraw you from superstitious and unfruitful saying of it; so that by occasion of false faith and trust that ye have in the daily saying of it, you set not aside imitation and following of holy living; which will serve at length, when superstitious greeting will neither serve nor stand in strength. It is meet that every thing be taken, esteemed, and valued as it is.

We salute also and greet well the holy cross, or the image of the holy cross, saying, “All hail, holy cross, which hath deserved to bear the precious talent of the world:” and yet who will say that we pray properly to the holy cross? Whereby it may appear that greeting is one thing, praying another thing’. The cross can neither hear nor speak again, no more than this pulpit: therefore we do salute it, not properly pray to it.

The angel spake also to Zachary, before he spake to our lady, Ne timeas, Zacharia, etc.,” Be not afraid, Zachary; for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bring thee forth a child, which shall be called John, and great joy and gladness shall be at his birth, and he shall be great, and full of the Holy Ghost from the womb of his mother,” etc. What if a man should say these words every day, betwixt the Pater noster and the Ave Maria, in the worship of St Zachary, which I think is a saint in heaven, and was or ever our lady came there, and therefore to be honored? I think he might please and honor St Zachary as well some other way, and better too, though they be words sent from God, spoken of an angel, and written in holy scripture of the evangelist Luke. And yet if it were once begun and accustomed, I warrant some men would make it more than sacrilege to leave it off, though the devil should sow never so much superstition by process of time unto it.

Christ made the Pater noster for a prayer, and bid his people say it to his heavenly Father; one God in Trinity of Persons, one Father and Comforter, one worker and doer of all things here in this world; saying unto us, Vos autem sic orabitis; “So, or after such manner, shall ye pray, Pater noster ,” etc. God sent his Son amongst other things to teach his people to pray: God sent his angel to greet our lady, not to teach his people to pray. For neither Christ nor the angel said to the people, This shall ye pray, Ave Maria. When the apostles said to Christ, Doce nos orare, “Teach us to pray;” Christ said, Cum oratis, dicite, Pater noster; “When you pray, say Pater noster:” he said not, “When you pray, say Ave Maria.” I ween Christ could teach to pray, as well as Dr Powell and master Hubberdin. I say that the Ave Maria was before the Pater noster: Dr Powell saith, it shall endure after the Pater noster. I can prove my saying by scripture; so cannot he his. Yet as it is no good argument, The Ave Maria was before the Pater noster; ergo, it is properly a prayer: so it is no good argument, The Ave Maria shall last after the Pater noster; ergo, it is properly a prayer, — without the antecedent be impossible, which is not credible to come out of such a fantastical brain.

Who was ever so mad as to think that words of holy scripture could not be well said? And yet we may not be so peevish as to allow the superstitious saying of holy scripture. The devil is crafty, and we frail and prone to superstition and idolatry. God give me grace to worship him and his, not after our own curiosity, but according to his ordinance, with all humility!

St Zachary is to be honored, and in no wise to be dishonored: so that we may leave unsaid that that the angel said, without dishonoring him. It is not necessary to our salvation to make an ordinance of honoring him with saying as the angel did. It is better for a mortal man to do the office of a man, which God biddeth him do, than to leave that undone, and do the office of an angel which God biddeth us not do. If the other be presumption, I had rather presume to pray to God, which is God’s bidding and man’s office, than to presume into the office of an angel without God’s bidding. It is a godly presumption to presume to do the bidding of God.

Here I neither say, that our lady was a sinner, nor yet I deny the Ave Maria. “SAINTS ARE NOT TO BE HONORED.”

I said this word “saints” is diversely taken of the vulgar people: images of saints are called saints, and inhibitors of heaven are called saints. Now, by honoring of saints is meant praying to saints. Take honoring so, and images for saints, so saints are not to be honored; that is to say, dead images are not to be prayed unto; for they have neither ears to hear withal, nor tongue to speak withal, nor heart to think withal, etc.

They can neither help me nor mine ox; neither my head nor my tooth; nor work any miracle for me, one no more than another: and yet I shewed the good use of them to be lay-men’s books, as they be called; reverently to look upon them, to remember the things that are signified by them, etc.

And yet I would not have them so costly and curiously gilded and decked, that the quick image of God (for whom Christ shed his blood, and to whom whatsoever is done, Christ reputeth it done to himself) lack necessaries, and be unprovided for, by that occasion; for then the layman doth abuse his book. A man may read upon his book, though it be not very curiously gilded; and in the day-time a man may behold it without many candies, if he be not blind. Now I say, there be two manner of mediators, one by way of redemption, another by way of intercession; and I said, that these saints, that is to say, images called saints, be mediators neither way.

As touching pilgrimages, I said, that all idolatry, superstition, error, false faith, and hope in the images, must be pared away, before they can be well done; household looked upon, poor christian people provided for, restitutions made, all ordinance of God discharged, or ever they can be well done: and when they be at best, before they be vowed, they need not to be done. They shall never be required of us, though they be never done; and yet we shall be blamed when they be all done: wives must counsel with their husbands, and husbands with their wives, both with curates, ere ever they may be vowed to be done. And yet idolatry may be committed in doing of them; as it appeareth by St Paul, in <461001> Corinthians 10:1., where he biddeth the Corinthians this, to beware of idolatry, and that after they had received the true faith in Christ; which had been vain, if they could not have done idolatry: and expositors add, to beware not only of the act of idolatry, but also of all occasion of that act: which is plain against master Hubberdin, and the parson of Christ’s church, which went about to prove, that now there could be no idolatry.

As touching the saints in heaven, I said, they be not our mediators by way of redemption; for so Christ alone is our mediator and theirs both: so that the blood of martyrs hath nothing to do by way of redemption; the blood of Christ is enough for a thousand worlds, etc. But by way of intercession, so saints in heaven may be mediators, and pray for us: as I think they do when we call not upon them; for they be charitable, and need no spurs; and we have no open bidding of God in scripture to call upon them, as we have to call upon God, nor yet we may call upon them without any diffidence or mistrust in God; for God is more charitable, more merciful, more able, more ready to help than them all. So that, though we may desire the saints in heaven to pray God for us, yet it is not so necessary to be done, but that we may pray to God ourselves, without making suit first to them, and obtain of him whatsoever we need, if we continue in prayer; so that, whatsoever we ask the Father in the name of Christ his Son, the Father will give it us. For saints can give nothing without him, but he can without them, as he did give to them. Scripture doth set saints that be departed before our eyes for ensamples; so that the chiefest and most principal Worship and honoring of them is to know their holy living, and to follow them, as they followed Christ, etc.

God biddeth us come to him with prayer; and to do his bidding is no presuming, it is rather presuming to leave it undone, to do that that he biddeth us not do, etc. We must have saints in reverent memory; and learn at God’s goodness towards them to trust in God; and mark well their faith toward God and his word, their charity toward their neighhour, their patience in all adversity; and pray to God which gave them grace so to do, that we may do likewise, for which like doings we shall have like speedings: they be well honored when God is well pleased. The saints were not saints by praying to saints, but by believing in him that made them saints; and as they were saints, so may we be saints: yea, there be many saints that never prayed to saints. And yet I deny not but we may pray to saints; but rather to him, which can make us saints, which calleth us to him, biddeth us call upon him, promiseth help, cannot deceive us and break his promise. When we pray faithfully to him, we honor him, not after our own fantastical imagination, but even after his own most wisest ordination, whom to honor is not to dishonor saints: therefore they lie, that say that I would not have saints to be honored, etc. “THERE IS NO FIRE IN HELL.”

I never knew man that ever said so. I spake of divers opinions that have been written of the nature of that fire; some that it is a spiritual fire, or at leastway a spiritual pain in the corporal fire; for as it is called a fire, so it is called a worm. Now, because they think not that it is a corporal worm, but a spiritual and metaphorical worm, so they think of the fire: some, that it is a corporal and natural fire: some have thought diversely, before the resurrection without body, and after with body: some, that the soul without body suffereth in the fire, but not of the fire: some, both in and of the fire. The scholastical authors think, that the souls before the resurrection, because they be spiritual substance, do not receive the heat of the fire into them, which is a sensible and a corporal quality; so that Athanasius, a Greek author, calleth their pain tristitiam, a heaviness or an anguish: and this opinion is probable enough.

Some think that, though they be alway in pain, yet they be not always in fire, but go from waters of snow to exceeding heat; but it is when their bodies be there: but whether in cold or in heat, in water or in fire, in air or in earth, they lack no pain, their torment goeth with them; for they think that the devils that tempt us, though they have pain with them, yet they have not fire with them: for then they should be known by heat of the fire.

I am certain, saith St Augustine, that there is a fire in hell; but what manner of fire, or in what part of the world, no man can tell, but he that is of God’s privy council. I would advise every man to be more careful to keep out of hell, than trust he shall find no fire in hell. Chrysostom saith, that to be deprived of the fruition of the Godhead is greater pain than the being in hell. There is fire burning, there is the worm gnawing, there is heat, there is cold, there is pain without pleasure, torment without easement, anguish, heaviness, sorrow, and pensiveness, which tarrieth and abideth for all liars and hinderers of the truth. “THERE IS NO PURGATORY AFTER THIS LIFE.”

Not for such liars that will bear me in hand to say that I said not. I shewed the state and condition of them that be in purgatory; then I denied it not: that they have charity in such sure tie that they cannot lose it, so that they cannot murmur nor grudge against God; cannot dishonor God; can neither displease God, nor be displeased with God; cannot be dissevered from God; cannot die, nor be in peril of death; cannot be damned, nor be in peril of damnation; cannot be but in surety of salvation. They be members of the mystical body of Christ as we be, and in more surety than we be. They love us charitably. Charity is not idle: if it be, it worketh and sheweth itself: and therefore I say, they wish us well, and pray for us. They need not cry loud to God: they be in Christ, and Christ in them: they be with Christ, and Christ with them. They joy in their Lord Christ alway, taking thankfully whatsoever God doth with them; ever giving thanks to their Lord God; ever lauding and praising him in all things that he doth; discontent with nothing that he doth, etc.

And forasmuch as they be always in charity, and when they pray for us, they pray always in charity, and be always God’s friends, God’s children, brethren and sisters to our Savior Christ, even in God’s favor, even have Christ with them, to offer their prayer to the Father of heaven, to whom they pray in the name of the Son; and we many times for lack of charity, having malice and envy, rancor, hatred, one toward another, be the children of the devil, inheritors of hell, adversaries to Christ, hated of God, his angels, and all his saints; they in their state may do us more good with their prayers, than we in this state. And they do us alway good, unless the lack and impediment be in us: for prayer said in charity is more fruitful to him that it is said for, and more acceptable to God, than said out of charity; for God looketh not to the work of praying, but to the heart of the prayer. We may well pray for them, and they much better for us: which they will do of their charity, though we desire them not.

I had rather be in purgatory, than in the bishop of London’s prison; for in this I might die bodily for lack of meat; in that I could not: in this I might die ghostly for fear of pain, or lack of good counsel; in that I could not: in this I might be in extreme necessity; in that I could not, if extreme necessity be periculum pereundi, “peril of perishing.” And then you know what followeth: if we be not bounden, per praeceptum, to help but them that be in extreme necessity, we see not who needeth in purgatory; but we see who needeth in this world. And John saith, “If thou see thy brother, and help him not, how is the charity of God in thee?” Here either we be, or we may be in extreme necessity, both in body and soul: in purgatory neither one nor other. FH53 Here we be bound to help one another, as we would be holpen ourselves, under pain of damnation.

