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 186 LATIMEB bishop of Ely and numerous priests, in which he drev a contrast between Christ as the ex- emplar and the English prelates of the day. For this he was forbidden by the bishop to preach in the churches of Cambridge univer-, sity, but being summoned before Wolsey was dismissed with merely a gentle admonition, and was licensed to preach in any church through- out England. In 1529 he preached two ser- mons at Christmas "On the Card;" making the practice of card-playing at that festival an occasion, after the taste of the time, to deal out Christian cards, " hearts " to be " trumps." In these sermons he defended the doctrines of the reformation, inveighed against indulgences, and showed the uncertainty of tradition and the need of the Bible in the language of the people. The disturbance which this occasioned was set- tled, after investigation before the vice chancel- lor, by binding both him and his opponents to abstain from offensive expressions against each other in the pulpit. In the following year he fa- vored the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catha- rine, and was appointed one of the royal chap- lains, but remonstrated against the kitag's inhibi- tion of all English books containing any matters of Scripture. Appointed to the living of West Kington, Wiltshire, he travelled extensively, everywhere occasioning excitement and com- plaints by his sermons. In 1532 he was prose- cuted before the bishop of London, the arch- bishop of Canterbury, and the convocation, and was at first excommunicated, but was ultimately relieved of all penalties on condition of signing a portion of the articles proposed to him. On the elevation of Cranmer to the primacy in 1533, Latimer was recalled to his royal chap- laincy, and preached before the king on all the Wednesdays of Lent in 1534. He was conse- crated bishop of Worcester in 1535, and in 1536 opened the convocation with two of his boldest sermons. Devoting himself with great dili- gence to his special episcopal duties, he did not again appear prominently till in 1539 he resigned his see on the passage of the six arti- cles making it penal to impugn transubstan- tiation, communion in one kind, celibacy, the lawfulness of monastic vows, private masses, and auricular confession. He lived in great privacy till an illness required him to seek medical aid in London, where he was discov- ered by Gardiner's spies, and was imprisoned from 1541 to 1547. After the accession of Ed- ward VI. he declined, probably on account of ill health, to receive back his bishopric, which was offered him at the instance of the house of commons. He took little part in the pub- lic direction of the reformation; but, as the popular favorite, he did more than any other man to prepare the way for it in the hearts of the people. After the accession of Mary he was apprised of his danger, and time was allowed him for escape; but he refused to avail himself of the opportunity, and was committed to harsh confinement in the tower. In 1554 he was conveyed to Oxford with Cran- LATIN LANGUAGE, &c. mer and Eidley, to hold a disputation on the subject of the mass with several doctors from the universities. He pleaded that he was old, sick, and had used the Latin tongue but little for 20 years; he was therefore permitted to give in a long profession of faith in writing, for which he was condemned as a heretic, and imprisoned during more than a year in Bocar- do, the common jail of Oxford. He was then summoned again before the commissioners, but refusing to recant, was condemned to the stake. The sentence was executed on him and Eidley "without Bocardo gate," opposite Balliol college, where the martyrs' monument now stands. He was led to the stake with Ridley, gunpowder being fastened about his body to hasten his death ; it took fire with the first flame, and he died immediately. He ex- horted his fellow sufferer : " Be of good com- fort, Master Eidley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Latimer was rather remarkable for piety and eloquence than for learning and ability. The latest edition of his sermons, by the Eev. G. E. Corrie, was published in London in 1845, in 4 vols. 8vo. His biography has been writ- ten by the Eev. E. Demaus (London, 1869). LATIN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Latin language is a branch of the Aryan or Indo-European family, and was spoken by the Latins, or inhabitants of Latium, in central Italy, probably as early as 10 or 15 centuries before our era. It became afterward the lan- guage of the Eoman republic and empire, and was spoken over the entire Italian peninsula ; and, with some inevitable corruption, it was so universally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Pannonia that, as Gibbon re- marks, "the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preserved only in the mountains or among the peasants." It ceased to be a living tongue about the 8th century of our era, when it had given birth to the Eomance idi- oms ; but it continued in use as the language of the church, of law, and of learning gen- erally, until within the last two centuries. Even at the present time many scientific works, especially on law and philology, are written in it. The Pelasgians exercised upon the earliest civilization of Latium an influence similar to that which they had on Greece. (See GREECE, LANGUAGE AND LITEEATTJKE OF.) The Tyrrhe- nian and Arcadian Pelasgians, and the Epi- rotic Grseci or Graii, the general term by which the Eomans designated all the Greeks, may all be included under the name of La- tini, whose prehistoric age is designated by the terms aborigines or casci. The best evidence for the early existence of Pelasgians in Italy is the Latin language itself, which evinces a closer relationship to Greek than to any other known tongue. The Latins themselves had no definite tradition of it, though some ancient au- thors attempt to establish a derivation of Latin from the -<32olic dialect of Greek. Latin con i