THE progress of what were called Lutheran opinions in the University of Cambridge began at length to attract the attention of the authorities. In the short parliament of 1523, the only one summoned during Wolsey's supremacy (for the Cardinal, like Strafford, was averse to parliaments), it was resolved that "two of the Bishops should be desired to repair unto the University of Cambridge for examination, reformation, and correction of such errors as then seemed and were reported to reign amongst the students and scholars of the same, as well touching the Lutheran sect and opinions as otherwise." The suggestion came from one of the Bishops, probably from Fisher, the Chancellor of the University, who had just published a refutation of Luther's teaching; and other prelates confirmed the necessity of taking some precautionary measures to arrest the progress of the Reformed opinions. A rigorous inquisition at that period would unquestionably have done much injury to the cause of the Reformation in the University: no steps, however, were taken to enforce the recommendation of the Bishops. Wolsey had to be consulted before any active measures could be adopted, and he "expressly inhibited" the threatened visitation of the University, "by means whereof," as it was urged against him on his impeachment, "the said error crept more abroad, and took greater place."1
It may seem strange that Wolsey should thus, as it were, interfere to shelter heretics from detection and punishment; but the Cardinal had his own reasons for this procedure. He rather took a pleasure in thwarting the Bishops, so as to make them sensible of his superior authority; he was, besides, by no means inclined to be rigorous in searching for heresy, or severe in punishing it; he was, moreover, busied in planning his magnificent college at Oxford, and as he designed to fill it with the most promising young men in England, he did not wish to take any step that might unnecessarily alienate the youth of Cambridge; finally, he meditated a general reform of the whole ecclesiastical system of England, and therefore resented the contemplated visitation of the Bishops as an officious interference with his great design. Wolsey's ideas of the reformation that the Church required were somewhat indefinite, and certainly would be by no means sweeping or thorough; still it is important to observe that it was not merely the Reformers who maintained that some reformation of the innumerable abuses of the Church was urgently required: the great authorities in the Church had long seen this necessity, but had felt themselves utterly at a loss to cope with abuses that had existed for so many ages, and which seemed inseparably incorporated with the very constitution of the Church.
It was in the interval of peace thus strangely procured by the unexpected protection of Wolsey, that Latimcr was converted to the opinions of the Reformers. It has already been noticed that he graduated as Bachelor of Divinity in the year which ended at Michaelmas, 1524. It was required that on the occasion of taking his degree he should deliver a public discourse on some theological subject. With the characteristic zeal of an ardent lover of the Church, indignant at the success of the heresy which was everywhere finding disciples, he directed his whole oration against Philip Melancthon, the eminent German Reformer, who had recently impugned the authority of the school-doctors, and had maintained that they must all be tested by the supreme standard of Holy Scripture. Bilney was present at this intemperate declamation, and perceived that the honest preacher was "zealous without knowledge." In all probability Bilney had often before listened to Latimer's violent denunciations of the new opinions, and looked upon him as the most determined of his opponents; but now something in the preacher's manner, or some casual expressions in his oration, revealed to Bilney an experience like that which he had himself passed through, and from which he had found so happy a release in the study of the Holy Scripture. He determined, therefore, to seek an interview with Latimer, not without the hope that even this opponent might be brought to seek for peace and life in the Word of God, and not in the subtilties of the school-men or the ritual of the Church. He went to Latimer in his study, and desired him " for God's sake to hear his confession." "I did so," says Latimer; "and to say the truth, by his confession I learned more than before in many years."2 We cannot doubt what the tenor of Bilney's confession would be. Latimer had just been denouncing the study of the Holy Scripture as dangerous to the soul, and had recommended his hearers to seek for peace and spiritual life in implicit obedience to the teaching; of the Church and the prescriptions of her ministers. In reply to all this, Bilney would repeat the touching story of his own spiritual conflict - how he had gone about seeking to find health and comfort to his sick and languishing soul; how he had applied to those physicians that Latimer so much commended, and had diligently used all their remedies, but had found no benefit; how he had fasted and done penance, how he had prayed and mortified himself, till he was more dead than alive, and yet he had not thereby received any assurance of peace with God, but was filled with despair; how, at last, he had road that Book which Latimer had condemned as fatal to the soul, and all at once he had felt himself healed as by the hand of the Divine Physician. Was he to abandon his peace, and go back again to his penance and despair? The case was beyond the limits of Latimer's narrow experience. He had imagined that these students of Scripture were proud, obstinate heretics, outwardly despising the ordinances of the Church, but inwardly ill at ease in their own minds; and here was the very leader of these heretics in the University, a simple honest soul, who had found that peace which Latimer had been seeking in vain. His wonted confidence in his old prescriptions failed him. The simple story of Bilney's spiritual conflicts, uttered in the solemn silence of Latimer's study, awoke in his heart thoughts and emotions too deep for utterance. It was a revelation of a truth and a life of which he had never heard before; of that very peace and health for which he had been yearning for years.