Here, for lack of help, we may murmur and grudge against God, dishonor God, foredote ourselves: which inconveniences shall not follow, if we do our duty one to another. I am sure the souls in purgatory be so charitable, and of charity so loth to have God dishonored, that they would have nothing withdrawn from the poor here in this world, to be bestowed upon them, which might occasion the dishonor of God, etc.

Therefore, howsoever we do for purgatory, let us provide to keep out of hell. And had I a thousand pounds to bestow, as long as I saw necessary occasion offered to me of God to dispense it upon my needy brother here in this world, according to God’s commandment, I would not withdraw my duty from him for any provision of purgatory; as long as I saw dangerous ways unrepaired, poor men’s daughters unmarried, men beg for lack of work, sick and sore for lack of succor. I would have difference betwixt that that may be done, and that that ought to be done; and this to go before that, and that to come after this. If God command one way, mine own devotion moveth me another way, whether way should I go? I may, by no trentals, no masses, no ladders of heaven, make no foundations for myself with other men’s goods. Goods wrongfully gotten must needs home again; must needs be restored to the owners, if they can be known; if not, they be poor men’s goods. Debts must needs be paid; creditors satisfied and content; God’s ordinance toward my neighbor here in this world discharged; all affections and lusts moving to the contrary purged. Or else, though our soul-priests sing till they be blear-eyed, say till they have worn their tongues to the stumps, neither their singings nor their sayings shall bring us out of hell; whither we shall go for contemning of God’s forbiddings, tie that purgeth all errors of false opinions, all unlustiness to do God’s ordinance, provideth not for hell and purgatory. Purgatory’s iniquity hath set aside restitutions, and brought poor Christians to extreme beggary, replenished hell, and left heaven almost empty. “IN PURGATORY THERE IS NO PAIN:” That can break their charity: that can break their patience: that can dissever them from Christ, that can dissever Christ from them.

That can cause them to dishonor God: that can cause them to displease God: that can cause them to be displeased with God: that can bring them to peril of death.

That can bring them to peril of damnation: that can bring them to extreme necessity: that can cause them to be discontent with God: that can bring them from surety of salvation.

And yet it followeth not that there is no pain.

Howbeit, if the bishop’s two fingers can shake away a good part; if a friar’s cowl, or the pope’s pardon, or scala coeli of a groat, can dispatch for altogether, it is not so greatly to be cared for. I have not leisure to write at large; and I wrote before such things, which in this haste cometh now to mind.

They that can reclaim at this, that the souls in purgatory do pray for us; if they could get as much money for the prayer as the souls in purgatory sayeth for us, as they have done for that that they have said for them, they would not reclaim. You know the wasp that doth sting them, and maketh them so swell. They that reclaim at that do not reclaim at this.

Nor at this: Christ’s blood is not sufficient without blood of martyrs.

Nor at this: Magdalene did not know Christ to be God before his resurrection.

Nor at this: There can be no idolatry.

Nor at this : Rome cannot be destroyed.

Nor at this: The pope is lord of the world.

Nor at this: Whatsoever he doeth is well done.

Nor at this: Pater noster is to be said to St Peter.

Nor at this: Pater noster is but a beggarly prayer.

Nor at this: Ave Maria is infinitely better.

Nor at this: Twenty Ave Marias for one Pater noster.

Nor at this: It was not necessary scripture be written.

Nor at this: He that leaveth father or mother maketh for our pilgrimage .

With many more. FH57 INJUNCTIONS BY HUGH LATIMER, BISHOP OF WORCESTER, TO THE PRIOR AND CONVENT OF ST MARY HOUSE IN WORCESTER, 1537. [Printed in Wilkins’ Concilia III. p. 832, Burnet, Hist. of Reform.

Vol. II. Part II. pp. 404, et seq. Oxford, 1816.]\parHUGH, by the goodness of God, bishop of Worcester, wisheth to his brethren the Prior and Convent aforesaid grace, mercy, peace, and true knowledge of God’s word, from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Forasmuch as in this my visitation I evidently perceive the ignorance and negligence of divers religious persons in this Monastery to be intolerable and not to be suffered; for that thereby do reign idolatry, and many kinds of superstitions, and other enormities: and considering withal, that our sovereign lord the king, for some part of remedy of the same, hath granted, by his most gracious license, that the scripture of God may be read in English of all his obedient subjects: I therefore, willing your reformation in most favorable manner, to your least displeasure, do heartily require you all and every one of you, and also in God’s behalf command the same, according as your duty is, to obey me as God’s minister, and the king’s, in all my lawful and honest commandments; that you observe and keep inviolably all these injunctions following, under pain of the law.

First, Forasmuch as I perceive that some of you neither have observed the king’s Injunctions, nor yet have them with you, as willing to observe them: therefore ye shall from henceforth both have and observe diligently and faithfully, as well special commandments of preaching, as other injunctions given in his grace’s visitation.

Item, That the prior shall provide, of the monasteries’ charge, a whole Bible in English, to be laid fast chained in some open place, either in their church or cloister.

Item, That every religious person have, at the least, a new Testament in English, by the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord next ensuing.

Item, Whensoever there shall be any preaching in your monastery, that all manner of singing, and other ceremonies, be utterly laid aside in his preaching time; and all other service shortened, as need shall be; and all religious persons quietly to hearken to the preaching.

Item, That ye have a lecture of scripture read every day in English amongst you, save holy-days.

Item, That every religious person be at every lecture, from the beginning to the ending, except they have a necessary let allowed them by the prior.

Item, That every religious house have a layman to their steward, for all former businesses.

Item, That you have a continual schoolmaster, sufficiently learned to teach your grammar.

Item, That no religious person discourage any manner of layman, or woman, or any other, from the reading of any good book, either in Latin or English.

Item, That the prior have at his dinner or supper, every day, a chapter read, from the beginning of the scripture to the end, and that in English, wheresoever he be in any of his own places, and to have edifying communication of the same.

Item, That the convent sit together, four to one mess, and to eat together in common, and to have scripture read in like wise, and have communication thereof; and after their dinner, or supper, their relics and fragments to be distributed to the poor people.

Item, That the convent and prior provide distributions to be ministered in every parish, where as ye be parsons and proprietaries, and according to the king’s injunctions in that behalf.

Item, That all these my injunctions be read every month once in the chapter-house before all the brethren.

INJUNCTIONS FH60 GIVEN BY THE BISHOP OF WORCESTER IN HIS VISITATION TO ALL PARSONS, VICARS AND OTHER CURATES OF HIS DIOCESE, THE YEAR OF OUR LORD GOD 1537.

ANNO REGIS HENRICI OCTAVI XXIX. [Printed in Abingdon, Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Worcester, pp. 157, et seq.] HUGH, by the goodness ofGOD bishop of Worcester, wisheth to all his brethren Curates grace, mercy, peace, and true knowledge ofGOD’ S word, fromGOD our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Forasmuch as in this my visitation I evidently perceive, that the ignorance and negligence of divers curates in this deanery to be intolerable and not to be suffered, for that thereby doth reign idolatry and many kinds of superstitions, and other enormities: and considering withal that our sovereign lord the king, for some part of remedy of the same, hath granted by his most gracious license that the scripture ofGOD may be read in English of all his obedient subjects: I therefore willing your reformation in most favorable manner, to your least displeasure, do heartily require you all and every one of you, and also inGOD’ S behalf command the same, according as your duty is to obey me asGOD’ S minister, and the king’s, in all my lawful and honest commandments, that you observe and keep inviolably all these Injunctions following, under pain of the law.

First, Forasmuch as I perceive that ye neither have observed the king’s Injunctions, nor yet have them with you, as willing to observe them: therefore ye shall from henceforth both have and observe diligently and faithfully, as well special commandments of preachings, as other Injunctions given in his grace’s visitation.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, provide to have of your own a whole bible, if ye can conveniently, or at the least a new Testament, both in Latin and English, before the feast of the nativity of our Lord next ensuing.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, do read over and study every day one chapter at the least, conferring the Latin and the English together, proceeding from the chapter from the beginning of the book to the end, having no necessary let to the contrary.

Item, That you, and every one of you, provide to have of your own a book called The Institution of a Christian Man, lately set out of the king’s grace’s prelates by his grace’s commandment.

Item, That in secret confession and making of testaments excite and stir your parishioners from will-works to the necessary works of God, works of mercy and charity.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, do at all times the best that you can to occasion your parishioners to peace, love and charity, so that none of ye suffer the sun to set upon their wrath.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, provide to have a copy of these mine injunctions within thirteen days at the uttermost.

Item, That you, and every one of you, shall from henceforth suffer no religious persons, friar, or other, to have any services in your churches, either trental, quarter-service, or other.

Item, That preaching be not set aside for any manner of observance in the church, as procession, and other ceremonies.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, do not admit any young man or woman to receive the sacrament of the altar, until that he or she openly in the church, after mass or evensong, upon the holiday, do recite in English the Pater.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, from henceforth bid beads no otherwise than according to the king’s grace’s ordinance, lest long bead-telling let fruitful preaching ofGOD’ S word.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, as often as there is any marriage within your parish, exhort and charge your parishioners openly in the pulpit, amongst other things in your sermons, that they neither make nor suffer to be made any privy contract of matrimony, as they will avoid the extreme pain of the law certainly to be executed upon them.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, that be chantry priests, do instruct and teach the children of your parish, such as will come to you at the least, to read English, so that thereby they may the better learn how to believe, how to pray, and how to live toGOD’ S pleasure.

Item, That no parson, vicar, curate, nor chantry priest, from henceforth do discourage any lay person from the reading of any good books either in Latin or English, but rather animate and encourage them unto such things.

Item, That ye, and every one of you, not only in preaching and open communication, but also in secret, say the Pater noster, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments.

Item, That in praise-time nobody be brought into the church, but be brought into the church-yard, that the peril of infection thereby may the better be avoided.

Item, That no curate command the even to be fasted of an abrogate holiday.

BISHOP LATIMER’S ARGUMANTS AGAINST PURGATORY, WITH KING HENRY VIII’S ANSWERS. FH63 [Printed by Strype, Eccl. Mem. I. ii. p. 388.

Oxf. Edit. Cotton MSS. Cleopatra, E. v. 130.

MODICUM plora super mortuum, quoniam requievit . FH64 Ecclus. cap. xxii. As who say, Thy brother is dead. If natural passion move thee to weep, yet weep but little. For if he died in the faith of Christ repentantly, he is at rest; ergo, a in no pain of purgatory. For where such pain is, there is no rest. For they that affirm purgatory, affirm the pain to pass all the pain in the world. Hugo de Vienna upon the same place, Potius gaudendum est, inquit, quam flendum, quia quisquis sic moritur de labore b ad requiem, de luctu ad gaudium transivit. What rest hath he gotten, that is removed from the stocks in Newgate to the rack in the Tower? a [K. Hen.] Ergo, yet in a place. For of pain we dispute not. b This Hugo speaketh, remembering no quietness in this world, nor yet till we come to heaven, and not condemning of purgatory. Ecclesiastes 11. Ubicunque lignum ceciderit, ibi erit. In what state a man dies, in that he shall continue without end: sive ad austrum, sive ad aquilonem; either to heaven or to hell. Non est medium, si Hieronymo credimus: et operae pretium fuerit legere Pellicanum.

