LATIMER, HUGH. - Anglican bishop, one of the leaders of the English "reformation," b. at Thurcaston (Leicestershire) ca. 1480-90, d. at Oxford in 1555. At first an opponent of the Protestant "reformation," so much so that he received his bachelor's degree with a dissertation against Melanchthon (1524), he inclined shortly afterward toward Protestantism. He soon acquired a reputation as a preacher. The bishop of Ely, West, suspended him from preaching (1525), but he was nevertheless able to continue in an Augustinian convent before a very large audience. Many of his assertions caused a great stir.
In 1530 he was court preacher for Lent and preached before Henry VIII. The following year he obtained the parish of Westington (Wiltshire) and, thanks to the royal favor he had won, avoided an otherwise certain condemnation for his heretical preaching. The English schism brought him into a position of prominence. In 1535 he became archbishop of Worcester and supported the work of T. Cromwell. Opposed to the "articles of uniformity," which he refused to subscribe, he was deposed and lived in seclusion for some time, until 1548 when, Edward VI having ascended the throne, he resumed his preaching. His sermons of that time remained famous for certain themes of social importance that were addressed in them, such as the persistent immorality of certain aspects of the English agrarian economy. In 1548 Latimer could consider himself practically a Calvinist. When Mary the Catholic (v.) ascended the throne, he was summoned to London. He did not flee: he appeared at a public disputation in which he declared his own convictions. After attempts to make him recant had failed, on 16 Oct. 1555 he was sent to the stake.
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Franco Bolgiani