His first act, we may well believe, would be to procure that New Testament which he had so often denounced, and to read and study for himself. And as he read, the clouds and darkness passed away, and the true light shone in from the eternal heavens beyond. Instead of an austere Deity, needing to be propitiated by penances and painful watchings, there rose up before him the blessed revelation of free forgiveness and peace by the blood of Christ, and the glorious vision of the Divine life of Christ, so widely different from the blind monkish idea of a noble life, and yet felt at once by the honest heart to be the perfect type of all that is good and true. That peace which he had so earnestly sought in the multiplied observances of a ceremonial devotion, was here freely offered to all who would in faith and humility accept it. He no longer sighed for the security and sanctity of the monastery; for the same Scriptures which assured him of forgiveness and peace, called him to a nobler life of energy and action in the busy world outside the convent walls. The change in Latimer's life and opinions could not long be hid: the very openness and frank impetuosity of his character would render any concealment impossible. In a very short time it was obvious to all in Cambridge that the University Cross-bearer, the former opponent of all Lutheran opinions, had gone over to the side of the Reformers. A change so striking and so abrupt could not but attract attention; even the most bigoted could not deny its genuineness, for the character of Latimer was above suspicion. The pious students of Holy Scriptures saw in it a repetition of the great scene on the way to Damascus: the Head of the Church, who had called Saul from persecuting the Christians to be the Great Apostle of the Gentiles, Had again curbed their chief opponent in the height of his career, and sent him forth to preach that faith which once he despised.
The precise date of this grand occurrence in Latimer's history can be fixed with tolerable accuracy. It was nearly coincident with his graduation as Bachelor of Divinity, which the University Registers show took place between Michaelmas, 1523, and Michaelmas, 1524. In all probability his conversion may be assigned to the spring of 1524.
We must not overrate the extent of the change which had taken place in his life and opinions. Bilney and his friends had not separated themselves from the communion and teaching of the Church. They had no new creed; no new form of worship. Latimer remained, therefore, as before, a priest of the Church in which he had been baptized and ordained; he officiated at her altars, as before; and preached, as before, in her pulpits. On two great points, however, he had learned something new. He understood now that the laborious system of penance, intercession of saints, invocation of the Virgin, and other ceremonies of the Church, all intended (as they were usually understood) to atone for sin and procure peace with an offended God, were superfluous, and worse than superfluous, for Scripture plainly declared that Christ had come and made peace already. No works of men could make atonement for sin; no saints, no angels could procure men salvation; and so far as these tended to shut out from men's view the only Saviour, they were abuses against which Latimer now saw it his duty to warn the people. He learned also to form a widely different idea of the life which it became a Christian to lead. The voluntary works of man's invention, which he had formerly supposed to be the highest exhibitions of piety - the creeping to the cross on Good Friday, the decorating of images, the offering of candles before the shrines of saints - these he now perceived to be far less noble than the careful performance of the duties which God had enjoined - visiting the sick, relieving the poor, teaching the ignorant, leading all men to repentance.
On other points Latimer's opinions remained for the present unchanged, and only altered slowly in his future career. Probably in consequence of his disgust with his former scholastic studies, he from this time manifested a disinclination to theological controversy, and occupied himself entirely with matters of obvious practical importance; and down to the close of his life, long after even the cautious Cranmer had in the main adopted the creed of the Continental Reformers, Latimer continued to believe and to teach some of those doctrines which are usually considered most characteristically the errors of the Church of Rome. He was in truth the most practical and the most conservative of all the Reformers. Remove the abuses that encouraged immorality and superstition, allow the Holy Scriptures to be freely circulated and read, and Latimer would have permitted the Church in other matters to teach as she had taught before. He wished no great change of creed; he was no advocate for the sweeping removal of institutions which had been the growth of centuries.
Bilney was now Latimer's constant companion in his study and in his expeditions abroad. One favourite walk they had where they were daily to be seen, and which the wits of the University nicknamed the " Heretics' Hill." Under Bilney's influence, too, his studies were completely changed; "he began to smell the Word of God," he says in his own quaint language, " and forsook the school-doctors and such fooleries."3 He shared also in those works of charity and benevolence for which Bilney had been long conspicuous. Together the two friends went to instruct and to relieve those outcasts for whom no man cared; they were especially assiduous in visiting the prisoners in the town of Cambridge; and they used to preach in the lazarcots or fever hospitals, and did not disdain to render to the unhappy sufferers those offices of kindly charity which were in those days too frequently denied them. In these new studies, and this happy, friendly intercourse, and active Christian charity, Latimer spent the rest of the year 1524. Wolsey's protection screened the little company of converts from any persecution; and though Latimer had doubtless excited suspicion by the change of his opinions, it is pleasing to observe, from the few records of the period that have been preserved to us, that he had not forfeited the high position "which his character and learning had previously secured him in the University.
