Hugh Latimer, an English bishop and reformer, born at Thurcaston, Leicestershire, about 1490, burned at the stake in Oxford, Oct. 16, 1555. The son of a farmer, he was sent to the university of Cambridge when about 14 years of age, was chosen a fellow of Clare Hall in 1509, and received the degree of M. A. in 1514. He then began the study of divinity, and obtained the baccalaureate of theology by a sharp disputation against the doctrine of Me-lanchthon, but became a Protestant about 1520, chiefly through the influence of Bilney. In 1527 he delivered a sermon in presence of the bishop of Ely and numerous priests, in which he drew a contrast between Christ as the exemplar and the English prelates of the day. For this he was forbidden by the bishop to preach in the churches of Cambridge university, but being summoned before Wolsey was dismissed with merely a gentle admonition, and was licensed to preach in any church throughout England. In 1529 he preached two sermons at Christmas "On the Card;" making the practice of card-playing at that festival an occasion, after the taste of the time, to deal out Christian cards, "hearts" to be "trumps." In these sermons he defended the doctrines of the reformation, inveighed against indulgences, and showed the uncertainty of tradition and the need of the Bible in the language of the people.

The disturbance which this occasioned was settled, after investigation before the vice chancellor, by binding both him and his opponents to abstain from offensive expressions against each other in the pulpit. In the following year he favored the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catharine, and was appointed one of the royal chaplains, but remonstrated against the king's inhibition of all English books containing any matters of Scripture. Appointed to the living of West Kington, Wiltshire, he travelled extensively, everywhere occasioning excitement and complaints by his sermons. In 1532 he was prosecuted before the bishop of London, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the convocation, and was at first excommunicated, but was ultimately relieved of all penalties on condition of signing a portion of the articles proposed to him. On the elevation of Cranmer to the primacy in 1533, Latimer was recalled to his royal chaplaincy, and preached before the king on all the Wednesdays of Lent in 1534. He was consecrated bishop of Worcester in 1535, and in 1536 opened the convocation with two of his boldest sermons.

Devoting himself with great diligence to his special episcopal duties, he did not again appear prominently till in 1539 he resigned his see on the passage of the six articles making it penal to impugn transubstan-tiation, communion in one kind, celibacy, the lawfulness of monastic vows, private masses, and auricular confession. He lived in great privacy till an illness required him to seek medical aid in London, where he was discovered by Gardiner's spies, and was imprisoned from 1541 to 1547. After the accession of Edward VI. he declined, probably on account of ill health, to receive back his bishopric, which was offered him at the instance of the house of commons. He took little part in the public direction of the reformation; but, as the popular favorite, he did more than any other man to prepare the way for it in the hearts of the people. After the accession of Mary he was apprised of his danger, and time was allowed him for escape; but he refused to avail himself of the opportunity, and was committed to harsh confinement in the tower. In 1554 he was conveyed to Oxford with Cranmer and Ridley, to hold a disputation on the subject of the mass with several doctors from the universities.

He pleaded that he was old, sick, and had used the Latin tongue but little for 20 years; he was therefore permitted to give in a long profession of faith in writing, for which he was condemned as a heretic, and imprisoned during more than a year in Bocar-do, the common jail of Oxford. He was then summoned again before the commissioners, but refusing to recant, was condemned to the stake. The sentence was executed on him and Ridley "without Bocardo gate," opposite Balliol college, where the martyrs' monument now stands. He was led to the stake with Ridley, gunpowder being fastened about his body to hasten his death; it took fire with the first flame, and he died immediately. He exhorted his fellow sufferer: "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; Ave shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Latimer was rather remarkable for piety and eloquence than for learning and ability. The latest edition of his sermons, by the Rev. G. E. Come, was published in London in 1845, in 4 vols. 8vo. His biography has been written by the Rev. R. Demaus (London, 1869).