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Scripture itself, know and perceive the hypocrite wolves, clad in sheep's clothing, yet I think myself bound in conscience to utter unto your Grace such things as God put in my mind to write. And this I do (God so judge me), not for hate of any person or persons living, nor for that I think the Word of God should go forth without persecution, if your Grace had commanded that every man within your realm should have it in his mother's tongue. For the Gospel must needs have persecution unto the time that it be preached throughout all the world, which is the last sign that Christ showed to his disciples should come before the day of judgment; so that if your Grace had once commanded that the Scripture should be put forth, the devil would set forth some wile or other to persecute the truth. But my purpose is, for the love that I have to God principally, and the glory of his name, which is only known by his Word, and for the true allegiance that I owe unto your Grace, and not to hide in the ground of my heart the talent given me of God, but to chaffer it forth to other, that it may increase to the pleasure of God, to exhort your Grace to avoid and beware of

these mischievous flatterers, and their abominable ways and counsel."

He next warns the King to take heed as to the counsels he follows, for that many who have committed themselves by their writings will adhere to opinions which they now know to be wrong, simply to avoid the charge of inconsistency. He shows that St. Paul and David were not afraid to confess that they had been in error. The letter closes with this direct appeal.

"Wherefore they be sore drowned in worldly wisdom that think it against their worship to acknowledge their ignorance; whom I pray to God that your Grace may espy, and take heed of their worldly wisdom, which is foolishness before God; that you may do that that God commandeth, and not that which seemeth good in your own sight, without the Word of God, that your Grace may be found acceptable in his sight, and one of the members of his Church; and according to the office that he hath called your Grace unto, you may be found a faithful minister of his gifts, and not a defender of his faith, for he will not have it defended by man, or man's power, but by his Word only,

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by the which he hath evermore defended it, and that by a way far above man's power or reason, as all the stories of the Bible maketh mention.

"Wherefore, gracious King, remember yourself; have pity upon your soul, and think that the day is even at hand when you shall give accounts of your office, and of the blood that hath been shed with your sword; in the which day, that your Grace may stand steadfastly, and be not ashamed, but to be clear and ready in your reckoning, and to have (as they say) your quietus est sealed with the blood of our Saviour Christ, which only serveth at that day, is my daily prayer to Him that suffered death for our sins, which also prayeth to his Father for grace for us continually. To whom be all honor and praise for ever. Amen. The spirit of God preserve your Grace. Anno Domini, 1530, 1 mo. die Decembris."

CHAPTER VII.

LATIMER'S LETTER-RECTOR OE WEST KINGSTON-BEFORE BISHOP STOKESLEY-LETTER TO BAYNTON-PREACHERS-OLD AND NEW VIEWS-IN DANGER-CHRISTMAS -CONFESSION OF FAITH-PERSECUTION-EXAMINATION-A PEN WALKING IN THE CHIMNEY-RESPECT FOR LIFE-APPEAL TO THE KING.

L

ATIMER'S address, declared by a late historian, Mr. Froude, to be "of almost unexampled grandeur," is one of the most memorable documents of the English Reformation. The writer knew that he had few friends and many enemies. His doctrines had been repeatedly pronounced dangerous by those in power, and he was well aware that it needed but little to send him to the stake. The books in whose behalf he pleaded were those of Tyndal's press. Their distributors, the Christian Brothers, as we have seen, were hunted down wherever they could be traced, and copies of the books themselves had been publicly burned at St. Paul's,

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in London, by the Church authorities. His earnest plea was addressed to a monarch of almost unlimited power, impatient of contradiction, and of determined will. It is to the King's credit that he appreciated the straightforward earnestness of his subject, and was always afterward his firm friend.

The address was not productive of any direct result. The Bibles and books were burnt as before, and their distributors escaped a like fate only by concealment or flight from the country. In the following year, however, the King presented the earnest pleader with the living of West Kingston, in Wiltshire. After his acceptance of this position, he was urged by his friend Dr. Butts to remain at court and cultivate his fair prospect of royal favor. He was unwilling, however, to fill an office without performing its duties, and, disregarding these temptations to ambition, retired to his parish. He did not, however, confine himself to its limits. The license to preach throughout England, granted by Wolsey, had been confirmed by the King, and Latimer was now becoming so well known that his services were in constant demand. His enemies