Aug. super Psalm 31 <193101> . FH67 Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata. Si c texit peccata Deus, noluit advertere; si noluit advertere, noluit animadvertere; si noluit animadvertere, noluit punire, etc. Ergo peccata in hoc seculo obtecta et remissa non sunt in futuro punita. d Ergo frustraneumest... purgatorium. FH70 c Mark well the very text of this. d This argument is well and plying more to carnal wits’ way than to plainness of the text. [The following additional remarks on these two texts are in King Henry’s own hand-writing, and occur at the end of the MS., and are also printed by Strype.] Ubicunque lignum ceciderit, ibi erit. This text itself, speaking of but one stick, doth not deny purgatory; nor the example of a dead stick can well, without great forcing of, be attribute to a soul repentant, not yet having his full judgment. And if you will turn it to a lively stick, then it seemeth me, that it will make much against your purpose. For a lively stick may chance with falling to grow, though not suddenly, and so come to some perfection of his fruits. So may the soul of man by this example, departing hence to purgatory in right faith, grow toward his perfection, abiding the day of judgment. Beati quorum, etc. Jesus! How do you descant on this Psalm, and also on S. Augustine, when you would make folk believe that this was meant against purgatory, when the very text declareth nothing but the beatitude and hopefulness of them that hath their sins hid and forgiven! Herein do you shew your carnal wit, which in preaching you dispraise so much.

Id. FH74 in De Ebrietate. Nemo se decipiat, fratres; duo enim loca sunt, et tertius non est visus. Qui cum Christo regnare non meruit, cum diabolo absque ulla dubitatione peribit. Here he had occasion to make mention of purgatory, if he had then known it. e e Is this a sufficient confusion of purgatory, because he here, speaking of drunkenness, doth not mention of purgatory?

Aug. De Vanitate Seculi. FH76 Scitote vero quod cum anima a corpore avellitur, statim aut in paradiso, promeritis bonis collocatur; aut certe pro peccatis in inferni tartara praecipitatur. Ecce! quam manifeste, quasi ex industria, absorpsit purgatorium! f Note this text to make against you in another of your opinions; and also, that he rather putteth a mean place between heaven and hell, which he calleth paradise, [which] is a place of comfort toward salvation.

Hieronym. in Ecclesiastes 11. FH78 Ubicunque ubi locum praeparaveris futuramque sedem, sire ad austrum sire ad boream, ibi cum mortuus fueris permanebis. If S. Hierome had regarded purgatory, there had been occasion to have made mention of it. g g Must the saints take occasion to write where you think place is for them, or where they think it meetest?

Hilary in Psalm 2. Judicii dies vel beatitudinis retributio est aeterna, vel poenae. h Tempus vero mortis habet interim unumquemque suis legibus, dum ad judicium unumquemque aut Abraam reservat, aut poena. Quis hic non videt purgatorium fore nullurn? h Who ever held opinion, that in or after the day of judgment there was a purgation? This text maketh not against that opinion. Therefore nothing to your purpose.

Cyprian, Serraone 4to. De Mortalitate. Amplectamur diem mortis, qui assignat singulos domicilio suo; qui nos hinc ereptos paradiso restituit et regno coelesti. Cyprianus non abstinuisset hic a mentione purgatorii, si tale quid vel cogitasset. i i This your interpretation sheweth plainly men’s affections. For it is evident in learning, that a copulative — not eundem locum. Wherefore the contrary is rather to be gathered on this text.

Chrysost. in Jo. cap. undec. Homilia lxi. FH84 pag. 9. et b. Justus moriens cum angelis evolabit, etiamsi nemo exequiis interveniat: perditus autem, etsi in funere universam habuerit civitatem, nihil lucrabitur. Quid aptius dici possit in condemnationem purgatorii, quam quod eruditissimus hic dicit? k k To this authority answereth this text of scripture, Justo non est posita lex. Perdito nulla redemptio. So neither of these, whereof this text speaketh, belong to a sinner repentant. Wherefore purgatory may yet stand for all this. FH86 Breviter multa sunt multorum auctorum testimonia, quae demoliuntur purgatorium; multa etiam in ejusdem auctoribus, quae sonant esse purgatorium. Incertum est negotium, neque tutum quicquam determinare, ne incerta pro veris statuantur. Tametsi certissimum fuerit, ejusmodi purgatorium, quale trecentos jam annos creditum fuerit, non possit stabiliri. At quod ad auctoritatem scriptorum attinet, sic Lyranus audet pronuntiare: Non debet aliquem movere, quod ego recedo in hoe a dictis Hieronymi; quia dicta sanctorum non sunt tantae auctoritatis quin liceat sentire contrarium in his quae non sunt per sacram scripturam determinata. l Uncle dicit Aug. in Ep. ad Vincentium de Scripturis sanctorum doctorum: Hoc genus scripturarum a canonicis scripturis distinguendum est. Non enim ex eis sic testimonia perferuntur, ut contrarium sentire non liceat. Hactenus Lyranus. l Non solum suo sensu, adhaerente tamen.

Et hoc est apud Hieronym. et reliquos auctores vulgatissimos, quod quicquid citra scripturas asseritur, eadem facilitate rejicitur qua admittitur. m m Hoc ergo sic intelligi debet, quod quicquid ecclesia receperit, id rejicere potuit; seal non quisquis sua sponte praedicando.

As touching purgatory, I might, by way of disputation, reason this against it: God is more inclined to mercy than to justice, lie executeth justice upon those that be damned, mercy upon those that be saved. But they that be damned, as soon as the soul is separate from the body, goeth straight to hell. Ergo, if God be more inclined to mercy, them that be saved, as soon as the soul is out of the body, goeth by and bye to heaven.

Of these there is no purgatory. n n This is a false argument, and also a wrong example. For God is as merciful and indifferent in this world to him that may be damned as to him that may be saved; yet the obstinacy of the man lets not: whereby one may perceive that his justice and mercy dependeth on the will of the creature, and as you, in a text before, allege the merits of the person.

The founding of monasteries argued purgatory to be; so the putting of them down argueth it not to be. What uncharitableness and cruelness seemeth it to be to destroy monasteries, if purgatory be! Now it seemeth not convenient the Act of Parliament to preach one thing, and the pulpit another clean contrary. g g Why then do you? Turpe enim est doctori, cure culpa redarguit ipsum.

THE DISPUTATION HAD AT OXFORD, THE 18TH DAY OF APRIL, 1554, BETWEEN MR. HUGH LATIMER, ANSWERER, AND MR. SMITH AND OTHERS, OPPOSERS. [Printed by Foxe, Acts and Mon. pp. 978, et seq. edit. 1563. Vol.

III. pp. 65, et seq. edit. 1684.] WEDNESDAY the 18th day of April began the disputation, at eight of the clock, in such form as before: but it was most English; for master Latimer, the answerer alleged that he was out of the use with Latin, and unfit for that place. There replied unto him master Smith, of Oriel College; doctor Cartwright, master Harpsfield, and divers others had snatches at him, and gave him bitter taunts. He did not escape hissings and scornful laughing, no more than they that went before him. He was very faint, and desired that he might not long tarry, lie durst not drink for fear of vomiting. The disputation ended before eleven of the clock.

Master Latimer was not suffered to read that he had (as he said) painfully written: but it was exhibited up, and the prolocutor read part thereof, and so proceeded to the disputation.

THE PREFACE OF WESTON UNTO THE DISPUTATION FOLLOWING: “Men and brethren, we are come together this day, by the help of God, to vanquish the strength of the arguments and dispersed opinions of adversaries against the truth of the real presence of the Lord’s body in the sacrament. And therefore you, father, if you have any thing to answer, I do admonish that you answer in short and few words.”

Latimer: — “ I pray you, good master Prolocutor, do not exact that of me which is not in me. I have not these twenty years much used the Latin tongue.”

Weston: — “ Take your ease, father.”

Latimer: — “ I thank you, sir, I am well. Let me here protest my faith, for I am not able to dispute; and afterwards do your pleasure with me.”

THE PROTESTATION OF MASTER LATIMER, GIVEN UP IN WRITING TO DOCTOR WESTON FH90 AND THE REST OF THE QUEEN’S COMMISSIONERS WITH HIM, AT OXFORD, CONCERNING CERTAIN QUESTIONS TO HIM PROPOSED. [Strype, Ecclesiastes Memor. Vol. I. ii. pp. 388, et seq. Oxf. Edit.] The conclusions whereunto I must answer are these: 1. The first is, That in the sacrament of the altar, by the virtue of God’s word pronounced by the priest, there is really and naturally the very body of Christ present, as it was conceived of the virgin Mary, under the kinds of bread and wine. And, in like manner, his blood [in the cup.] 2. The second is, That after the consecration there remaineth no substance of bread and wine, nor none other substance but the substance of God and man. 3. The third is, That in the mass there is the lively sacrifice of the church, which is propitiatory as well for the quick, as the dead.

To these I answer: 1. Concerning the first conclusion, methinketh it is set forth with certain new terms, lately found, that be obscure, and do not sound according to the scripture. FH97 Nevertheless, however I understand it, thus do I answer, although not without peril [of my life.] I say, That there is none other presence of Christ required than a spiritual presence; and this presence is sufficient for a christian man, as the presence by the which we both abide in Christ, and Christ in us, to the obtaining of eternal life, if we persevere [in his true gospel.] And the same presence may be called a real presence, [because to the faithful believer there is the real, or spiritual body of Christ:] which thing I here rehearse, lest some sycophant or scorner should suppose me, with the anabaptist, to make nothing else of the sacrament but a bare and naked sign. As for that which is feigned of many, I, for my part, take it for a papistical invention. And therefore I think it utterly to be rejected [from among God’s children, that seek their Savior in faith; and be taught among the fleshly papists, that will be again under the yoke of antichrist.] 2. Concerning the second conclusion, I dare be bold to say, that it hath no stay nor ground of God’s [holy] word; but is a thing invented and found out by man, and therefore to be reputed and had as false; and, I had almost said, as the mother and nurse of all other errors. It were good for my masters and lords, the transubstantiators, to take [better] heed [to their doctrine,] lest they conspire with the Nestorians.

For [the Nestorians deny that Christ had a natural body: and] I cannot see how the papists can avoid it: [for they would contain the natural body which Christ had, (sin excepted,) against all truth, into a wafer cake.] 3. The third conclusion, as I understand it, seemeth subtly to sow sedition against the offering which Christ himself offered for us in his own person, [and for all, and never again to be done;] according to [the scriptures written in God’s book. In which book read] the pithy place of St Paul [to the Hebrews, the <580901> 9th and 10th,] where he saith that Christ his own self hath made a perfect sacrifice for our sins, [and never again to be done; and then ascended into heaven, and there sitteth a merciful intercessor between God’s justice and our sins; and there shall tarry till these transubstantiators, and all other his foes, be made his footstool: and this offering did he freely of himself, as it is written in the <431001> 10th of John, and needed not that any man: should do it for him.] I will speak nothing of the wonderful presumptions of man, that dare attempt this thing without any manifest calling: specially that which intrudeth to the overthrowing and fruitless-making (if not wholly, yet partly) of the cross of Christ. FH123 And therefore worthily a man may say to my lords and masters offerers, By what authority do you this? And who gave you this authority? When, and where? FH125 “A man cannot,” saith St John, “take any thing except it be given him from above:” much less, then, may any man presume to usurp any honor, before he be called thereunto. FH127 Again: “If any man sin,” saith (St John), “we have,” saith he, not amasser, nor an offerer upon earth, which can sacrifice for us at mass; but “we have,” saith he, “an Advocate [with God the Father,] Jesus Christ [the righteous” one;] which once offered himself [for us] long ago.

