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. ‘I refuse absolutely,’ he answered a second time. Warham, the friend of learning, could not make up his mind to condemn one of the finest geniuses of England. ‘Have pity on yourself,’ he said. ‘A third and last time we entreat you to sign these articles.’ Although Latimer knew that a negative would probably consign him to the stake, he still answered, ‘I refuse absolutely.’[[200]]

The patience of Convocation was now exhausted. ‘Heretic! obstinate heretic!’ exclaimed the bishops. ‘We have heard it from his own mouth. Let him be excommunicated.’ The sentence of excommunication was pronounced, and Latimer was taken to the Lollards’ Tower.

Great was the agitation both in city and court. The creatures of the priests were already singing in the streets songs with a burden like this:

Wherefore it were pity thou shouldst die for cold.[[201]]

‘Ah!’ said Latimer in the Martyr’s Tower, ‘if they had asked me to confess that I have been too prompt to use sarcasm, I should have been ready to do so, for sin is a heavy load. O God! unto Thee I cry; wash me in the blood of Jesus Christ.’ He looked for death, knowing well that few left that tower except for the scaffold. ‘What is to be done?’ said Warham and the bishops. Many of them would have handed the prisoner over to the magistrate to do what was customary, but the rule of the papacy was coming to an end in England, and Latimer was the king’s chaplain. One dexterous prelate suggested a means of reconciling everything. ‘We must obtain something from him, be it ever so little, and then report everywhere that he has recanted.’

Some priests went to see the prisoner: ‘Will you not yield anything?’ they asked.—‘I have been too violent,’ said Latimer, ‘and I humble myself accordingly.’—‘But will you not recognize the merit of works?’—‘No!’—‘Prayers to the saints?’—‘No!’—‘Purgatory?’—‘No!’—‘The power of the keys given to the pope?’—‘No! I tell you.’—A bright idea occurred to one of the priests. Luther taught that it was not only permitted, but praiseworthy, to have the crucifix and the images of the saints, provided that it was merely to remind us of them and not to invoke them. He had added, that the Reformation ought not to abolish fast days, but to strive to make them realities.[[202]] Latimer declared that he was of the same opinion.

The deputation hastened to carry this news to the bishops. The more fanatical of them could not make up their minds to be satisfied with so little. What! no purgatory, no virtue in the mass, no prayers to saints, no power of the keys, no meritorious works! It was a signal defeat; but the bishops knew that the king would not suffer the condemnation of his chaplain. Convocation decided, after a long discussion that if Master Latimer would sign the two articles, he should be absolved from the sentence of excommunication. In fact, on the 10th of April the Church withdrew the condemnation it had already pronounced.[[203]]

CHAPTER XV.
HENRY VIII. ATTACKS THE PARTISANS OF THE POPE AND THE REFORMATION.
(1532.)

Franciscans Preach At Henry.

The vital principle of the Reformation of Henry VIII. was its opposition both to Rome and the Gospel. He did not hesitate, like many, between these two doctrines: he punished alike, by exile or by fire, the disciples of the Vatican and those of Holy Scripture.