Thus on the 28th of August, 1524, a deed was executed, conveying to Latimer and others certain lands in order to find a priest to celebrate mass in the chapel of Clare Hall, for the soul of one John-a-Bolton. 4 The bequest is conclusive evidence of the esteem in which Latimer continued to be held; and at the same time proves that he had not yet learned, as he subsequently did, to look upon purgatory as "a pleasant and profitable fiction, born and brought forth in Rome, by means of which the Church had got more by dead men's tributes and gifts than any emperor had by taxes and tallages of them that were alive." 5
To the close of 1524 also belongs the earliest of Latimer's letters that has been preserved. It refers merely to the election of a High Steward for the University of Cambridge, a matter of little consequence now, though it produced the usual excitement in the little academic world of the time, and is of interest to us solely as affording a glimpse into Latimer's position and pursuits at this period of his career.
"To Dr. Greene 6 (Vice-Chancellor of the University).
"When I arrived last night at Kimbolton, most worshipful father, on my way to my native place, I soon learned from Mr. Thorpe " [unknown personage, perhaps the parish priest of Kimbolton] "and others of good credit, after mutual greetings and compliments, that nothing would at present give more pleasure to Mr. Wingfield" [Sir Richard Wingfield, of Kimbolton Castle, a courtier in high favour with Henry] "than to succeed to the office which Mr. Lovell held amongst us " [office of High Steward of the University: Sir Thomas Lovell had died May 25th, 1524]. " Not that a man so full of honours, and so signally enriched with abundance of all things, looks upon, so trifling a salary as any object; hut being a man of a noble mind, he is extremely anxious to be on terms of intimacy with men of letters and cultivators of the muses. And so anxiously does he cherish this wish, so eagerly does he seek the office, that as we had nothing to allege in excuse, except a pledge previously made to the honoured More" [Sir Thomas More], " we are told that More has been already prevailed upon by the King's solicitation to give place to Wingfield, so that we may, without compromising our honour, accede to Wingfield's wishes. It is unquestionable that by his singular politeness he makes everyone in this neighbourhood his friend, and secures their attachment by deeds of kindness; and is, in short, a universal benefactor.
"It is a matter, therefore, for you to consider with your customary good sense. On you especially depends the whole business in which the interest, the credit, the splendour of the University, are so much involved. Thorpe, whom we both admire so much, and who is so devoted to you, thinks that nothing could be more beneficial to the interests of our literary republic than granting this favour. For, to say a single word for Wingfield, who is now-a-days more in the royal confidence than he, or readier to speak for his friends to the King? Or, who among the lay nobles is a greater friend of learning? But perhaps I shall appear to you rather officious than discreet in speaking so plainly to your worship. It is Thorpe, however, who has, instigated me. My zeal, my sense of duty, my affection to our literary republic have impelled me. Forgive one who if he errs, errs through good intentions.
"Farewell, your worship. I write very late at night, after a day of equinoctial rains; half suffocated and almost stupified with the heat of the sun, the fumes of the victuals, and the rest of the feasting.
"From Kimbolton, the day after St. Edward's Day' [i.e., October 14th.]
" Your Latimer."
We know not what family necessity had called him home at this time; but in a large family, whose members were all grown up and many of them aged, such occasions would of course occur. The letter is written in elegant and terse Latin (Latimer's Latin style, indeed, is much superior to his English), and though it throws no light upon that interesting phase of his new life on which he had entered, a subject to which ho never refers in his letters, it is the production: evidently of an active man, shrewd and discreet in the conduct of business, and holding a position of honourable esteem in the University.
Wolsey's arrangements for the magnificent college at Oxford, which was to perpetuate his name, were in the mean time approaching completion. The Pope's bull had armed him with authority to provide the necessary funds for his enormous outlay by the suppression of some of the smaller religious houses, a precedent which was not forgotten in subsequent years; and he spared no pains in searching for young men of learning and ability to equip his college. Cambridge (thanks to the impulse which Erasmus's presence had given) then abounded in such students; and Wolsey's agents were sent with ample commission to secure, by liberal rewards and promises, such students as were likely to communicate a lustre to the new seat of learning.
