Latimer

“ His heart was drawn still more closely to the stricken man. He longed to bring back to that sad face the smile that he remembered on the Far West, when Latimer's buoyancy had been like wine to his lonely heart. He felt confident that the friendship of one man for another could reach the heart of his friend, now closing against all human sympathy.
It was noon before Danvers reached Helena and made his way to Judge Latimer's residence. He was startled by the absence of life, the silence and drawn shades. Turning, he saw Miss Blair entering her own gate. ”

“ Latimer was the son of a Leicestershire fanner, and rose to be Bishop of Worcester, and to the far higher rank of a martyr for his faith. He has been pronounced by writers of this age as a good but not a great man. To our mind he was a very great man. Not in worldly wisdom, for he was simple and unambitious as a child; but he was a genius, true, racy, original, and inspired. He was made, as his sermons show, for a preacher to the people rather than to princes, though to them he bore a bold and unblenching testimony. ”

“ Latimer's convenience.'
"'Ah, I understand!' she replied, with a gasp of relief significant of her fear that by some superhuman cunning he had found the bond she thought so safely concealed. 'I was wondering how Mrs. Latimer came to allow us to leave.' (I tell you they always talked as if I were not present.) 'Our goods are left as a surety, it seems.'
"'Half of our goods,' he blandly corrected. ”

“ In the list of the committee which he forwarded to the king, Latimer's name, marked, like others favourable to the king's purpose, with an A, appears in the class of 'masters in theology,' not in that of doctors. Latimer was at once appointed to preach before the king at Windsor on 13 March, to the deep annoyance of his opponents; and the king, highly commending his sermon, remarked significantly to the Duke of Norfolk that it was very unpalatable to the vice-chancellor of Cambridge, who was present during part of it. Latimer received for his sermon the usual gratuity of 20s. ”

“ Latimer broke the silence by saying:—
"Miss Iola, I think that you brood too much over the condition of our people."
"Perhaps I do," she replied, "but they never burn a man in the South that they do not kindle a fire around my soul."
"I am afraid," replied Dr. Latimer, "that you will grow morbid and nervous. Most of our people take life easily—why shouldn't you?" ”

“ With a high reputation and an excellent cook he enjoyed a great popularity, both with his own party and the world in general; and he was the centre of a small, but distinguished circle of acquaintances, who drank Latimer’s wine, and quoted Latimer’s sayings, and liked Latimer much better, because, not being author or minister, he was not in their way.
Lord Latimer received Maltravers with marked courtesy, and even deference, and invited him to join his own whist-table, which was one of the highest compliments his lordship could pay to his intellect. ”

“ His irony was yet more telling than his invective. "I would ask you a strange question," he said once at Paul's Cross to a ring of Bishops; "who is the most diligent prelate in all England, that passeth all the rest in doing of his office? I will tell you. It is the Devil! of all the pack of them that have cure, the Devil shall go for my money; for he ordereth his business. Therefore, you unpreaching prelates, learn of the Devil to be diligent in your office. If you will not learn of God, for shame learn of the Devil." But Latimer was far from limiting himself to invective. ”

“ I could never fight my way out as Wolf Larsen had done. And at this moment Latimer called down the scuttles:
“Hump! The old man wants you!”
“He ain’t down here!” Parsons called back.
“Yes, he is,” I said, sliding out of the bunk and striving my hardest to keep my voice steady and bold.
The sailors looked at me in consternation. Fear was strong in their faces, and the devilishness which comes of fear.
“I’m coming!” I shouted up to Latimer.
“No you don’t!” Kelly cried, stepping between me and the ladder, his right hand shaped into a veritable strangler’s clutch. ”

“ Yet Latimer cursed beneath his breath.
“Let’s get on,” he said, and proceeded to feel his way towards the ravine.
In a few minutes they reached it. Here was another sentry-group. Assuring himself that all was in order, he began to retrace his steps. He was conscious of nothing except the procession of fantasies and memories within his brain: verses he had written last year beneath the young flowering laburnum in his father’s garden; a girl’s hand in which his heart seemed to be inevitably cupped; a flannelled figure, with a rapid, crushing serve, on the other side of the tennis-net ”