Of which offering the efficacy and effect is perdurable for ever. So that it is needless to have such offerers. [But if they had a nail driven through one of their ears every time they offer, as Christ had four driven through his hands and feet, they would soon leave offering. Yet, if their offering did not bring gains withal, it should not be so often done. For they say, No penny, no pater noster .] What meaneth St Paul, when he saith, “They that preach the gospel shall live of the gospel?” Whereas he should [rather] have said, The Lord hath ordained, that they that sacrifice at mass, should live of the sacrificing. FH130 [But although the Holy Ghost appointed them no living for their mass-saying in God’s book, yet have they appointed themselves a living in antichrist’s decrees. For I am sure, if God would have had a new kind of sacrificing priest at mass, then he or some of his apostles would have made some mention thereof in their master Christ’s will. But belike the secretaries were not the masser’s friends; or else they saw it was a charge without profit. It must needs else have been remembered and provided for, as there was a living provided for the sacrificing priests before Christ’s coming, in the Jews’ times.] For now they have nothing to allege for [themselves, that is to say, for their sacrificing, nor for] their living; as those that preach the gospel have. FH131 [For Christ himself, after he had suffered, and made a perfect sacrifice for our sins, and also when he rose again to justify us, commanded his disciples to go preach all the world over, saying, “Whosoever believeth, in and is baptized, shall be saved.” But he spake never a word of sacrificing, or saying of mass; nor promised the hearers any reward, but among the idolaters, with the devil and his angels, except speedy repentance with tears. Therefore, sacrificing priests should now cease for ever: for now all men ought to offer their own bodies a quick sacrifice, holy and acceptable before God.] The supper of the Lord was instituted to provoke us to thanksgiving, [and to stir us up by preaching of the gospel to remember his death till he cometh again, according to his commandment. For Christ bade Peter feed the flock, and not sacrifice for the flock.] I can never wonder enough, that Peter [and all the apostles] would forget [thus negligently] the office of sacrificing, if they had thought it necessary; seeing that, at these days, it is had in such price and estimation, to feed the flock is almost nothing with many: for if you cease of feeding, you shall be taken for a good catholic; but if you cease from sacrificing and massing, you will be taken, I trow, for an heretic, [and come to such place as I and many of my brethren be in shortly.] Thus, lo! [I have written an answer to your conclusions, even as I will answer before the majesty of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; by whose only sacrifice I hope to possess heaven. Therefore I beseech your good masterships to take it in good part,] as I have done it with great pains, having no man to help me, as I never was before denied f 134 to have. O sir, you may chance to come to this age and weakness, that I am of; [and then you would be loth to be used as I am at your hands; that no man may come to me, to help me for any need; no, not so much as to mend my hose or my coat. And you know, that he that hath but one pair of hose, had need sometime to have them mended.] I have spoken in my time before two kings, more than one, two, or three hours together without interruption: but now, when [I should have spoken the truth out of God’s book, (for that I ever took for my warrant,)] I could (by your leave) not be suffered to declare my faith before you, [for the which, God willing, I intend to give my life,] not by the space of a quarter of an hour, without snatches, [rages,] revilings, checks, rebukes, and taunts, such as I never heard the like, in such an audience, all my life long.

Sure it cannot be, but I have made some heinous offense. Forsooth, [I think it be this; I have spoken against the mass, and did ask, if their god of the altar had any marrow-bones. For I said I had read the testament over seven times, since I was in the prison, with great deliberation; and yet I could never find, as I said before, in the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ (which the papists call the sacrament of the altar) neither flesh, blood, nor bones, nor this word ‘transubstantiation.’ And because, peradventure, my masters (that can so soon make Christ’s body of bread, which was not made, but conceived by the Holy Ghost in the virgin’s womb, as God’s invaluable word doth testify, and also all the ancient fathers) might say, that I doted for age, and my wits were gone, so that my words were not to be credited; yet, behold! the providence of God, which will have this truth known, (yea, if all men held their tongues, the stones should speak,) did bring this to pass that where these famous men, viz. Mr. Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Ridley, bishop of London, that holy man, Mr. Bradford, and I, old Hugh Latimer, were imprisoned in the Tower of London for Christ’s gospel preaching, and for because we would not go a massing, every one in close prison from other; the same tower being so full of other prisoners, that we four were thrust into one chamber, as men not to be accounted of, (but, God be thanked! to our great joy and comfort,) there did we together read over the new testament with great deliberation and painful study: and I assure you, as I will answer [at] the tribunal throne of God’s majesty, we could find in the testament of Christ’s body and blood no other presence, but a spiritual presence; nor that the mass was any sacrifice for sins: but in that heavenly book it appeared that the sacrifice, which Christ Jesus our Redeemer did upon the cross, was perfect, holy, and good; that God, the heavenly Father, did require none other, nor that never again to be done; but was pacified with that only omnisufficient and most painful sacrifice of that sweet slain Lamb, Christ our Lord, for our sins. Wherefore stand from the altar, you sacrileging (I should have said, you sacrificing) priests: for you have no authority in God’s book to offer up our Redeemer; neither will he any more come in the hands of sacrificing priests, for the good cheer you made him when he was among your sworn generation. And I say, you lay people, as you are called, come away from forged sacrifices, which the papists do feign only, to be lords over you, and to get money; lest your bodies, which are, or should be Christ’s temples, be false-witness bearers against the blood of our redemption. For the Holy Ghost had promised to St John in the 18th of the Revelation, that if you come from them, you get none of their plagues; but if you tarry with them, you have spun a fair thread; for you shall drink of the same cup of God’s wrath that they shall. And thereby your playing at main chance, you bring all the righteous blood that wicked Cain hath shed, even upon your own heads. Choose you now whether you will ride to the devil with idolaters, or go to heaven with Christ and his members, by bearing the cross.

Now I am sure this speech hath offended my lords and masters; and I have marvel at it, for I ask none other question, in requiring to know if their bread-god had flesh, marrow and bones, or not, as our dear Redeemer had, and as they affirm and set forth with fire and fagot, good doctors, I warrant you, that their white idol (I should have said their altar-god) hath. Therefore, methinketh they are angry with me without a cause. But one thing this trouble hath brought me unto; that is, to be acquainted with Mr. Doctor Weston, whom I never saw before; and I had not thought he had been so great a clerk. For in all king Edward’s time he was a curate, besides Bishopsgate; and held him well content to feed his parishioners with the doctrine that he now calleth heresy, and is sent from the queen to judge us of the same. But I pray God send him a more merciful judgment at the hand of Christ, than we receive of him! And I would ever have him, and all those that be in Rome,] to remember, that he that dwelleth on high looketh on the things upon earth; and also that there is no counsel against the Lord, [as St Paul saith;] and that the world has and ever hath been a tottering world; and yet again, that though we must obey the princes, yet [are we limited, how far; that is, so long as they do not command things against the manifest truth. But now they do; therefore we must say with Peter and John, “We must obey God before man.” I mean none other resistance, but to offer our lives to the death, rather than to commit any evil against the majesty of God, and his most holy and true word. But this I say unto you, if the queen have any pernicious enemy within her realm, those they be that do cause her to maintain idolatry, and to wet her sword of justice in the blood of her people, that are set to defend the gospel: for this hath been always the destructions both of kings, queens, and whole commonwealths; as I am afraid it will make this commonwealth of England to quake shortly, if speedy repentance be not had among the inhabitants thereof. But you cannot say but that you have had warning; and therefore take heed betimes, and be warned by a number of other countries that have forsaken God’s known truth, and followed the lies of men. If not, other lands shall be warned by you. You that be here sent to judge our faith be not learned in deed, I mean not a right; be not right because you know not Christ and his pure word.] For it is nothing but plain ignorance to know many things without Christ and his gospel. St Paul saith, “that he did know nothing but Jesu Christ crucified.” Many men babble much of Christ, which yet know not Christ; but, pretending Christ, do craftily cover and darken his glory. [And, indeed, these are meetest men to dishonor a man, that seem to be his friend.] Depart from such men, saith the apostle Timothy.

It is not out of the way to remember what St Augustine saith against the Epistle of Petilianus: “Whosoever,” saith he, “teacheth any thing necessary to be believed, which is not contained in the old and new Testament, the same is accursed.” FH141 O! beware of that curse, [you that so stoutly set forth men’s doctrines, yea, wicked blasphemy against the truth]. I am much deceived, if Basilius have not such like words: “Whatsoever,” saith he, “is besides the holy scripture, if the same be taught as necessary to be believed, the same is sin.” O! therefore, take [good] heed of this sin! There be some that speak false things, more [profitable to the purse,] and more like the truth, than the truth itself.

Therefore St Paul giveth a watch-word: “Let no man deceive you,” saith he, “with probability and persuasions of words.” FH146 O good Lord! [what a damnable act you have done!] You have changed the most holy communion into a [wicked and horrible sacrifice of idolatry;] and you deny to the lay people the cup, which is directly against God’s institution, [which saith, “Drink ye all of this.” And where you should preach the benefit of Christ’s death to the people, you speak to the wall in a foreign tongue. God open the door of your heart, that you may once have a more care to enlarge the kingdom of God than your own, if it be his will!

Thus have I answered your conclusions, as I will stand unto, with God’s help, to the fire. And after this I am able to declare to the majesty of God, by his invaluable word, that I die for the truth: for I assure you, if I could grant to the queen’s proceedings, and endure by the word of God, I would rather live than die; but seeing they be directly against God’s word, I will obey God more than man, and so embrace the stake. By H.

L.

Weston: —” Then you refuse to dispute? Will you hero then subscribe?”

Latimer: — “No, good master; I pray you be good to an old man. You may, if it please God, be once old, as I am: ye may come to this age, and to this debility.”

Weston: — “Ye said, upon Saturday last, that ye could not find the mass, nor the marrow-bones thereof, in your books; but we will find a mass in that book.”

Latimer: — “No, good master doctor, ye cannot.”

Weston: — “ What find you then there?” Latimer: — “Forsooth, a communion I find there.”

Weston: — “Which communion, the first or the last?” Latimer:- “ I find no great diversity in them: they are one supper of the Lord; but I like the last very well.”

Weston: — “Then the first was naught, belike?”

Latimer: — “ I do not well remember wherein they differ.”

Weston: — “ Then cake-bread and loaf-bread are all one with you. Ye call it the supper of the Lord; but you are deceived in that, for they had done the supper before; and therefore the scripture saith, postquam coenatum est, that is, “After they had supped.” For ye know, that St Paul findeth fault with the Corinthians, for that some of them were drunken at this supper; and ye know no man can be drunken at your communion.”

Latimer: — “ The first was called Coena Judaica, that is, the Jewish supper, when they did eat the paschal lamb together: the other was called Coena Dominica, that is, the Lord’s supper.”

Weston: — “ That is false, for Chrysostom denieth that; and St Ambrose, in cap. x. prioris ad Corinthios, saith, Mysterium eucharistioe inter coenandum datum non est coena Dominica; that is, ‘That the mystery of the sacrament, given as they were at supper, is not the supper of the Lord.’ And Gregory Nazianzen saith the same: Rursus Paschoe sacra cum discipulis in coenaculo ac post coenam dieque unica ante passionem celebrat: nos vero ea in orationis domibus et ante coenam et post resurrectionem peragimus; that is, ‘Again he kept the holy feast of passover with his disciples, in the dining chamber after supper, and one day before his passion: but we keep it both in the churches and houses of prayer, both before the supper, and also after the resurrection.’ And that first supper was called ajga>ph . Can you tell what that is?”