Their visit was a highly successful one. Some eight or ten of the choice young men of Cambridge were induced to accept their munificent invitations, and were in a few months transferred from the banks of the Cam to what was then known as St. Frideswide's or Cardinal College, Oxford. 7 Among those selected were Richard Cox, John Clarke, John Fryer, Godfrey Harman, Henry Sumner, William Betts, John Fryth, Goodman, and Radley. They were all chosen on account of their abilities; and if any suspicion of heresy was whispered against any of them, Wolsey was not the man to attach very much importance to it. It is not a little singular, however, that all those named were more or less under the influence of Bilney's teaching; and their transference to Oxford was thus the means of propagating on a fresh field that truth which Bilney had found in the study of Scripture. For some years after their removal all continued quiet, and no danger was apprehended; but in 1528 an alarming explosion of heresy occurred in Cardinal College, to the dismay of the University authorities. Inquiry revealed to them the source from which the heresy had been introduced into Oxford; and sad reflections were made on Wolsey's indiscretion. "Would God," said one of the heads of houses, "My Lord's grace had never been motioned to call Clarke, nor any other Cambridge man, into his most towardly college. We were clear, without blot or suspicion, till they came; and some of them long time hath had a shrewd name." 8
During the greater part of the year 1525, Latimer, Bilney, and Stafford continued to teach without molestation. The authorities had not yet taken alarm at the progress of reformed opinions in England; and as has been already noticed, Latimer only by slow degrees departed from the ordinary teaching of the Church. The free forgiveness of sins by the atonement of Christ was plainly preached as it had never been preached before, and gross practical abuses, tending to conceal Christ and His salvation from the eyes of the people, were attacked and condemned; but there was no open contradiction or denial of any of the commonly received articles of the Church's creed; there was no departure from the customary ceremonies of religious worship; no declaration of hostility against the Church's authority. Men had their suspicions of the tendency of the teaching of Latimer and his friends; but it would have been difficult to convict them of heresy even in an ecclesiastical court. So late, indeed, as the month of July, 1525, West, Bishop of Ely, a man by no means inclined to look with favour upon the progress of reformation in the Church, granted Bilney a licence to preach anywhere in his diocese, 9 so little danger was as yet apprehended from the movement that had been begun in the University.
Thus left perfectly free to preach their opinions, Latimer and Bilney were gradually forming for themselves a numerous party of disciples in the University. Their influence was continually on the increase, and accessions were daily made to the list of earnest students of Holy Scripture. Among the most important of those recent converts was Robert Barnes, Prior of the monastery of Augustine Friars, in Cambridge, a man destined to play a somewhat conspicuous part in the subsequent transactions of Henry's reign. He had studied at Louvaine, where he acquired a distinguished reputation as a brilliant classical scholar; and on his coming to Cambridge, his lectures on Cicero, Terence, and Plautus, were thronged with admirers of the classics. He expounded St. Paul also, but without well understanding tho Apostle's meaning, and chiefly, it would appear, as a means for giving vent to his fierce polemical temper and love of personalities - faults which more or less appeared during the whole of his career. The influence of Bilney, Stafford, and Latimer, led him to a better appreciation of the teaching of St. Paul, and though he did not at once openly avow himself an adherent of their doctrines, he was known to he friendly to them; and his position as head of a monastery exempt from episcopal control, enabled him to render them very essential service in a critical emergency.
At length rumours of the rapid increase of Lutheran opinions throughout England began to excite serious alarm in the minds of the ecclesiastical authorities; and towards the close of 1525 the suspicion seems to have dawned upon the Bishop of Ely that he had, perhaps, been somewhat too easy and remiss, in so long tolerating what was possibly heretical and dangerous to the interests of the Church and the University. Loud complaints were made especially against the preaching of Latimer, but the Bishop wisely determined to hear and judge for himself, taking care to keep his purpose secret, that the preacher might have no opportunity of making any special preparation for his coming. He ascertained accordingly the day on which it was Latimer's turn to preach in Latin in the University Church; and coming up unexpectedly from Ely, he entered the church just as the preacher had well begun his sermon. Latimer acted with admirable sagacity and presence of mind. He waited calmly till the Bishop and his splendid retinue were seated, and then resumed his preaching, but skilfully changed his subject. "A new audience," he adroitly remarked, "especially of such rank, deserves a new theme." He selected, therefore, as the starting-point of a fresh discourse the words of St. Paul, " Christ being come, a High Priest of good things to come," &c. (Heb. ix. 11.) These words naturally led him to speak of the office and duties of a priest, and especially of a bishop or high priest, and to treat of the life of Christ as the great pattern and model to which all priests and bishops should conform. One can easily imagine the powerful effect of such a subject treated in Latimer's homely, clear, graphic manner. The carelessness of the clergy was the great scandal and abuse of the day, and in a sermon preached to an audience of clergymen, Latimer's theme was peculiarly important. His hearers could not but feel how widely they had departed from the Divine model of true pastors of Christ's people, and suspect that (as a contemporary writer expresses it) " they were not of that race of bishops which Christ meant to have succeeded Him in His Church, but rather of the fellowship of Caiaphas and Annas." 10
West was much too sagacious to acknowledge his own guilt by abusing the preacher: on the contrary, he treated him with great, and even exaggerated courtesy. When service was over he sent for Latimer, and thanked him for his excellent sermon. He had never heard his office so admirably expounded before; "indeed," he added, "if you will do one thing at my request, I will kneel down and kiss your feet for the good admonition that I have received of your sermon."
"What is your lordship's pleasure that I should do for you?" quoth Mr. Latimer.