“ No one could have murmured against his punishment for treason two years before; but he died a martyr, for denying Transubstantiation and the Papal authority. Latimer was no theologian; but he was a pulpit orator of extraordinary power, an enthusiastic if erratic moralist, who had suffered for his own freely expressed opinions in the past and shown scant consideration for false teachers—a quixotic but heroic figure. ”

“ Latimer. "There are souls that never awaken; but if they miss the deepest pain they also lose the highest joy."
Dr. Latimer went South, after his engagement, and through his medical skill and agreeable manners became very successful in his practice. In the following summer, he built a cosy home for the reception of his bride, and came North, where, with Harry and Miss Delany as attendants, he was married to Iola, amid a pleasant gathering of friends, by Rev. Carmicle. ”

“ No man less than a giant could have done what he did, once he had gained the foot of the ladder. Step by step, by the might of his arms, the whole pack of men striving to drag him back and down, he drew his body up from the floor till he stood erect. And then, step by step, hand and foot, he slowly struggled up the ladder.
The very last of all, I saw. For Latimer, having finally gone for a lantern, held it so that its light shone down the scuttle. Wolf Larsen was nearly to the top, though I could not see him. All that was visible was the mass of men fastened upon him. ”

“ Ridley withdrew, and Latimer was then introduced—eighty years old now—dressed in a threadbare gown of Bristol frieze, a handkerchief on his head with a night-cap over it, and over that again another cap, with two broad flaps buttoned under the chin. A leather belt was round his waist, to which a Testament was attached; his spectacles, without a case, hung from his neck. So stood the greatest man perhaps then living in the world, a prisoner on his trial, waiting to be condemned to death by men professing to be the ministers of God. ”

“ Empaled on their little iron uprights, each sailorman whirled—sometimes languidly, like a great lady revolving to the slow measures of a waltz, sometimes so rapidly that he made you quite dizzy, and had he not been a sailorman with a heart of oak and a head and stomach of pine, he would have been quite seasick. But the particular sailorman that Latimer bought for Helen Page and put on sentry duty carried on his shoulders most grave and unusual responsibilities. ”

“ I must tell Polly what you say. It is always well to sell on a rising market, isn’t it?”
“If you wish to sell, yes,” dryly. Latimer, conscious of the passing time, was having difficulty concealing his uneasiness as he thought of John Hale waiting a block away in his car. In his impatience he might forget the rôle he had cast for Latimer and, instead of awaiting the latter’s return, walk in at any moment and, by incautious questions, betray his own plot to discover Polly’s whereabouts. “How soon will Miss Polly be in?” ”

“ He was made chaplain in 1530—during the new persecution, for which Henry was Latimer addresses Henry in behalf of the Protestants. responsible by a more than tacit acquiescence. Latimer, with no authority but his own conscience, and the strong certainty that he was on God's side, threw himself between the spoilers and their prey, and wrote to the king, protesting against the injustice which was crushing the truest men in his dominions. ”

“ The court was at chapel, where Latimer, recently appointed one of the king’s chaplains, was preaching. The vice-chancellor came in during the service, and heard part of the sermon. Latimer was a very different man from Henry’s servile courtiers. He did not fear even to attack such of his colleagues as did not do their duty: ‘That is no godly preacher that will hold his peace, and not strike you with his sword that you smoke again.... Chaplains will not do their duties, but rather flatter. But what shall follow? Marry, they shall have God’s curse upon their heads for their labor. ”

