Hugh Latimer

Latimer, Hugh

(lăt`əmər), 1485?–1555, English bishop and Protestant martyr. Latimer was educated at Cambridge, entered the church, and came under the influence of the Reformation. He first became prominent by defending Henry VIII's divorce from Katharine of Aragón and in 1535 was made bishop of Worcester. His strong Protestant convictions led him to resign his see after the passage of Henry VIII's Six Articles (1539). He was kept in close confinement until the accession of Edward VI (1547), when he resumed preaching against the abuses of church and clergy in eloquent and vivid sermons. When the Roman Catholic Mary I came to the throne he declined to evade trial, refused to recant his Protestantism, and with Nicholas Ridley was burned at the stake as a martyr.

Bibliography

See A. G. Chester, Hugh Latimer, Apostle to the English (1954).

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Latimer, Hugh

 

Born 1485 (?); died Oct. 16, 1555, in London. English Reformation figure.

In his views, Latimer was close to Lutheranism. From 1535 to 1539 he was bishop of Worcester. He was an adviser to Henry VIII; then he fell into disfavor and spent several years in prison. Under Edward VI (king from 1547 to 1553), he was court chaplain. In 1548–49 he delivered a number of sermons which, in addition to calls to deepen the Reformation, contained demands for certain social reforms (such as the lowering of land rents). Under Mary Tudor (ruled from 1553 to 1558), he was again imprisoned and then burnt at the stake as a heretic.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.