GODLY LETTERS

OF

DOCTOR HUGH LATIMER.

I.

The Letter of M. Latimer, written to King Henry, for the restoring again the free liberty of reading the Holy Scriptures.

To the most mighty prince, king of England, Henry the Eighth, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, by our Lord Jesus Christ.

THE holy doctor St. Augustine, in an epistle which he wrote to Casulanus, saith, that he who for fear of any power hides the truth, provokes the wrath of God to come upon him, for he fears men more than God. And the holy man St. John Chrysostom saith, that he is not only a traitor to the truth who openly for truth teaches a lie, but he also who does not freely pronounce and show the truth that he knows. These sentences (most redoubted king) when I read now of late, and marked them earnestly in the inward parts of my heart; they made me sore afraid, troubled, and vexed me grievously in my conscience, and at the last drove me to this strait, that either I must show forth such things as I have read and learned in Scripture, or else be of those who provoke the wrath of God upon them, and are traitors unto the truth; the which rather than it should happen, I had rather suffer extreme punishment.

For what else is being a traitor unto the truth, than to be a traitor and a Judas unto Christ, who is the very truth and cause of all truth, who saith, that whosoever denies him here before men, he will deny him before his Father in heaven. Which denying ought more to be feared and dreaded, than the loss of all temporal goods, honour, promotion, fame, prison, slander, hurts, banishment, and all manner of torments and cruelties, yea, and death itself, be it ever so shameful and painful. But,

alas! how little do men regard those sharp sayings of these two holy men! and how little do they fear the terrible judgment of Almighty God, and especially they who boast themselves to be guides and captains to others, and challenge unto themselves the knowledge of Holy Scripture, yet will neither show the truth themselves (as they are bound) nor suffer them that would. So that unto them may be said what our Saviour Christ said to the Pharisees, Matt. xxiii., “ Woe be unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, which shut up the kingdom of heaven before men, and neither will you enter in yourselves, neither suffer them that would, to enter in." And they will as much as in them lies, debar not only the word of God, which David calls “a light to direct and show every man how to order his affections and lusts" according to the commandments of God; but also by their subtle wiliness they instruct, move, and provoke, in a manner, all kings in Christendom to aid, succour, and help them in this their mischief. And especially in this your realm, they have sore blinded your liege people and subjects with their laws, customs, ceremonies, and Banbury glosses,* and punished them with cursings, excommunications, and other corruptions, (corrections, I would say,) and now at the last, when they see that they cannot prevail against the open truth, (which the more it is persecuted, the more it increases through their tyranny,) they have made it treason to your noble grace for any to have the Scripture in English.

Here I beseech your grace to pardon me awhile, and patiently to hear me a word or two: yea, and though it be so that as concerning your high majesty and regal power, whereunto Almighty God hath called your grace, there is great difference between you and me, as between God and man. For you are to me and to all your subjects, in God's stead, to defend, aid, and succour us in our right, and so I should tremble and quake to speak to your grace. But again, as concerning that you are a mortal man, in danger of sin, having in you the corrupt nature of Adam, in which all we are both conceived and born, so you have no less need of the merits of Christ's passion for your salvation, than I and other of your subjects have, who all are members of the mystical body of Christ. And though you are a higher member, yet you must not disdain the lesser. For as St. Paul saith, "Those members that be taken most vilest and had in least reputation, are as neces

* Deceitful explanations.

sary as the other for the preservation and keeping of the body." This, most gracious king, when I considered, and also your favourable and gentle nature, I was bold to write this rude, homely, and simple letter unto your grace, trusting that you will accept my true and faithful mind even as it is.

First and before all things, I will exhort your grace to mark the life and process* of our Saviour Christ and his apostles in preaching and setting forth of the gospel, and to note also the words of our master Christ, which he spoke to his disciples when he sent them forth to preach his gospel, and added to these ever have in your mind the golden rule of our master Christ, "The tree is known by the fruit." For by the diligent marking of these, your grace shall clearly know and perceive who are the true followers of Christ and teachers of his gospel, and who are not. And concerning the first, all Scripture shows plainly that our Saviour Jesus Christ's life was very poor.

Begin at his birth, and I beseech you, who ever heard of a poorer or so poor as he was? It were too long to write how poor Joseph and the blessed virgin Mary took their journey from Nazareth toward Bethlehem, in the cold and frosty winter, having nobody to wait upon them, but he both master and man, and she both mistress and maid. How vilely, thinks your grace, were they treated in the inns and lodgings by the way! and in how vile and abject a place was this poor maid, the mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ, brought to bed, without company, light, or any other thing necessary for a woman in that plight! Was not here a poor beginning, as concerning the world? Yes, truly. And, according to this beginning, was the process and end of his life in this world, and yet he might by his godly power have had all the goods and treasures of this world at his pleasure, when and where he would.

But this he did to show us that his followers and vicars should not regard nor set by the riches and treasures of this world, but after the saying of David we ought to take them, who saith thus: "If riches, promotions, and dignity happen to a man, let him not set his affiance, pleasure, trust, and heart upon them." So that it is not against the poverty in spirit, which Christ praises in the gospel of St. Matthew, chapter v., to be rich, to be in dignity and in honour, if their hearts are not fixed and set

* Proceedings.

upon them so much, that they neither care for God nor good men. But they are enemies to this poverty in spirit, have they ever so little, that have greedy and desirous minds to the goods of this world, only because they would live after their own pleasure and lusts. And they also are secret enemies (and so much the worse) which have professed, as they say, wilful poverty, and will not be called worldly men. And they have lords' lands and kings' riches; yea, rather than they would lose one jot of that which they have, they will cause debates between king and king, realm and realm, yea, between the king and his subjects, and cause rebellion against the temporal power, to which our Saviour Christ himself obeyed and paid tribute, as the gospel declares: unto whom the holy apostle St. Paul teaches every Christian man to obey. Yea, and beside all this, they will curse and ban as much as in them lies, even into the deep pit of hell, all that gainsay their appetite, or do any thing whereby they think their goods, promotions, or dignities should decay.

Your grace may see what means and craft the spiritualty (as they will be called) imagine, to break and withstand the acts which were made in your grace's last parliament against their superfluities. Wherefore your grace may know those that do thus are not true followers of Christ. And although I said the spiritualty are corrupt with this unthrifty ambition, yet I mean not that all are faulty therein, for there are some good among them. Neither would I that your grace should take away the goods due to the church, but take away all evil persons from the goods, and set better in their stead.

I name or point out no person or persons, but remit your grace to the rule of our Saviour Christ, as in Matthew chapter vii.: "By their fruits ye shall know them." As touching the words that our Saviour Christ spake to his disciples when he sent them to preach his gospel, they are read in Matthew, chapter x., where he shows, "that here they shall be hated and despised of all worldly men, and brought before kings and rulers, and that all evil should be said of them, for their preaching's sake," but he exhorts them to take patiently such persecution by his own example, saying, " It becometh not the servant to be above the master. And seeing they called me Beelzebub, what marvel is it, if they call you devilish persons and heretics?" Read the fourteenth chapter of St. Matthew's