"Marry!" quoth the Bishop; "that you will preach me, in this place, one sermon against Martin Luther and his doctrine."
It was an ingenious ruse on the part of the Bishop, but Latimer was more than a match for him. "My lord," he replied, " I am not acquainted with the doctrine of Luther, nor are we permitted here to read his works" [Wolsey had prohibited them in 1521], " and therefore it were but a vain thing for me to refute his doctrine, not understanding what he hath written, nor what opinion he holdeth. Sure I am that I have preached before you this day no man's doctrine, but only the doctrine of God out of the Scriptures. And if Luther do none otherwise than I have done, there needeth no confutation of his doctrine. Otherwise, when I understand that he doth teach against the Scripture, I will be ready with all my heart to confound his doctrine as much as lieth in me."
The cautious shrewdness of this reply was too much for West's temper; and lie broke off the conversation abruptly with the petulant remark, "Well, well, Mr. Latimer, I perceive that you somewhat smell of the pan: you will repent this gear one day."
West lost no time in showing his animosity. He preached publicly against Latimer and his doctrines in Barnwell Abbey, near Cambridge; and formally inhibited him from officiating in any part of his diocese or in any of the University pulpits. Such a step taken a few months earlier might have interposed a serious obstacle to the progress of the Reformation in Cambridge; but, as it was, the inhibition altogether failed in its effect. Barnes, already more than half gained over to the cause of Latimer and Bilney, and constitutionally predisposed to adopt any procedure that might bring him into conflict with a bishop, at once openly declared himself on the side of the Reformers. His monastery, like many other religious houses, was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction; and this gross abuse, which had been encouraged by the Popes, was now found serviceable to the cause of the Reformation. Undeterred by "West's prohibition, therefore, Barnes boldly placed his pulpit at Latimer's disposal for the next Sunday.
It was Christmas Eve, and the churches would, in the ordinary course of things, be well filled with worshippers. But on this occasion the whole University was in a ferment, for it was felt that a crisis was at hand, and all were anxious to hear what Latimer had to say for himself. The little chapel of the Augustinian monastery was accordingly crowded with an overflowing audience. What theme Latimer chose, or how he treated it, we do not know; his sermon we may be sure would be an honest and a temperate one: but while he was preaching, something was occurring elsewhere in Cambridge, which, for the time, diverted public interest to another person. At the request of the parish, Barnes was also preaching in St. Edward's Church the same day. It was his first appearance as a Reformer, and his sermon at once produced an explosion in the highly-charged atmosphere. His text, chosen from the Epistle for the day ("Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men"), might have suggested the propriety of some caution and moderation. But Barnes was excited by the occurrences of the past few days; he saw among his audience some of the most bitter opponents of the new doctrines, and some personal enemies; and the provocation proved too strong for his impetuous temper. Diverging from his subject, he made some caustic remarks intended to "prick" the enemies whom he saw present; 11 and then launched out into a furious attack of the whole body of the clergy, and especially of the Bishops. The Bishops, he declared, were followers of Judas, who had the purse, and not of Christ; they were like Balaam, they rode upon asses - the ignorant people, namely, whom they pillaged and abused. In the horns of their mitres he recognised the horns of the false prophet; and their pastoral staff seemed to him expressly designed to knock the sheep on the head. Wolsey in particular, who surely deserved some consideration at the hands of a Cambridge Reformer, was singled out for special denunciation. His many offices, his large dioceses, his state and pomp, his magnificent apparel, his pillars, his cushions, 12 his two crosses, his golden shoes, his red gloves - " bloody gloves to keep him warm amidst his ceremonies" - were all held up to the scorn and reprobation of the audience.
A sermon so violent and so personal at once provoked a crisis. Ridley, one of the Fellows of King's College, and the enemy at whom Barnes had hurled some of his most offensive remarks, joined with Watson (Latimer's old tutor) and some others in presenting an accusation against Barnes before the Vice-Chancellor. Twenty-five articles selected from his sermon, and characterised as " some contentious, some seditious, some slanderous, some heretical," were laid to his charge; and he was required to recant or abide the consequences. Barnes affirmed that he had been misunderstood, and offered to explain his meaning next Sunday in the same place; but the Vice-Chancellor inhibited his preaching there. Bilney and Latimer were no doubt grieved and perplexed by the rashness and indiscretion of their new ally; still they made common cause with him, and their adherents, a numerous body, resolved to procure for him an open and fair trial. The whole University was agitated with the discussion, and was divided into factions. The friends of Barnes had their head-quarters at a house called the "White Horse," conveniently situated so as to allow the members of King's, Queen's, and St. John's Colleges to enter unobserved, and facetiously styled " Germany" by their opponents. It seems to have been the chief object of Barnes's accusers to terrify him by threats into submission and recantation, without the formality of a public trial; and his friends were equally resolved to have all proceedings public. Scenes of confusion and almost riot followed, for men's minds were becoming excited.