Latimer: — “I understand no Greek. Yet I think it meaneth charity.”

Weston: — “ Will you have all things done that Christ did then? Why, then must the priest be hanged on the morrow. And where find you, I pray you, that a woman should receive the sacrament?”

Latimer: — “ Will you give me leave to turn my book?’ I find it in the eleventh chapter to the Corinthians. 1 trows, these be the words: Probet autem seipsum homo, etc. I pray you, good master, what gender is homo? ” Weston: — “ Marry, the common gender.”

Cole. — ‘ “It is in the Greek oJ a]nqrwpov fh151.” Harpsfield: “It is ajnhvir.” Latimer: — “ It is in my book of Erasmus’ translation, Probet seipsum homo, etc.”

Feckenham: — “ It is Probet seipsum, indeed, and therefore it importeth the masculine gender.”

Latimer:. — “What then? I trow when the woman touched Christ, he said, Quis tetigit me? Scio quod aliquis me tetigit; that is, ‘Who touched me? I know that some man touched me.’” Weston: — “ I will be at host with you anon. When Christ was at his supper, none were with him but his apostles only. Ergo, he meant no woman, if you will have his institution kept.”

Latimer: — “ In the twelve apostles was represented the whole church; in which, you will grant both men and women to be.”

Weston: — “ So through the whole heretical translated bible ye never make mention of priest, till ye come to the putting of Christ to death.

Where find you then that a priest or minister (a minstrel I may call him well enough) should do it of necessity?”

Latimer: — “ A minister is a more fit name for that office; for the name of a priest importeth a sacrifice.”

Weston: — “ Well, remember that ye cannot find that a woman may receive by scripture. Master opponent, fall to it.”

Smith: — “ Because I perceive that this charge is laid upon my neck to dispute with you, to the end that the same may go forward after a right manner and order, I will propose three questions, so as they are put forth unto me. And first, I ask this question of you, although the same indeed ought not to be called in question: but such is the condition of the church, that it is always vexed of the wicked sort. I ask, I say, whether Christ’s body be really in the sacrament?”

Latimer: — “ I trust I have obtained of Mr. Prolocutor, that no man shall exact that thing of me which is not in me. And I am sorry that this worshipful audience should be deceived of their expectation for my sake. I have given up my mind in writing to Mr. Prolocutor.”

Smith: — “ Whatsoever ye have given up, it shall be registered among the acts.”

Latimer: — “ Disputation requireth a good memory. Ast abolita est mihi memoria. My memory is gone clean, and marvellously weakened, and never the better, I wis, for the prison.”

Weston: — “ How long have ye been in prison?”

Latimer: — “These three quarters of this year.”

Weston: — “ And I was in prison six years.”

Latimer: — “ The more pity, sir.” FH156 Weston: — “ How long have you been of this opinion?”

Latimer: — “ It is not long, sir, that I have been of this opinion.”

Weston: — “ The time hath been when you said mass full devoutly.”

FH158 Latimer: — “ Yea, I cry God mercy heartily for it.”

Weston: — “Where learned you this newfangleness?” Latimer: — “ I have long sought for the truth in this matter of the sacrament, and have not been of this mind past seven years: and my lord of Canterbury’s book hath especially confirmed my judgment herein. If I could remember all therein contained, I would not fear to answer any man in this matter.”

Tresham: — “ There are in that book six hundred errors.”

Weston: — “ You were once a Lutheran.”

Latimer: — “No. I was a papist: for I never could perceive how Luther could defend his opinion without transubstantiation. The Tigurines once did write a book against Luther, and I oft desired God that he might live so long to make them answer.”

Weston: — “ Luther, in his book De Privata Missa, said, that the devil reasoned with him, and persuaded him that the mass was not good, fol. 14. Contigit me, etc. Whereof it may appear, that Luther said mass, and the devil dissuaded, him from it” Latimer: — “ I do not take in hand here to defend Luther’s sayings or doings. If he were here, he would defend himself well enough, I trow.

FH162 I told you before, that I am not meet for disputations. I pray you, read mine answer, wherein I have declared my faith.”

Weston: — “Do you believe this, as you have written?”

Latimer: — “ Yea, sir.”

Weston: — “ Then have you no faith.”

Latimer: — “Then would I be sorry, sir.”

Tresham: — “ It is written, ( John 6:1.) ‘Except ye shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye shall have no life in you:’ which when the Capernaites and many of Christ’s disciples heard, they said, ‘This is a hard saying,’ etc. Now, that the truth may the better appear, here I ask of you, whether Christ, speaking these words, did mean of his flesh to be eaten with the mouth, or of the spiritual eating of the same?” Latimer: — “ I answer, (as Augustine understandeth,) that Christ meant of the spiritual eating of his flesh.”

Tresham: — “ Of what flesh meant Christ? His true flesh, or no?”

Latimer: — “ Of his true flesh, spiritually to be eaten, in the supper, by faith, and not corporally.” FH164 Tresham: — “Of what flesh mean the Capernaites?”

Latimer: — “ Of his true flesh also; but to be eaten with the mouth.”

Tresham: — “ They, as ye confess, did mean his true flesh to be eaten with the mouth. And Christ also, as I shall prove, did speak of the receiving of his flesh with the mouth. Ergo, they both did understand it of the eating of one thing, which is done by the mouth of the body.”

Latimer: — “I say, Christ understood it not of the bodily mouth, but of the mouth of the spirit, mind, and heart.”

Tresham: — “ I prove the contrary, that Christ under-standeth it of the eating with the bodily mouth. For whereas custom is a right good mistress and interpreter of things, and whereas the acts put in practice by Christ do certainly declare those things which he first spake; Christ’s deeds in his supper, where he gave his body to be taken with the mouth, together with the custom, which hath been ever since that time, of that eating which is done with the mouth, doth evidently infer that Christ did understand his words, here cited of me out of John 6:1., of the eating with the mouth.”

Latimer: — “ He gave not his body to be received with the mouth, but he gave the sacrament of his body to be received with the mouth: he gave the sacrament to the mouth, his body to the mind.”

Tresham: — “ But my reason doth conclude, that Christ spake concerning his flesh to be received with the corporal mouth: for otherwise (which God forbid!) he had been a deceiver, and had not been offensive to the Capernaites and his disciples, if he had not meant in this point as they thought he meant: for if he had thought as you do feign, it had been an easy matter for him to have said, ‘You shall not eat my flesh with your mouth, but the sacrament of my flesh;’ that is to say, ye shall receive with your mouth not the thing itself, but the figure of the thing; and thus he might have satisfied them: but so he said not, but continued in the truth of his words, as he was wont. Therefore Christ meant the self-same thing that the Capernaites did, I mean concerning the thing itself to be received with the mouth; videlicet, that his true flesh is truly to be eaten with the mouth. Moreover, forasmuch as you do expound for corpus Christi, ‘ the body of Christ,’ sacramentum corporis Christi, ‘ the sacrament of the body of Christ,’ and hereby do suppose that we obtain but a spiritual union, or union of the mind, between us and Christ; plain it is, that you are deceived in this thing, and do err from the mind of the fathers: for they affirm by plain and express words, that we are corporally and carnally joined together. And these be the words of Hilary: Si vere igitur carnem corporis nostri Christus assumpsit, et vere homo ille qui ex Maria natus fuit Christus est, nos quoque vere sub mysterio carnem corpotis sui sumimus, et per haec unum erimus, quia Pater in eo est, et ille in nobis: quomodo voluntatis unitas asseritur, cum naturalis per sacramentum proprietas perfecte sacramentum sit unitatis. FH170 ‘Therefore, if Christ did truly take the flesh of our body upon him, and the same man be Christ indeed, which was born of Mary; then we also do receive under a mystery the flesh of his body indeed, and thereby shall become one; because the Father is in him, and he in us. How is the unity of will affirmed, when a natural propriety by the sacrament is a perfect sacrament of unity?’ Thus far hath Hilary. Lo! here you see how manifestly these words confound your assertion. To be short, I myself have heard you preaching at Greenwich before King Henry the Eighth, where you did openly affirm, that no christian man ought to doubt of the true and real presence of Christ’s body in the sacrament, forasmuch as he had the word of scripture on his side; videlicet, Hoc est corpus meum, ‘ This is my body:’ whereby he might be confirmed.

But now there is the same truth; the word of scripture hath the selfsame thing, which it then had. Therefore why do you deny at this present that, whereof it was not lawful once to doubt before when you taught it?”

Latimer: — “ Will you give me leave to speak?”

Tresham: — “ Speak Latin, I pray you, for ye can do it, if ye list, promptly enough.”

Latimer: — “ I cannot speak Latin so long and so largely. FH172 Mr.

FH173 Prolocutor hath given me leave to speak English. And as for the words of Hilary, I think they matter not so much for you. But he that shall answer the doctors, had not need to be in my case, but should have them in a readiness, and know their purpose. Melancthon saith, “If the doctors had foreseen that they should have been so taken in this controversy, they would have written more plainly.” FH174 Smith: — “ I will reduce the words of Hilary into the form of a syllogism.

Datisi — ‘Such as is the unity of our flesh with Christ’s flesh, such, yea greater, is the unity of Christ with the Father. ‘But the unity of Christ’s flesh with ours is true and substantial.

FH175 ‘Ergo, The unity of Christ with the Father is true and substantial.’” Latimer: — “ I understand you not.”

Seaton: — “ I know your learning well enough, and how subtle ye be: I will use a few words with you, and that out! of Cyprian, De coena Domini: ‘ The old Testament doth, forbid the drinking of blood: the new Testament doth command the drinking and tasting of blood.’ FH176 But where doth it command the drinking of blood?”

Latimer: — “ In these words, Bibite ex hoc omnes; i.e. ‘Drink ye all of this.’” Seaton: — “Then we taste true blood.”

Latimer: — “ We do taste true blood, but spiritually; and this is enough.”

Seaton: — “ Nay, the old and new Testament in this do differ: for the one doth command, and the other doth forbid, to drink blood.”

Latimer: — “ It is true as touching the matter; but not as touching the manner of the thing.”

Seaton: — “ Then there is no difference between the drinking of blood in the new Testament, and that of the old: for they also drank spiritually.”

Latimer: — “ And we drink spiritually also; but a more precious blood.”

Weston: — “Augustine, upon the 45th Psalm, saith: ‘Drink boldly the blood which ye have poured out.’ Ergo, it is blood.”

Latimer: — “ I never denied it, nor ever will I go from it, but that we drink the very blood of Christ indeed, but spiritually; for the same St Augustine saith, Crede, et manducasti, ‘ Believe, and thou hast eaten.’” Weston: — “Nay, Credere non est bibere nec edere; ‘ To believe is not to drink or eat.’ You will not say, ‘I pledge you,’ when I say, ‘I believe in God.’ Is not mauducare, ‘to eat,’ in your learning, put for credere, ‘to believe?’” Latimer : — “Yes, sir.” FH181 Weston: — “ I remember my Lord Chancellor demanded master Hooper of these questions, Whether edere, ‘to eat’,’ were credere, ‘ to believe;’ and altare, ‘ an altar,’ were Christ, in all the scripture, etc.: and he answered, ‘Yea.’ Then said my Lord Chancellor, ‘Why then, Habemus altare de quo non licet edere; i.e. We have an altar of which it is not lawful to eat, is as much to say, as Habemus Christum, in quo non licet credere; i.e. We have a Christ, in whom we may not believe.’” Tresham: — “‘Believe, and thou hast eaten,’ is spoken of the spiritual eating.”

