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The next day, he was
Having finished a long

heard mass in the Tower. brought out to suffer death. speech to the people, professed his constant attachment to the church of Rome, and concluded his private devotions, the executioner asked him forgiveness; to whom he said, "I forgive thee with all my heart; do thy part without fear:" and bowing toward the block, he added, "I have deserved a thousand deaths." Then laying down his head, it was instantly severed from his body.

Thus deservedly fell John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, whose virtues (if they deserve the name) were merely those of the statesman and the sòldier; and those were debased by the most subtile and unrelenting ambition. That he thoroughly understood indeed, and during his short administration strenuously promoted, the political and commercial interests of his country is abundantly proved by two instances, which, considered in a national light, may be admitted as an expiation for many of his faults.

The first was, the dissolution of the corporation of the merchants of the Steel-Yard in London, consisting of foreigners (chiefly Germans, subjects of the HansTowns) who engrossed the management of the foreign commerce of England, to the great injury of the native adventurers. Their complaints being brought before the privy-council, by the advice and under the patron

* It is strongly suspected, that he acted this disgraceful part, with the hope of saving his life: for it is affirmed, that he had a promise of pardon, if he would recant and hear mass;' and a similar deception was afterward frequently practised by Mary, to procure recantations from the protestants, whom however in violation of promises made in her name, and by her express order, she usually put to death.

age of Northumberland (after they had failed of redress in the courts of law, owing to the privileges granted by former kings to the corporation), the society was dissolved in the latter end of the year 1552, and thenceforward the trade in question was carried on in English bottoms.

In the second place, he established a Mart at Southampton for the woollen manufactures of England, which had previously been transported to Bruges and Antwerp at a considerable expense; the English being obliged, in addition to the freight in foreign bottoms, to support agents in Flanders to superintend their concerns. The new regulation, which took place in 1553, beside producing a most advantageous alteration in this vital branch of our commerce, was not less favourable to the kingdom in general; as it brought numbers of foreigners to visit this country, some of whom, settling in it, contributed to it's subsequent progress in arts and manufactures during the reign of Elizabeth.

It has been inaccurately observed, that of his eight sons not one left any lawful issue: for Sir Robert Dudley (stiled abroad Earl of Warwick, and Duke of Northumberland') though declared illegitimate by his father Robert Earl of Leicester, appears to have been born in wedlock of that nobleman and the Lady Douglas Sheffield.

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HUGH LATIMER,

BISHOP OF WORCESTER.*

[1475-1555.]

HUGH LATIMER was born at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire, about the year 1475. His father was a reputable yeoman, who rented a small farm, upon which in those frugal times he maintained a large family, consisting of one son and six daughters.

Of this family the best account is given in one of his Lent-Sermons, preached before Edward VI.; in which, after exclaiming against the enclosures of common lands, and other oppressions at that time practised by the nobility and gentry, he takes notice of the moderation of the landlords a few years before, and of the ease and plenty enjoyed by their tenants; as a proof of which he adds, that upon a farm of

three or four pounds by year at the uttermost, his father (a yeoman, having no lands of his own) tilled so much as kept half a dozen men; that he had walk for a hundred sheep, and thirty kine; that he found the King a harness, with himself and his horse, while he came to the place that he should receive the

* AUTHORITIES. Gilpin's Life of Latimer, Burnet's History of the Reformation, Fox's Acts and Monuments, &c., and Ridley's Life of Bishop Ridley.

King's wages: himself remembering to have buckled his harness, when he went to Blackheath-Field; that he kept him to school, and married his sisters with five pounds (or twenty nobles) a-piece; that he kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor."

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The juvenile part of Latimer's life affords nothing worthy of notice. It was not till about the year 1500, when having taken the degree of M. A. at Christ's College, Cambridge, and entered into Priest's orders, his zeal for the doctrines of the Romish church manifested itself by violent declamations against the German reformers, whose opinions had at that time begun to be propagated in England. If any professor, suspected of favouring their tenets, read lectures, he attended; and the University, in recompence for his zeal, having conferred upon him the office of cross-bearer, he exercised his authority over the scholars by driving them from their schools.*

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Fortunately however for the church of England, of which he subsequently became so illustrious a support, he contracted an acquaintance with Mr. Thomas Bilney; who entertaining a good opinion of him from his moral character, conceived a hope that by communicating to him his observations upon the scandalous lives of the Romish clergy, and comparing them with the exemplary conduct of the Reformers, he might induce him to think more favourably of their doctrines. Prepossessed with this confidence, and having entered into some conferences with him upon religious subjects, Bilney took occasional oppor

Upon taking his degree of B. D., he delivered an oration against Melanchthon, whom he treated with great severity, for what he called 'his impious innovations in religion!?

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tunities of insinuating, that some of the tenets of popery were not consonant to primitive Christianity; thus gradually exciting a spirit of inquiry in Latimer, who had always acted upon honest principles: till in the end, he was fully convinced of his errors. From this time, he became extremely active in propagating the Reformed Faith; preaching in public, exhorting in private, and every where pressing the necessity of a holy life, in opposition to the superstitious mummeries which then prevailed in the Romish church.

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The first remarkable opposition he encountered from the popish party, was occasioned by a course of sermons, which he preached during the festival of Christmas before the University. In these, he delivered his sentiments concerning the impiety of indulgences, the uncertainty of tradition, and the vanity of works of supererogation; inveighed against the multiplicity of ceremonies with which religion was at that time incumbered, and the pride and usurpation of the hierarchy; and dwelt, more particularly, upon the great abuse of locking up the scriptures in an unknown language.

Great was the outcry occasioned by these discourses. Latimer was already a preacher of considerable eminence, and displayed a remarkable address in adapting himself to the capacities of the people. The orthodox clergy, observing him much followed, thought it high time to oppose him openly. This task was undertaken by Dr. Buckenham, Prior of the Black-Friars, who appeared in the pulpit a few Sundays afterward, and with great pomp and prolixity endeavoured to show the dangerous tendency of the new opinions, especially those, which con

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