After a month had been spent in this unsatisfactory manner, Barnes threw himself upon the charity of the Vice-Chancellor, and agreed to read a public recantation in the church where he had preached the offending sermon. But the terms of the proposed recantation were so extravagant, and involved such an unfair perversion of his language, that he refused to read it, and "hereupon," says he, "there arose a great tragedy amongst them." Alarming rumours besides began to circulate; report had just reached England 13 that some daring Englishman had translated the New Testament into the English language, and was about to circulate this dangerous book in every part of the realm; and it was believed that not only Cambridge but all England was filled with " pestilent books of Luther's perverse opinions." It was resolved, therefore, to strike a blow that should effectually arrest the progress of the Reformation in England. Communication was opened up with Wolsey, who naturally enough resented Barnes's unwarrantable attack, and a secret plan was devised for arresting Barnes, and at the same time seizing the prohibited books which were suspected to have been introduced into Cambridge. One part of the plan was accomplished with complete success. Barnes was openly arrested in the Convocation House, and hurried off to London. 14 The other part as completely miscarried. Dr. Farman, of Queen's College, heard the whispered plot, and immediately warned the suspected persons of the contemplated razzia upon their books. There was not a moment to lose; the books were conveyed to a place of safety; and when the sergeant-at-arms, who had arrested Barnes, proceeded in triumph to the very spot where the forbidden books were commonly kept - " God be praised, the books were not to be found."
It was on Monday, February 5 (1526), that Barnes was arrested, and on the Wednesday following, after waiting all day, he was brought before Wolsey in his gallery at Westminster. Gardiner, Wolsey's Secretary, and formerly Barnes's tutor at Cambridge, and Fox, also a Cambridge man, were the only persons present at the interview. The Cardinal read over the articles of accusation, and Barnes argued with considerable force in his own defence. Wolsey, of course, referred to the violent personal attack made upon himself, and criticised Barnes with some humour and severity. " Had you not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures, Master Doctor," he asked, "to teach the people, but that my golden shoes, my pole-axes, my pillars, my golden cushions, my crosses did so sore offend you that you must make us ' ridiculum caput' amongst the people ? We were jollily that day laughed to scorn. Verily it was a sermon more fit to be preached on a stage than on a pulpit." Barnes was urged to acknowledge his heresy, and submit to Wolsey, but he resolutely declined to submit, except in such matters as could be proved against him.
Next morning, after a sleepless night spent in writing his defence, Barnes was conducted to the Chapter House at Westminster Abbey, where a number of bishops and doctors were assembled for the trial of heretics. Again, with many threats, he was required to confess his heresy, and submit to the authorities; and again he declined. He was committed to the Fleet, and all intercourse with him was rigorously forbidden; Coverdale and others who had accompanied him from Cambridge were not allowed to see him; and a determined effort was made to work upon his fears. He was again examined, with the same result, on Friday. On Saturday, after being kept some hours in waiting, a long roll was put in his hand, and he was peremptorily required to read it as it stood, without any comment, or to " stand in jeopardy." Still Barnes demurred, and entreated his judges to show him his errors; to prove that his doctrines were heretical; at least to let him first of all see what he had to read. He went down on his knees, but his judges remained inexorable. "Either read the roll or be burned," said the Bishop of Bath, the president of the court. "I will not read," was Barnes's emphatic reply. The other judges present remonstrated with him: "It is but a small thing to read the roll," they urged, "and you will be never the worse for it; the Cardinal is considerate and merciful; submit to him, and trust to his generosity." This seeming sympathy with him effected what the threatened severity had failed to accomplish; Barnes took the roll, "read it, subscribed it, made a cross on it," swore to submit to any penance which might be inflicted upon him, and was reconducted to his prison. He was not alone in his humiliation: four Still-yard men, German merchants, 15 had been brought to trial for introducing along with other merchandise some of Luther's prohibited books; and, like Barnes, they had acknowledged their fault, and promised to submit to any penance that might be enjoined upon them. All were committed to the Fleet, preparatory to the grand scenic display that had been designed for the next morning.
On Sunday, therefore, as soon as it was daylight, Barnes and his companions, bearing faggots, marched through the crowded streets to St, Paul's; the warder of the Fleet heading the procession with his bill-men, and the knight-marshal with his tip-staves bringing up the rear. Old St. Paul's was already thronged with a somewhat noisy assemblage, eager to witness the spectacle. The proceedings have been described by Foxe, with unusual spirit, and we cannot do better than transcribe his narrative.
