Hugh Latimer (c.1485–1555) was a prominent English preacher and reformer during the Protestant Reformation. Along with Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, he played a vital role in advancing England’s religious transformation and later became a martyr for his Protestant convictions.
Born in Thurcaston, Leicestershire, he studied at Cambridge University, where he was elected Fellow of Clare College in 1510 and became a university preacher in 1522. Initially a committed Roman Catholic, he later converted to Protestantism. He was among the scholars appointed to evaluate the legitimacy of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Supporting the King’s cause, he became chaplain to Anne Boleyn and rector of West Kington, Wiltshire. In 1535, he was appointed Bishop of Worcester, where he delivered powerful sermons advocating Reform at the Convocation of 1536.
Latimer resigned in 1539 due to theological differences and opposed the Six Articles, which led to multiple imprisonments in 1536, 1546, and 1553. Under Edward VI, he declined to resume his bishopric but devoted himself to preaching and charity. Under Queen Mary I, he was imprisoned and executed for heresy in 1555 near Balliol College-Oxford.
Among his best-known writings is A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading of Holy Scripture, published in the First Book of Homilies.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Hugh Latimer
The drop of rain maketh a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.
—Hugh Latimer
Topics: Perseverance, Endurance, Persistence, Equality, Resolve, Violence, Rain
We must first be made good, before we can do good; we must first be made just, before our works can please God—for when we are justified by faith in Christ, then come good works.
—Hugh Latimer
Topics: Goodness
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