Hugh Latimer (c.1485-October 16, 1555) was bishop of Worcester, England, during the reign of King Henry VIII. He refused to condemn Martin Luther's writings and strongly supported the Protestant Reformation. He was imprisoned for a total of seven years, after which Queen Mary I condemned him to be burned at the stake. On October 16, 1555, while Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were being brought to their place of execution at Oxford, Latimer exhorted his companion:
<Play the man, Master Ridley. We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.> 1485HL001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1485HL001. Hugh Latimer, October 16, 1555, spoke his last words to Nicholas Ridley as they were being brought to their execution in Oxford, England. J.R Green, A Short History of the English People (1874), ch. 7. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 158.