Latimer: — “It is true, I do allow your saying; I take it so also.”

Weston: — “ We are commanded to drink blood in the new law. Ergo, it is very blood.”

Latimer: — “ We drink blood, so as appertaineth to us to drink to our comfort, in sacramental wine. We drink blood sacramentally: he gave us his blood to drink spiritually: he went about to shew, that as certain as we drink wine, so certainly we drink his blood spiritually.”

Weston: — “ Do not you seem to be a papist, which do bring in new words, not found in scripture? Where find you that sacramentaliter, ‘ sacramentally,’ in God’s book?”

Latimer: — “It is necessarily gathered upon scripture.” [I was in a thing, and have forgotten it.] Weston: — “ The old Testament doth forbid the tasting of blood, but the new doth command it.”

Latimer: — “ It is true, not as touching the thing, but as touching the manner thereof.”

Weston: — “Hear, ye people, this is the argument: — “That which was forbidden in the old Testament, is commanded in the new. “To drink blood was forbidden in the old Testament, and commanded in the new. “Ergo, it is very blood that we drink in the new.” FH186 Latimer: — “ It is commanded spiritually to be drunk. I grant it is blood drunk in the new Testament, but we receive it spiritually.”

Pie: — “ It was not forbidden spiritually in the old law.”

Latimer: — “The substance of blood is drunk; but not in one manner.”

Pie: — “ It doth not require the same manner of drinking.

Latimer: — “ It is the same thing, not the same manner. I have no more to say.”

Here Weston cited the place of Chrysostom, of Judas’s treason: O Judae dementia! Ille cum Judaeis triginta denariis paciscebatur, ut Christum venderet, et Christus ei sanguinem, quem vendidit, offerebat; that is, “O the madness of Judas! He made bargain with the Jews for thirty pence to sell Christ, and Christ offered him his blood, which he sold.” FH187 Latimer: — “ I grant he offered Judas his blood, which he sold, but in a sacrament.”

Weston: — “ Because ye can defend your doctors no better, ye shall see how worshipful men ye hang upon; and one that hath been of your mind shall dispute with you. M. Cartwright, I pray you, dispute.”

Cartwright: — “ Reverend father, because it is given me in commandment to dispute with you, I will do it gladly. But first understand, ere we go any further, that I was in the same error that you are in; but I am sorry for it, and do confess myself to have erred. I acknowledge mine offense, and wish and desire God that you also may repent with me.”

Latimer: — “ Will you give me leave to tell what hath caused Mr.

Doctor to recant here? FH188 It is poena legis, the pain of the law, which hath brought you back, and converted you and many more: the which letteth many to confess God. And this is a great argument, there are few here can dissolve it.”

Cartwright: — “This is not my case: but I will make you this short argument, by which I was converted from mine errors: — “If the true body of Christ be not really in the sacrament, all the whole church hath erred from the apostles’ time: “But Christ would not suffer his church to err: “Ergo, it is the true body of Christ.”

Latimer: — “ The popish church hath erred, and doth err. I think, for the space of six or seven hundred years there was no mention made of any eating but spiritually: for before these five hundred years, the church did ever confess a spiritual manducation. But the Romish church begat the error of transubstantiation. My lord of Canterbury’s book handleth that very well, and by him I could answer you if I had him.” FH191 Cartwright: — “ Linus and all the rest do confess the body of Christ to be in the sacrament: and St Augustine also, upon the 98th psalm, upon this place, Adorate scabellum pedum, etc., granteth it is to be worshipped.”

Latimer: — “ [I do not say that the doctors did err.] We do worship Christ in the heavens, and we do worship him in the sacrament; but the massing worship is not to be used.”

Smith: — “ Do you think that Cyril was of the ancient church?”

Latimer: — “ I do think so.”

Smith: — “He saith, ‘That Christ dwelleth in us corporally.’ These be Cyril’s words of the mystical benediction.”

Latimer: — “ That ‘corporally’ hath another understanding than you do grossly take it.” (Cyril saith, that Christ dwelleth corporally in us, but he saith not that Christ dwelleth corporally in the bread. Which dwelling of Christ in us is, as our dwelling is also in Christ, ‘not local or corporal, but spiritual and heavenly. “Corporally,” therefore, is to be taken here in the same sense as St Paul saith, the fullness of divinity to dwell in Christ corporally; that is, not lightly nor accidentally, but perfectly and substantially, with all his virtue and power, etc., and so dwelleth corporally in us also. [Here Smith repeateth these words of Cyril: per communionem corporis Christi habitat in nobis Christus corporaliter; that is, “by the communicating of the body of Christ Christ dwelleth in us corporally.”] Latimer: — “ The solution of this is in my lord of Canterbury’s book.”

Smith: — “Cyril was no papist, and yet these be his words: ‘Christ dwelleth in us corporally:’ but you say, he dwelleth in us spiritually.”

Latimer: — “ I say, both; that he dwelleth in us both corporally and spiritually, according to his meaning: spiritually by faith, and corporally by taking our flesh upon him. For I remember I have read this in my lord of Canterbury’s book.” FH195 Weston: — “Because your learning is let out to farm, and shut up in my lord of Canterbury’s book, I will recite unto you a place of St Ambrose, De apparatione ad missam, where he saith: Videmus principem Sacerdotem ad nos venientem et offerentem sanguinem, etc. that is, ‘We see the chief priest coming unto us, and offering blood,’ etc. Likewise both Augustine on Psalm 38, and Chrysostom, Concerning the incomprehensible nature of God, say, Non solum homines, etc.”

Latimer: — “ I am not ashamed to acknowledge mine ignorance; and these testimonies are more than I can bear away.”

Weston: — “ Then you must leave some behind you, for lack of carriage.”

Latimer: — “ But for Chrysostom, he hath many figurative speeches and emphatical locutions in many places; as in that which you have now recited: but he saith not, ‘For the quick and the dead;’ he taketh the celebration for the sacrifice.”

Weston: — “ You shall hear Chrysostom again, upon Acts 9:1., Quid dicis? Hostia in manibus sacerdotis, etc.: He doth not call it a cup of wine.”

Latimer: — “ Ye have mine answer there with you in a paper: and yet he calleth it not propitiatorium sacrificium, that is, a propitiatory sacrifice.”

Weston: — “ You shall hear it to be so; and I bring another place of Chrysostom out of the same treatise, Non temere ab apestolis est institutum, etc.”

Latimer: — “ He is too precious a thing for us to offer; he offereth himself.”

Weston: — “Here, in another place of Chrysostom to the people of Antioch, Hom. 69, and also to the Philippians, he saith, ‘there should be a memory and sacrifice for the dead.’” Latimer: — “ I do say, that the holy communion beareth the name of a sacrifice, because it is a sacrifice memorative.”

Weston: — “ How say you to the sacrifice for the dead?”

Latimer: — “ I say it needeth not, or it booteth not.”

Weston: — “ Augustine, in his Enchiridion, the 110th chapter, saith: Non est negandum defunctorum animos pietate suorum viventium relevari, quum pro illis sacrificium Mediatoris offertur; this is, ‘We must not deny that the souls of the dead are relieved by the devotion of their friends which are living, when the sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for them.’ Where he proveth the verity of Christ’s body, and praying for the dead. And it is said, that the same Augustine said mass for his mother.”

Latimer: — “ But that mass was not like yours; which’ thing doth manifestly appear in his writings, which are against it in every place.

And Augustine is a reasonable man; he requireth to be believed no farther than he bringeth scripture for his proof, and agreeth with God’s word.

Weston: — “ In the same place he proveth a propitiatory sacrifice, and that upon an altar, and no oyster-board.”

Latimer: — “ It is the Lord’s table and no oyster-board. It may be called an altar, and so the doctors call it in many places; but there is no propitiatory sacrifice, but only Christ. The doctors might be deceived in some points, though not in all things. I believe them when they say well.”

Cole: — “ Is it not a shame for an old man to lie? You say, you are of the old fathers’ faith, where they say well; and yet ye are not.”

Latimer: — “ I am of their faith when they say well. I refer myself to my lord of Canterbury’s book wholly herein.”

Smith: — “ Then are you not of Chrysostom’s faith, nor of St Augustine’s faith?”

Latimer: — “I have said, when they say well, and bring scripture for them, I am of their faith; and further Augustine requireth not to be believed.”

Weston: — “Origen, Homily thirteen, upon Leviticus.”

Latimer: — I have but one word to say: pants sacramentalis, the sacramental bread, is called a propitiation, because it is a sacrament of the propitiation. What is your vocation?”

Weston: — “ My vocation is, at this time, to dispute; otherwise I am a priest, and my vocation is to offer.” FH205 Latimer: — “ Where have you that authority given you to offer?”

Weston: — “Hoc facite, ‘Do this;’ for facite, in that place, is taken for offerte, that is, ‘offer you.’” Latimer: — “ Is facere nothing but sacrificare, ‘ to sacrifice?’ Why, then, no man must receive the sacrament but priests only: for there may none other offer but priests. Ergo, there may none receive but priests.”

Weston: — “ Your argument is to be denied.”

Latimer: — “Did Christ then offer himself at his supper?”

Pie: — “ Yea, he offered himself for the whole world.”

Latimer: — “ Then if this word facite, ‘ do ye,’ signify sacrificate, ‘ sacrifice ye,’ it followeth, as I said, that none but priests only ought to receive the sacrament, to whom it is only lawful to sacrifice: and where find you that, I pray you?”

Weston,: — “ Forty years ago whither could you have gone to have found your doctrine?” Latimer: — “The more cause we have to thank God that hath now sent the light into the world.”

Weston: — “ The light? Nay, light and lewd preachers: for you could not tell what you might have. Ye altered and changed so often your communions and altars, and all for this one end, to spoil and rob the church.”

Latimer: — “ These things pertain nothing to me. I must not answer for other men’s deeds, but only for mine own.”

Weston: — “ Well, master Latimer, this is our intent, to will you well, and to exhort you to come to yourself, and remember that without Noe’s ark there is no health. Remember what they have been that were the beginners of your doctrine; none but a few flying apostates, running out of Germany for fear of the fagot. Remember what they have been, which have set forth the same in this realm. A sort of fling-brains and light heads, which were never constant in any one thing; as it was to be seen in the turning of the table, where, like a sort of apes, they could not tell which way to turn their tails, looking one day west, and another day east, one that way and another this way.

They will be like, they say, to the apostles, they will have no churches.

A hovel is good enough for them. They come to the communion with no reverence. They get them a tankard, and one saith, I drink, and I am thankful. The more joy of thee, saith another. And in them was it true that Hilary saith, Annuas et menstruas de Deo fides facimus; that is, ‘We make every year and every month a faith.’ A runagate Scot did take away the adoration or worshipping of Christ in the sacrament; by whose procurement that heresy was put into the last Communion Book; so much prevailed that one man’s authority at that time. You never agreed with the Tigurines, or Germans, or with the church, or with yourself. Your stubbornness cometh of a vain glory, which is to no purpose; for it will do you no good when a fagot is in your beard.

And we see all by your own confession, how little cause you have to be stubborn, for your learning is in feoffer’s hold. The queen’s grace is merciful, if ye will turn.”

Latimer: — “ You shall have no hope in me to turn. I pray for the queen daily, even from the bottom of my heart, that she may turn from this religion.”

