Forget Guy Fawkes - remember Latimer & Ridley

We are entering a season when we set fire to things: sparklers, fireworks, bonfires, and guys named Guy Fawkes. This is rather bizarre since, erm, Guy Fawkes wasn’t actually burned; he was hung, drawn and quartered, and convicted for being a traitor in service of the Pope. He was not burned as a heretic. (But don’t let that spoil the party.)

I’m not suggesting we get the history right by erecting gallows in town squares on 5 November. That won’t end well. Besides, who doesn’t love a good fire? (Okay, maybe not Greta Thunberg.) The English were certainly partial to a fire, at least until 11 April 1612, when Edward Wightman - essentially a Trinity-denying Anabaptist - became the last man burned for heresy. Should we have a national festival on 11 April where we burn an Edward?

My suggestion is to have the fires on 16 October and remember two guys - or, at least, a Hugh and a Nicholas - since that is the day on which Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned just outside Balliol College, Oxford in 1555.

Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley

It’s such an inspiring story that I’ve made a YouTube documentary on this event. I’ve focused on Hugh Latimer who, like me, is a farmer’s son. By God’s grace, he was transformed from being the most "obstinate papist" that you would find in England (his words), to being the great preacher of the Reformation.

During the reign of Edward VI, Latimer preached at St Paul’s Cross, an outdoor pulpit outside old St Paul’s Cathedral - rather like being on primetime television. And although Latimer had spent over 20 years in Cambridge, he never forgot his agricultural roots. One of his most famous sermons, known as The Sermon of the Plough, was preached in January 1548. In it, Latimer urges the clergy to sow the seeds of the gospel rather than rely on superstitious rituals. He also warned against listening to “the most diligent prelate and preacher in all England" - the devil. "Where the devil is resident and has his plough going, there away with books, and up with candles! Down with Christ’s cross; up with purgatory pick-purse!”

Thomas Fuller, a Church historian in the 17th century, said that Latimer’s sermons “were remarkable for plainness, pithiness, and simplicity, more fitted for the ploughman and shepherd than for the learned clerk; yet such was the majesty of his matter, and the zeal of his spirit, that even the greatest admired him.”

Latimer’s sermons must have been effective; when the tide turned back to Roman Catholicism under Mary, it was deemed unwise to try Latimer in London, risking riots and protests. So the show trials, sorry, public disputations, took place at St Mary’s University Church in reliably conservative Oxford.

Let’s not be naïve about the efficacy of the preaching of one man. The Reformed Protestant faith was not wildly popular in the shires in the 1550s. But it was the manner of Latimer’s death which spoke even louder than his most persuasive sermons.

When the death sentence was finally announced for his views on the Mass, Latimer said: “I thank God most heartily that he hath prolonged my life to this end, that I may in this case glorify God by that kind of death.”

Latimer’s insouciance on his way to the fire produced the most memorable words he spoke in his whole life, saying: “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.”

Death by fire is ugly and grim - we should be thankful that public burnings were abolished in 1677. But, as Christians, we can at least understand the awful events of 16 October 1555. At the heart of the Christian faith is the ugliest and most painful yet most glorious execution of all. So we can honour men like Ridley and Latimer who did not fear death since they were confident from the Scriptures that Christ would give them new life and resurrection bodies. That is something I would like to celebrate.

Playing with Fire, a documentary about Bishop Hugh Latimer, is available to watch on James Cary’s YouTube channel, here.