" The Cardinal had a scaffold made on the top of the stairs for himself, with six-and-thirty abbots, mitred priors, and bishops; and he, in his whole pomp, mitred (which Barnes spake against), sat there enthronised, his chaplains and spiritual doctors in gowns of damask and satin, and he himself in purple - even like a bloody Antichrist. And there was a new pulpit erected on the top of the stairs also, for the Bishop of Rochester " [Fisher] " to preach against Luther and Dr. Barnes; and great baskets full of books" [prohibited books that had been seized] "standing before them, within the rails, which were commanded, after the great fire was made before the rood of Northen " [the crucifix over the north door]," there to be burned. Now while the sermon was a-doing " [doing is literally correct, for, as Fisher himself confesses, " it could not be heard for the noise," and was therefore all dumb show,] "Dr. Barnes and the Still-yard men were commanded to kneel down, and ask forgiveness of God, of the Catholic Church, and of the Cardinal's grace; and after that he was commanded, at the end of the sermon, to declare that he was more charitably handled than he deserved, or was worthy - his heresies were so horrible and detestable. And once again he kneeled down on his knees, desiring of the people forgiveness and to pray for him. And so the Cardinal departed under a canopy, with all his mitred men with him. Then these poor men were commanded to come down from their stage, and the knight-marshal and the warden of the Fleet were commanded to carry them about the fire. And so were they brought to the bishops, and there, for absolution, kneeled down; where Rochester stood up, and declared unto the people how many days of pardon and forgiveness of sins they had for being at that sermon, and there did he assoil Dr. Barnes with, the others, and showed the people that they were received into the Church again." 16
Such was the inglorious termination of Barnes's first appearance as a Reformer. A single sermon, marked much more by fierce personality than by simple honest zeal for proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, had involved the whole University for weeks in angry controversy; and this was the unhappy end - an ignominious denial of the truth before half the population of London. The scene at St. Paul's over, Barnes was again committed to prison during Wolsey's pleasure, and for some time he will disappear from this biography; we shall, however, only too frequently have occasion to regret the evil influence which the unhappy example of his recantation seems to have exerted over the English Reformers. It was a bad precedent, and, unfortunately, it was too often followed.
The position of Latimer and Bilney must of course have been seriously compromised by the conduct of Barnes. They had not, indeed, given offence as he had done by personal attacks upon the rulers of the Church; still, as the teachers of doctrines that were more than suspected of Lutheranism, they had many enemies, and the present seemed a favourable opportunity for utterly extirpating all heresy from the University. Accusations were accordingly presented against them, and they were summoned to London to answer for themselves before Wolsey; not very long, probably, after Barnes's appearance at St. Paul's. 17 They had given no personal provocation to Wolsey; the articles against them would seem slight and trivial after those which had been alleged against Barnes; the Cardinal was by no means of a sanguinary temperament, and was in high spirits from the success of his foreign policy, which at last seemed to promise him his long-desired revenge upon the perfidious Charles. The moment was an auspicious one, therefore, and the interview was unexpectedly productive of the best results for Latimer. We must again draw upon Ralph Morice, Cranmer's Secretary, for a graphic narrative of the proceedings.
"Latimer was called before Wolsey into his inner chamber by the sound of a little bell, which tho Cardinal used to ring when any person should come or approach unto him. When Mr. Latimer was before him; he well advised him, and said,
"' Is your name Latimer? '
"'Yea, forsooth,' quoth Latimer.
"' You seem,' quoth the Cardinal, ' that you are of good years, nor no babe, 18 but one that should wisely and soberly use yourself in all your doings; and yet it is reported to me of you that you are much infected with this new fantastical doctrine of Luther, and such like heretics; that you do very much harm among the youth, and other light-heads, with your doctrine.'
" Said Mr. Latimer again, ' Your grace is misinformed; for I ought to have some more knowledge than to be so simply reported of, by reason that I have studied in my time both (of) the ancient doctors of the Church, and also (of) the school-doctors.'
"' Marry, that is well said,' quoth the Cardinal. ' Mr. Doctor Capon, and you Mr. Doctor Marshall 19 (both being there present), say you somewhat to Mr. Latimer touching some question in Duns.'
" Whereupon Dr. Capon propounded a question to Mr. Latimer. Mr. Latimer, being fresh then of memory, and not discontinued from study as those two doctors had been, answered very roundly; somewhat helping them to cite their own allegations rightly, where they had not truly or perfectly alleged them.
" The Cardinal, perceiving the ripe and ready answering of Latimer, said, ' What mean you, my masters, to bring such a man before me into accusation? I had thought that he had been some light-headed fellow that never studied such kind of doctrine as the school doctors are. I pray thee, Latimer, tell me the cause why the Bishop of Ely and other doth mislike thy preachings: tell me the truth, and I will bear with thee upon amendment.'
"Quoth Latimer, ' Your grace must understand that the Bishop of Ely cannot favour me, for that not long ago I preached before him in Cambridge a sermon from this text, 'Christus existens pontifex, etc.' (Heb. ix. 11), wherein I described the office of a bishop so uprightly as I might, according to the text, that never after he could abide me, but hath not only forbidden me to preach in his diocese, but also hath found the means to inhibit me from preaching in the University.'
