They had been prisoners now for more than two years. What Latimer's occupation had been for all that time, little remains to show, except three letters:—one, of but a few lines, was to a Mrs Wilkinson, thanking her for some act of kindness:[1] another, was a general exhortation to 'all unfeigned lovers of God's truth,' to be constant in their faith: the third, and most noteworthy, was to some one who had an opportunity of escaping from arrest, and probable martyrdom, by a payment of money, and who doubted whether he might lawfully avail himself of the chance: there was no question of recantation; a corrupt official was ready to accept a bribe and ask no questions.
Latimer had not been one of those fanatics who thought it a merit to go in the way of danger and court persecution; but in this present case he shared the misgiving of his correspondent, and did 'highly allow his judgment in that he thought it not lawful to redeem himself from the crown, unless he would exchange glory for shame, and his inheritance for a mess of pottage.'
'We were created,' Latimer said, 'to set forth God's glory all the days of our life, which we, as unthankful sinners, have forgotten to do, as we ought, all our days hitherto; and now God, by affliction, doth offer us
- ↑ If the gift of a pot of cold water shall not be in oblivion with God, how can God forget your manifold and bountiful gifts, when He shall say unto you, 'I was in prison, and you visited me.' God grant us all to do and suffer while we be here as may be to His will and pleasure.—Latimer to Mrs Wilkinson, from Bocardo: Latimer's Remains, p. 444.