Weston: — “Here you all see the weakness of heresy against the truth: he denieth all truth, and all the old fathers.”

MASTER LATIMER APPEARETH BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS, [SEPT. 30, 1555.] [Foxe, Acts and Mon. pp. 1365, et seq. Edit. 1563.

Vol. III. pp. 421, et seq. Edit. 1684.] Now, after master Ridley was committed to the mayor, then the bishop of Lincoln commanded the bailiffs to bring in the other prisoner, who, eftsoons as he was placed, said to the lords:

Latimer: — “My lords, if I appear again, I pray you not to send for me until you be ready; for I am an old man, and it is great hurt to mine old age to tarry so long gazing upon the cold walls.”

Then the bishop of Lincoln: — “ Master Latimer, I am sorry you are brought so soon, although it is the bailiff’s fault, and not mine; but it shall be amended.”

Then master Latimer bowed his knee down to the ground, holding his hat in his hand, having a kerchief on his head, and upon it a night-cap or two, and a great cap (such as townsmen use, with two broad flaps to button under the chin), wearing an old thread-bare Bristowe frieze-gown girded to his body with a penny leather girdle, at the which hanged by a long string of leather his Testament, and his spectacles without case, depending about his neck upon his breast. After this the bishop of Lincoln began on this manner:

Lincoln: — “ Master Latimer, you shall understand, that I and my lords here have a commission from my lord cardinal Pole’s grace, legate a latere to this realm of England from our most reverend father in God, the pope’s holiness, to examine you upon certain opinions and assertions of yours, which you, as well here openly in disputations in the year of our Lord 1554, as at sundry and at divers other times did affirm, maintain, and obstinately defend. In the which commission be specially two points: the one which we must desire you is, that if you shall now recant, revoke, and disannul these your errors, and, together with all this realm, yea, all the world, confess the truth, we, upon due repentance of your part, shall receive you, reconcile you, acknowledge you no longer a strayed sheep, but adjoin you again to the unity of Christ’s church, from the which you in the time of schism fell. So that it is no new place to the which I exhort you; I desire you but to return thither from whence you went. Consider, master Latimer, that without the unity of the church is no salvation, and in the church can be no errors. FH217 Therefore what should stay you to confess that which all the realm confesseth, to forsake that which the king and queen their majesties have renounced, and all the realm recanted? It was a common error, and it is now of all confessed: it shall be no more shame to you, than it was to us all. Consider, master Latimer, that within these twenty years this realm also, with all the world, confessed one church, acknowledged in Christ’s church an head; and by what means and for what occasion it cut off itself from the rest of Christianity, and renounced that which in all times and ages was confessed, it is well known, and might be now declared upon what good foundation the see of Rome was forsaken, save that we must spare them that are dead, to whom the rehearsal would be opprobrious: it is no usurped power, as it hath been termed, but founded upon Peter by Christ, a sure foundation, a perfect builder, as by divers places, as well of the ancient fathers, as the express word of God, may be proved.”

With that master Latimer, which before leaned his head to his hand, began somewhat to remove his cap and kerchief from his ears. The bishop proceeded, saying: “For Christ spake expressly to Peter, saying, Pasce oves meas, et rege oves meas: the which word doth not only declare a certain ruling of Christ’s flock, but includeth also certain pre-eminence and government; and therefore is the king called rex a regendo; so that in saying rege, Christ declared a power which he gave to Peter, which jurisdiction and power Peter by hand delivered to Clement; and so in all ages hath it remained in the see of Rome. This if you shall confess with us, and acknowledge with all the realm your errors and false assertions, then shall you do that which we most desire, then shall we rest upon the first part of our commission; then shall we receive you, acknowledge you one of the church, and, according to the authority given unto us, minister unto you, upon due repentance, the benefit of absolution; to the which the king and queen their majesties were not ashamed to submit themselves, although they of themselves were unspotted, and therefore needed no reconciliation; yet lest the putrefaction and rottenness of all the body might be noisome, and do damage to the head also, they (as I said) most humbly submitted themselves to my lord cardinal his grace, by him, as legate to the pope’s holiness, to be partakers of the reconciliation. But if you shall stubbornly persevere in your blindness; if you will not acknowledge your errors; if you, as you now stand alone, will be singular in your opinions; if by schism and heresy you will divide yourself from your church, then must we proceed to the second part of the commission, which we would be loth to do; that is, not to condemn you, for that we cannot do, (that the temporal sword of the realm, and not we, will do,) but to separate you from us, acknowledge you to be none of us; to renounce you as no member of the church; to declare that you are filius perditionis, a lost child; and, as you are a rotten member of the church, so to cut you off from the church, and so to commit you to the temporal judges, permitting them to proceed against you according to the tenor of their laws. Therefore, master Latimer, for God’s love consider your estate: remember you are a learned man; you have taken degrees in the school, borne the office of a bishop; remember you are an old man; spare your body, accelerate not your death; and specially remember your soul’s health, quiet of your conscience. Consider, that if you should die in this state, you shall be a stinking sacrifice to God; for it is the cause that maketh the martyr, and not the death: consider, that if you die in this state, you die without grace; for without the church can be no salvation. Let not vain-glory have the upper hand; humilitate yourself; captivate your understanding; subdue your reason; submit yourself to the determination of the church; do not force us to do all that we may do; let us rest in that part which we most heartily desire; and I for my part (then the bishop put off his cap) again with all my heart exhort you.”

After the bishop had somewhat paused, then master Latimer lifted up his head (for before he leaned on his elbow), and asked whether his lordship had said; and the bishop answered, “Yea.”

Latimer: — “ Then will your lordship give me leave to speak a word or two?”

Lincoln: — “Yea, master Latimer, so that you use a modest kind of talk, without railing or taunts.”

Latimer: — “ I beseech your lordship, license me to sit down.”

Lincoln: — “ At your pleasure, master Latimer, take as much ease as you will.”

Latimer: — “ Your lordship gently exhorted me in many words to come to the unity of the church. I confess, my lord, a catholic church, spread throughout all the world, in the which no man may err, without the which unity of the church no man can be saved: but I know perfectly by God’s word, that this church is in all the world, and hath not his foundation in Rome only, as you say; and methought your lordship brought a place out of the scriptures to confirm the same, that there was a jurisdiction given to Peter, in that Christ bade him regere, govern his people. FH223 Indeed, my lord, St Peter did well and truly his office, in that he was bid regere: but, since, the bishops of Rome have taken a new kind of regere. Indeed they ought regere, but how, my lord? Not as they will themselves: but this regere must be hedged in and ditched in. They must regere, but secundum verbum Dei; they must rule, but according to the word of God. But the bishops of Rome have turned regere secundum verbum Dei into regere secundum voluntatem steam; they have turned the rule according to the word of God into the rule according to their own pleasures, and as it pleaseth them best: as there is a book set forth, which hath divers points in it, and, amongst others, this point is one, which your lordship went about to prove by this word regere; and the argument which he bringeth forth for the proof of that matter is taken out of Deuteronomy, where it is said, ‘If there ariseth any controversy among the people, the priests Levitici generis, of the order of Levi, shall decide shall decide the matter, so it ought to be taken of the people; a large authority, I assure you. What gelding of scripture is this! What clipping of God’s coin!” (With the which terms the audience smiled.) “This is much like the regere which your lordship t talked of. Nay, nay, my lords, we may not give such authority to the clergy, to rule all things as they will. Let them keep themselves within their commission. Now I trust, my lord, I do not rail yet.”

Lincoln: — “ No, master Latimer, your talk is more like taunts than railing: but in that I have not read the book which you blame so much, nor know not of any such, I can say nothing therein.”

Latimer: — “Yes, my lord, the book is open to be read, and is entituled to one which is bishop of Gloucester, whom I never knew, neither did at any time see him to my knowledge.”

With that the people laughed, because the bishop of Gloucester sat there in commission.

Then the bishop of Gloucester stood up, and said it was his book.

Latimer: — “ Was it yours, my lord? Indeed I knew not your lordship, neither ever did I see you before, neither yet see you now through the brightness of the sun shining betwixt you and me.”

Then the audience laughed again; and master Latimer spake unto them, saying: — Latimer: — “Why, my masters, this is no laughing matter. I answer upon life and death. Vae vobis qui ridetis nunc, quoniam flebitis! ” The bishop of Lincoln commanded silence, and then said: — Lincoln: — “Master Latimer, if you had kept yourself within your bounds, if you had not used such scoffs and taunts, this had not been done.”

After this the bishop of Gloucester said, in excusing of his book, “Master Latimer, hereby every man may see what learning you have.” Then master Latimer interrupted him, saying: — Latimer: — “Lo, you look for learning at my hands, which have gone so long to the school of oblivion, making the bare walls my library; keeping me so long in prison, without book, or pen and ink; and now you let me loose to come and answer to articles. You deal with me as though two were appointed to fight for life and death, and over night the one, through friends and favor, is cherished, and hath good counsel given him how to encounter with his enemy: the other, for envy or lack of friends, all the whole night is set in the stocks. In the morning, when they shall meet, the one is in strength and lusty, the other is stark of his limbs, and almost dead for feebleness. Think you, that to run through this man with a spear is not a goodly victory?”

But the bishop of Gloucester, interrupting his answer, proceeded, saying:

Gloucester: — “ I went not about to recite any place of scripture in that place of my book; for then, if I had not recited it faithfully, you might have had just occasion of reprehension: but I only in that place formed an argument a majore, in this sense; that if in the old law the priests had power to decide matters of controversy, much more then ought the authority to be given to the clergy in the new law: and I pray you in this point what availeth their rehearsal, secundum legem Dei?” Latimer: — “ Yes, my lord, very much. For I acknowledge authority to be given to the spiritualty to decide matter of religion; and, as my lord said even now, regere: but they must do it secundum verbum Dei, and not secundum volumtatem suam; according to the word and law of God, and not after their own will, after their own imaginations and fantasies.”

The bishop of Gloucester would have spoken more, saving that the bishop of Lincoln said that they came not to dispute with master Latimer, but to take his determinate answers to their articles; and so began to propose the same articles which were proposed to master Ridley. But master Latimer interrupted him, speaking to the bishop of Gloucester:

Latimer: — Well, my lord, I could wish more faithful dealing with God’s word, and not to leave out a part, and to snatch a part here, and another there, but to rehearse the whole faithfully.”

But the bishop of Lincoln, not attending to this saying of master Latimer, proceeded in the rehearsing of the articles in form and sense as I declared before in the examination of the articles proposed to master Ridley, and required master Latimer’s answer to the first. Then master Latimer, making his protestation, that notwithstanding these his answers, it should not be taken that thereby he would acknowledge any authority of the bishop of Rome, saying that he was the king and queen their majesties’ subject, and not the pope’s, neither could serve two masters at one time, except he should first renounce one of them; required the notaries so to take his protestation, that whatsoever he should say or do, it should not be taken as though he did thereby agree to any authority that came from the bishop of Rome.

The bishop of Lincoln said, that his protestation should be so taken; but he required him to answer briefly, affirmatively or negatively, to the first article, and so recited the same again: and master Latimer answered as followeth:

Latimer: — “ I do not deny, my lord, that in the sacrament, by spirit and grace, is the very body and blood of Christ; because that every man, by receiving bodily that bread and wine, spiritually receiveth the body and blood of Christ, and is made partaker thereby of the merits of Christ’s passion. But I deny that the body and blood of Christ is in such sort in the sacrament, as you would have it.”

Lincoln: — “ Then, master Latimer, you answer affirmatively.”

