Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

life and deep learning made his conversion as great
a loss to the supporters of the old religion as it was
a strength to the disciples of the Protestant faith.
But the man of all this little band destined to be
hereafter the most conspicuous in the ranks of the
Reformation was Hugh Latimer.
Latimer was the son of a yeoman, and was born
at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire, about the year
1472. He entered Cambridge the same year (1505)
that Luther entered the Augustine Convent; and he
became a Fellow of Clare Hall in the year (1509)
that Calvin was born. Of a serious turn of mind
from his boyhood, he gave himself ardently to the
study of the schoolmen, and he so drank in their
spirit, that when he took orders he was noted for
his gloomy asceticism. The outbreak of what he
deemed heresy at Cambridge gave him intolerable
pain; he railed spitefully against Stafford, who was
giving lectures on the Scriptures, and he could
hardly refrain from using violence to compel his
companions to desist from reading the Greek New
Testament. The clergy were delighted to. see such
zeal for the Church, and they rewarded it by
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