Sermons on the Card

Hugh Latimer, a farmer’s son, was born about the year 1491, at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire. He was an only son, with six sisters, who were all well cared for at home. He was a boy of fourteen when sent to Clare College, Cambridge. When about twenty-four years old, he had obtained a college fellowship, had taken the degree of Master of Arts, and was ordained Priest of the Roman Church at Lincoln. In 1524, at the age of about thirty, he proceeded to the degree of B. D. , and on the occasion of his doing so he argued publicly for the Pope’s authority against opinions of Melancthon. Thomas Bilney went afterwards to Latimer’s rooms, gave him his own reasons for good-will to the teaching of Melancthon, and explained to him his faith as a Reformer in a way that secured Latimer’s attention. Latimer’s free, vigorous mind, admitted the new reasonings, and in his after-life he looked always upon “little Bilney” as the man who had first opened his eyes.