Latimer: — “ Yea, if you mean of that gross and carnal being, which you do take.”

The notaries took his answer to be affirmatively.

Lincoln: — “ What say you, master Latimer, to the second article?” and recited the same. FH238 Latimer: — “There is, my lord, a change in the bread and wine, and such a change as no power but the omnipotency of God can make, in that that which before was bread should now have the dignity to exhibit Christ’s body; and yet the bread is still bread, and the wine still wine. For the change is not in the nature, but in the dignity; because now that which was common bread hath the dignity to exhibit Christ’s body: for whereas it was common bread, it is now no more common bread, neither ought it to be so taken, but as holy bread, sanctified by God’s word.”

With that the bishop of Lincoln smiled, saying: — Lincoln: — “ Lo, master Latimer, see what stedfastness is in your doctrine! That which you abhorred and despised most, you now most establish: for whereas you most railed at holy bread, you now make your communion holy bread.”

Latimer: — “Tush, a rush for holy bread. I say the bread in the communion is a holy bread indeed.”

But the bishop of Lincoln interrupted him and said:

Lincoln: — “ Oh, ye make a difference between holy bread and holy bread.” (With that the audience laughed.) “Well, master Latimer, is not this your answer, that the substance of bread and wine remaineth after the words of consecration?”

Latimer: — “ Yes, verily, it must needs be so. For Christ himself calleth it bread; St Paul calleth it bread; the doctors confess the same; the nature of a sacrament confirmeth the same: and I call it holy bread, not in that I make no difference betwixt your holy bread and this, but for the holy office which it beareth, that is, to be a figure of Christ’s body; and not only a bare figure, but effectually to represent the same.”

So the notaries penned his answer to be affirmatively.

Lincoln: — “ What say you to the third question?” and recited the same.

FH243 Latimer: — “No, no, my lord, Christ made one perfect sacrifice for all the whole world; neither can any man offer him again, neither can the priest offer up Christ again for the sins of man, which he took away by offering himself once for all (as St Paul saith) upon the cross; neither is there any propitiation for our sins, saving his cross only.”

So the notaries penned his answer to this article also to be affirmatively.

Lincoln: — “ What say you to the fourth, master Latimer?” and recited it. FH244 After the recital whereof, when master Latimer answered not, the bishop asked him, Whether he heard him, or no?

Latimer: — “ Yes; but I do not understand what you mean thereby.”

Lincoln: — “Marry, only this, that \’our assertions were condemned by master Dr Weston as heresies. Is it not so, master Latimer?”

Latimer: — “ Yes, I think they were condemned. But how unjustly, he that shall be judge of all knoweth.”

So the notaries took his answer to this article also to be affirmatively.

Lincoln: — “ What say you, master Latimer, to the fifth article?” And recited it. FH246 Latimer: — “I know not what you mean by these terms, t am no lawyer: I would you would propose the matter plainly.”

Lincoln: — “ In that we proceed according to the law, we must use their terms also. The meaning only is this, That these your assertions are notorious, evil spoken of, and yet common and recent in the mouths of the people.”

Latimer: — “ I cannot tell how much, nor what men talk of them. I come not so much among them, in that I have been secluded a long time. What men report of them, I know not, nor care not.”

This answer taken, the bishop of Lincoln said: “Master Latimer, we mean not that these your answers shall be prejudicial to you. To-morrow you shall appear before us again, and then it shall be lawful for you to alter and change what you will. We give you respite till tomorrow, trusting that, after you have pondered well all things against to-morrow, you will not be ashamed to confess the truth.”

Latimer: — “ Now, my lord, I pray you give me license in three words to declare the causes why I have refused the authority of the pope.”

Lincoln: — “: Nay, master Latimer, to-morrow you shall have license to speak forty words.”

Latimer: — “: Nay, my lords, I beseech you to do with me now as it shall please your lordships: I pray you let not me be troubled tomorrow again.’” Lincoln: — “ Yes, master Latimer, you must needs appear again tomorrow.”

Latimer: — “ Truly, my lord, as for my part I require no respite, for I am at a point; you shall give me respite in vain: therefore I pray you let me not trouble you tomorrow.”

Lincoln: — “ Yes, for we trust God will work with you against tomorrow. There is no remedy: you must needs appear again tomorrow, at eight of the dock, in St Mary’s church.”

And forthwith the bishop charged the mayor with master Latimer, and dismissed him, and then brake up their session for that day, about one of the clock at afternoon.

THE LAST APPEARANCE AND EXAMINATION OF MASTER LATIMER BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS. [OCT. 1, 1555.] [Foxe, Acts and Mon. pp. 1372, et seq. edit. 1563. Vol. III. pp. 426, et seq. edit. 1684. The latter edition is here followed.] This sentence being published by the bishop of Lincoln, master Ridley was committed as a prisoner to the mayor, and immediately master Latimer was sent for: but in the mean season the carpet or cloth, which lay upon the table whereat master Ridley stood, was removed, because (as men reported) master Latimer had never the degree of a doctor, as master Ridley had. But eftsoons as master Latimer appeared, as he did the day before, perceiving no cloth upon the table, he laid his hat, which was an old felt, under his elbows, and immediately spake to the commissioners, saying:

Latimer: — “ My lords, I beseech your lordships to set a better order here at your entrance: for I am an old man, and have a very evil back, so that the press of the multitude doth me much harm.”

Lincoln: — “ I am sorry, master Latimer, for your hurt. At your departure we will see to better order.”

With that master Latimer thanked his lordship, making a very low courtesy. After this the bishop of Lincoln began on this manner:

Lincoln: — “ Master Latimer, although yesterday, after we had taken your answers to those articles which we proposed, we might have justly proceeded to judgment against you, especially in that you required the same; yet we, having a good hope of your returning, desiring not your destruction, but rather that you would recant, revoke your errors, and turn to the catholic church, deferred further process till this day: and now, according to the appointment, we have called you here before us, to hear whether you are content to revoke your heretical assertions and submit yourself to the determination of the church, as we most heartily desire, and I for my part, as I did yesterday, most earnestly do exhort you; or to know whether you persevere still the man that you were, for the which we would be sorry.”

It seemed that the bishop would have further proceeded, saving that master Latimer interrupted him, saying:

Latimer: — “ Your lordship often doth repeat the catholic church, as though I should deny the same. No, my lord, I confess there is a catholic church, to the determination of which I will stand; but not the church which you call catholic, which sooner might be termed diabolic.

And whereas you join together the Romish and catholic church, stay there, I pray you. For it is one thing to say Romish church, and another thing to say catholic church. I must use here, in this mine answer, the counsel of Cyprian, who at what time he was ascited before certain bishops that gave him leave to take deliberation and counsel, to try and examine his opinion, he answered them thus: ‘In sticking and persevering in the truth, there must no counsel nor deliberation be taken.’ And again, being demanded of them sitting in judgment, which was most like to be of the church of Christ, whether he who was persecuted, or they who did persecute? ‘Christ,’ said he, ‘hath foreshewed, that he that doth follow him must take up his cross and follow him. Christ gave knowledge that the disciples should have persecution and trouble.’ How think you then, my lords, is it like that the see of Rome, which hath been a continual persecutor, is rather the church, or that small flock which hath continually been persecuted of it, even to death? Also the flock of Christ hath been but few in comparison to the residue, and ever in subjection:” which he proved, beginning at Noah’s time even to the apostles.

Lincoln: — “ Your cause and St Cyprian’s is not one, but clean contrary: for he suffered persecution for Christ’s sake and the gospel; but you are in trouble for your errors and false assertions, contrary to the word of God and the received truth of the church.”

Master Latimer, interrupting him, said: “Yes, verily, my cause is as good as St Cyprian’s: for his was for the word of God, and so is mine.” FH257 But Lincoln goeth forth in his talk: “Also at the beginning and foundation of the church, it could not be but that the apostles should suffer great persecution. Further, before Christ’s coming, continually, there were very few which truly served God; but after his coming began the time of grace.

Then began the church to increase, and was continually augmented, until it came unto this perfection; and now hath justly that jurisdiction which the unchristian princes before by tyranny did resist. There is a diverse consideration of the estate of the church now in the time of grace, and before Christ’s coming. But, master Latimer, although we had instructions given us determinately to take your answer to such articles as we should propose, without any reasoning or disputations, yet we, hoping by talk somewhat to prevail with you, appointed you to appear before us yesterday in the divinity school, a place for disputations. And whereas then, notwithstanding you had license to say your mind, and were answered to every matter, yet you could not be brought from your errors; we, thinking that from that time ye would with good advisement consider your estate, gave you respite from that time yesterday when we dismissed you, until this time; and now have called you again here in this place, by your answers to learn whether you are the same man you were then or no. Therefore we will propose unto you the same articles which we did then, and require of you a determinate answer, without further reasoning;” and eftsoons recited the first article.

Latimer: — “ Always my protestation saved, that by these mine answers it should not be thought that I did condescend and agree to your lordships’ authority, in that you are legaced by authority of the pope, so that thereby I might seem to consent to his jurisdiction — to the first article I answer now, as I did yesterday, that in the sacrament the worthy receiver receiveth the very body of Christ, and drinketh his blood by the Spirit and grace: but, after that corporal being which the Romish church prescribeth, Christ’s body and blood is not in the sacrament under the forms of bread and wine.”

The notaries took his answer to be affirmatively. For the second article he referred himself to his answers made before. After this the bishop of Lincoln recited the third article, and required a determinate answer.

Latimer: — “ Christ made one oblation and sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and that a perfect sacrifice; neither needeth there to be any other, neither can there be any other, propitiatory [sacrifice.]” The notaries took his answer to be affirmatively. In like manner did he answer to the other articles, not varying from his answers made the day before.

After his answers were penned of the notaries, and the bishop of Lincoln had exhorted him in like sort to recant, as he did master Ridley, and revoke his errors and false assertions, and master Latimer had answered that he neither could nor would deny his Master Christ and his verity, the bishop of Lincoln desired master Latimer to hearken to him: and then master Latimer hearkening for some new matter and other talk, the bishop of Lincoln read his condemnation; after the publication of the which, the said three bishops brake up their sessions, and dismissed the audience. But master Latimer required the bishop to perform his promise in saying the day before, that he should have license briefly to declare the cause, why he refused the pope’s authority. But the bishop said that now he could not hear him, neither ought to talk with him.

Then master Latimer asked him, whether it were not lawful for him to appeal from this his judgment. And the bishop asked him again, To whom he would appeal? “To the next general council,” quoth master Latimer, “which shall be truly called in God’s name.” With that appellation the bishop was content; but, he said, it would be a long season before such a convocation as he meant would be called.

Then the bishop committed master Latimer to the mayor, saying, “Now he is your prisoner, master Mayor.”

Because the press of the people was not yet diminished, each man looking for further process, the bishop of Lincoln commanded avoidance, and willed master Latimer to tarry till the press were diminished, lest he should take hurt at his egression, as he did at his entrance.

WHAT MASTER LATIMER, BEING BISHOP OF WORCESTER, TAUGHT ALL THEM OF HIS DIOCESE TO SAY TO THE PEOPLE. [Foxe, Acts and Mon. p. 1348, edit. 1563.

Vol. III. p. 384, edit. 1684.] In giving Holy Water. Remember, your promise in Baptism, Christ, his mercy and blood-shedding, By whose most holy sprinkling Of all your sins you have free pardoning.

What to say in giving Holy Bread. Of Christ’s body this is a token, Which on the cross for our sins was broken.