His words are like the clear impression of a seal; the account and the result of observations, taken first hand, on the condition of the English men and women of his time, in all ranks and classes, from the palace to the prison. He shows large acquaintance with books; with the Bible, most of all; with patristic divinity and school divinity; and history, sacred and profane: but if this had been all, he would not have been the Latimer of the Reformation, and the Church of England would not, perhaps, have been here to-day. Like the physician, to whom a year of practical experience in a hospital teaches more than a life of closet study, Latimer learnt the mental disorders of his age in the age itself; and the secret of that art no other man, however good, however wise, could have taught him. He was not an echo, but a voice; and he drew his thoughts fresh from the fountain—from the facts of the era in which God had placed him.
He became early famous as a preacher at Cambridge, from the first, 'a seditious fellow,' as a noble lord called him in later life, highly troublesome to unjust persons in authority. 'None, except the stiff-necked and uncircumcised, ever went away from his preaching, it was said, without being affected with high detestation of sin,;and moved to all godliness and virtue.'[1] And, in his audacious simplicity, he addressed himself always to his individual hearers, giving his words a personal application, and often addressing men by name. This habit brought him first into difficulty in 1525. He was
- ↑ Jewel of Joy, p. 224 et seq.: Parker Society's edition. Latimer's Sermons, p. 3.