''' I pray you tell me,' quoth the Cardinal, ' what thou didst preach before him on that text.'
" Mr. Latimer plainly and simply (committing his cause unto Almighty God, who is director of princes' hearts) declared unto the Cardinal the whole effect of his sermon preached before the Bishop of Ely. The Cardinal, nothing at all misliking the doctrine of the Word of God that Latimer had preached, said unto him,' Did you not preach any other doctrine than you have rehearsed?'
"' No, surely,' said Latimer.
"And examining thoroughly with the doctors what else could be objected against him, the Cardinal said unto Mr. Latimer, ' If the Bishop of Ely cannot abide such doctrine as you have here repeated, you shall have my licence, and shall preach it unto his beard, let him say what he will.'
" And thereupon, after a gentle monition given unto Mr. Latimer, the Cardinal discharged him with his licence home to preach throughout England." 20
Foxe, who is unusually inaccurate in his notice of Latimer's early life, speaks of him as having signed certain articles on this occasion; 21 and Lingard, in his meagre and unfair sketch, of course repeats the misstatement. But there were no articles subscribed at all, as is sufficiently evident from the fact that Latimer, when subsequently on his trial before Stokesley and Warham, was never accused of having "relapsed."
Latimer immediately returned to Cambridge, and the next holiday afterwards re-appeared in the pulpit, and read aloud that licence of the Cardinal, which, while Wolsey's power lasted, effectually protected him from all episcopal interference. Thus wonderfully, to the great gratification of the friends of the Reformation, and the confusion of its enemies, did Wolsey, the head of the Church in England, intervene for the second time to protect the progress of the Reformers in the University.
Several of Latimer's fellow-labourers had also been summoned before Wolsey, and all experienced the same unexpectedly mild treatment. The Cardinal had sufficiently vindicated himself by the punishment and humiliation of Barnes; and was not inclined, either by disposition or by policy, to show any great severity towards men who had given him no personal provocation. Latimer, as we have seen, returned to Cambridge, with an admonition to be cautious, but otherwise perfectly free and untrammelled. Bilney, however, did not escape quite so easily. No punishment was inflicted; no public recantation was exacted; but he was induced to promise on oath "not to preach any of Luther's opinions, but to impugn them everywhere." Bilney was timid; Barnes's unhappy precedent was fresh in his recollection; and, in an evil hour, he took an oath which he could not keep without doing violence to all his convictions. It was a lamentable step in a man of Bilney's integrity; but it was some time before the English Reformers learned to "resist even unto death, striving against the prevalence of evil."
NOTES:
1. Herbert, p, 228; Article 43 of Wolsey's impeachment. BACK
2. Latimer's Sermons, p. 334. BACK
4. Cooper's Athenoe Cantabrigienses. BACK
6. The original in Latin, from the Parker MSS., in Cambridge, is printed in Latimer's Remains, p. 467. BACK
7. Their names are found in the lists of those incorporated at Oxford, November 5 and December 7, 1525. - Wood’s Athenoe. BACK
8. Dr. London, Warden of New College, to Bishop Longland. Original in the State Paper Office. BACK
9. "Dominus concessit licentiam Magistro Thomae Bilney ad praedicandum per totam dioc. Elien., ad beneplacitum suum duraturam." - West's Register. BACK
10. Ralph Morice, Cranmer'a Secretary, from whom the narrative is borrowed._Latimer's Remains, p. xxviii. BACK
11. The narrative is founded on Barnes's Supplication to Henry VIII London, 1534. BACK
12. In Singer's edition of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, there is a curious engraving of one of Wolsey's progresses, in which these emblems, denounced by Barnes, are all introduced. BACK
13. Ellis's Letters, third series, vol. ii. p. 71. BACK
15. First Series of Chapter House Papers, State Paper Office. BACK
17. There are no means of fixing the exact date. Foxe, always confused in his chronology, is hopelessly incorrect in his sketch of Latimer's early life. Townsend, on the faith of an obscure letter of Sir Richard Morison's, fixes 1528 as the date; but Bilney (who was with Latimer) was apprehended in June 1527, and admitted on his trial that he had previously appeared before Wolsey. Besides, it is absurd to suppose that Latimer would be left unnoticed for nearly three years. Moreover, was he silent all that time? for, except on the theory in the text, he was prohibited to preach. BACK
18. Latimer was forty-one, according to the present biographer; thirty-five, according to other authorities. BACK
19. Wolsey's chaplains. Capon was present at Barnes's arrest. BACK
20. Latimer's Remains, p. xxx. BACK
21. Foxe, vol. vii. p. 454. BACK
'Aussie Outpost' is pleased to be able to present to you this classic work. Please feel free to print this for reading offline at your leisure.
Outpost Homepage
Latimer Contents
NEXT CHAPTER
Library - Church History
Library Homepage
Church History Institute
TOP
10/05/2007
AN OUTPOST PRODUCTION
