English religious reformer. Died 1555.
Originally an ordained Catholic priest, Latimer was swayed by the ideas of the Reformation, and from the mid-1520s on, he worked eagerly to promote it. In 1535, he was made Bishop of Worcester, but resigned from the see in 1539.
During the reign of King Edward VI, Hugh Latimer wrote and delivered many sermons in favour of social reform. However, under the Catholic Queen Mary I ("Bloody Mary"), Latimer was arrested, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake, in Oxford.
As they were about to be burned at the stake, together, Latimer supposedly said to Nicholas Ridley, his friend and fellow clergyman,
:
"Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, 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."