Martyred Bishop Executed While Hurling Defiance at Persecutors
When Queen Mary I (reigned 1553 – 1553) ascended the English throne, she attempted to restore her kingdom to Roman Catholicism. Her father, Henry VIII, had taken England out of the Catholic Church when the Pope refused to grant him a divorce from Mary’s mother. So he established the Church of England, appointed himself its head, and effectively granted himself a divorce. However, he kept many doctrines and practices of Catholicism.
Hugh Latimer (circa 1487 – 1555) was an English Protestant bishop burned at the stake by Mary. Latimer had graduated from Cambridge University, was elected a fellow of its Clare College in 1510, and became a Catholic priest in 1515. However, he converted to Protestantism in 1524, and became a zealous advocate and defender of his new faith. He gained renown as a Protestant preacher, and was appointed a bishop by Henry VIII in his newly formed Church of England. However, Latimer resigned in protest when the king refused to adopt Protestant reforms.
Henry was followed on the throne by his underage son, Edward VI, who was more staunchly Protestant. During the son’s reign, England became decidedly more Protestant, and Latimer regained royal favor. He became the young king’s chaplain, and was appointed court preacher. However, Edward died young and without issue, and was succeeded by his sister Mary.
Mary was a staunch Catholic who viewed Protestantism as a heresy, and was determined to bring England back into the Catholic fold. She ordered prominent Protestants such as Latimer imprisoned and tried for heresy. Latimer, along with fellow bishop Nicholas Ridley and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, was tried in Oxford in 1555. Refusing to renounce his faith, he was convicted of heresy, and sentenced to a heretic’s death by burning at the stake.
Latimer was chained to the stake alongside Ridley. When the flames were lit, Ridley cried out in pain, but Latimer sought to comfort him even as he himself was being consumed by fire, telling his colleague: “be of good cheer, master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle in England, as I hope, by God’s grace, shall never be put out.” It could be argued that the candle still burns. Queen Mary’s efforts to restore Catholicism failed. When she died in 1558, she was succeeded by her Protestant sister, Elizabeth I, and England has been Protestant ever since.