“ We knew nothing of Judith’s marriage until her cable came.”
“How about Richards’ financial standing?”
“Why do you ask, Frank?” John Hale regarded his friend in surprise.
Latimer moved nearer. “The question is prompted by our long friendship, John, by my affection for Judith.” The gravity of his manner startled the listening girl. “I had to see you to-night; I could not rest until I did.” Latimer [Pg 109] polished his round spectacles and adjusted them with care. “What we say is in confidence. ”

“ Eva had treated him coolly for a few [261] days, and he had practically decided that he wanted neither Judge Latimer's wife nor Burroughs' money. But as he gazed at the lady's ripe beauty he became more infatuated than before. He changed the subject abruptly. "I must go down to the valley to-morrow, after the session adjourns. Will you come with me for a ride?"
"Are you crazy?" Mrs. Latimer spoke with scorn.
"No one will see us," he pleaded. "I can pick you up where you used to live. You can wear a veil if you like. What do we care if we do meet somebody we know? ”

“ West thanked him for his good admonition, and asked him to preach a sermon against Luther. Latimer wisely answered that he could not refute Luther's doctrines, not having read his works, which had been for some years prohibited. The bishop was not satisfied, and remarked that Latimer 'smelt of the pan,' and would repent. The sole account of this interview hardly does justice to West's undoubted sagacity. He inhibited Latimer from preaching in his diocese, and, to counteract his influence, preached himself in Barnwell Abbey, near Cambridge. ”

“ Now I know from the soul that struggled with me that you are ready to go home."
"Let me give her some supper and go up with her," begged Jeanne Latimer in her husband's ear, as she, alarmed by their long stay in the church, joined them when they were leaving. "Send Hugh home, and ask Potts to let Oliver Gilbert know that she will soon be there. She needs a woman of her own sort to be with her at this moment, not Satira Pegrim." ”

“ For Latimer would have gained for himself a great and enduring name in the pulpit, if he had not been called upon to bear the highest and holiest of all titles. The pithy comedy no doubt was written long before its author was consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells, and we may be sure that Bishop Still never reckoned it among his sins. If its language were rendered every where intelligible and its dirtiness cleaned away, for there is nothing worse to be removed, Gammer Gurton's Needle might succeed in these days as a farce. ”

“ It is by such unshakable fidelity that great revolutions are accomplished.
Latimer Excommunicated. As Latimer was deaf to all their persuasion, there was nothing to be done but to threaten the stake. The charge was transferred to the Convocation of Canterbury, and on the 15th of March, 1532, he appeared before that body at Westminster. The fifteen articles were set before him. ‘Master Latimer,’ said the archbishop,’the synod calls upon you to sign these articles.’—‘I refuse,’ he answered.—All the bishops pressed him earnestly. ”

“ In July the bishops brought their labours to a close in the composition of 'The Institution of a Christian Man,' commonly known as 'The Bishops' Book.' The theological discussions which went to its formation were not to Latimer's mind. He declared that they perplexed him, and that he 'had lever be poor parson of poor Kineton again than to continue thus Bishop of Worcester.' When Darcy was committed to the Tower, Latimer went with Cromwell to visit him there and helped in his examination. ”

“ Again Miss Grison gave him no time to make a comment, but went on talking in the shrill voice which Latimer had noted and mentioned.
“Henrietta and Jane Trent are twins,” she explained to Marie as if the girl knew nothing about her own servants. “I remember them as little toddlers in the village. The mother took in washing. Fine bouncing women they have grown into, my dear: red cheeks and black hair and wooden expressions, just like two Dutch dolls. Are they good servants?” ”

“ On the 16th he and Ridley were brought out to execution by the mayor and bailiffs of Oxford, at 'the ditch over against Balliol College.' Ridley went first, Latimer following as fast as age would permit. When Latimer neared the place Ridley ran back and embraced him. For a few minutes the two conversed together. Then Dr. Richard Smith preached a sermon in the worst spirit of bigotry. Ridley asked Latimer if he would speak in reply, but Latimer desired him to begin, and both kneeled before the vice-chancellor and other commissioners to desire a hearing. ”