Blogging the Reformers: John Leclerc

The Cathedral in Metz. Source.

In the 16^th century, one of the cities which the French Reformation began in was Meaux. John Lecelrc, a wool-carder, became the pastor there. He had learned theology through the lectures of the doctors, reading the Bible and some other books. Eventually he made some placards denouncing the pope as an Antichrist, and posted them on the cathedral. The townspeople were very angry and he was thrown into prison. He was condemned and was led through the streets to be beaten by the people. After this punishment he was released, and then he moved to Metz.

While he was in Metz he again did a brave, perhaps rash, act against the Catholics. On the night before one of the large festivals where the citizens would worship their idols, John Lecelrc when to the chapel and smashed all of the images. The next day when the worshipers arrived at the church, they found their idols broken in pieces. They ran out and found Lecelrc in the town. He admitted to breaking the idols, and told them they must worship God alone. They decided to burn him to death. They brought him to the scaffold and took heated pincers and lacerated him and pulled his nose off. As they were doing it he recited the passage that says, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not...”¹ After torturing him he was burnt with a slow fire. He was one of the first martyrs of France.

1. Psalm 115

Blogging the Reformers - Hugh Latimer

Hugh Latimer was born in a poor family in England somewhere between 1480 and 1494. He attended Cambridge University and became a priest. At some point in his life he accepted the Reformed doctrine and became one of the leaders of the movement in England. King Henry VII made him one of his chaplains. He preached boldly before the king and his court, and even rebuked the king in his sermons. He said to the king, “Would you have me preach nothing concerning a king in the king's sermon?”1 Eventually after a time there he decided to leave the court and go to his parish, which he did. He was a great preacher, a powerful orator, and he effected many people through his preaching. He was appointed bishop of Worcester by the king, but he resigned years later after he opposed the king's Catholic false doctrine. The king threw him into prison until he died, and then his son Edward released him and he continued to preach. However when Bloody Mary came to the throne, she tried him for his beliefs and he was burned on October 16th, 1555 along with two other leaders of the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer and Nicholas Ridley. As he was about to be burnt, he said to Nicholas Ridley, “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.”2

1 J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2000) vol. 3, book vi, p. 51
2 John Foxe. Foxe's Book of Martyrs (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1911) p. 309

Blogging the Reformers - Patrick Hamilton

St. Andrew's Castle in Scotland, where Patrick Hamilton was kept

The Cathedral of the "Scottish Rome"

Patrick Hamilton was born in 1504 in Scotland. He was in the royal line of the kings of Scotland, and his father was one of the last great knights of the Middle Ages. When he was fourteen his father sent him to Paris to be educated. He was saved there through the beginning of the Reformation in the university at Paris, and his sadness over the death of his father in a sword battle. He returned to Scotland in 1522 after getting the Master of Arts degree. When he returned he went to the University at St. Andrew's, which was called the “Scottish Rome”. He explained and taught the Bible to those around him. He was not a great preacher such as Luther or Farel, but he knew the scriptures and could teach them ably. In 1527 he was declared a heretic by Archbishop James Beaton, and fled back to the continent. After studying the scriptures there for some time, he returned to Scotland. He began preaching to the common people in his home-country and many accepted the gospel. In 1528 he married, although he was a priest. Bishop Beaton invited him to St. Andrew's to discuss the gospel, but really he wanted to kill him. There he continued to preach, and at length the bishop summoned him before a council, which convicted him as a heretic. At noon on February 28th, 1528 he was brought out to be burned at the stake. The fire did not burn well, and there were six hours of slow torture before he died. As he was about to die, he raised his hand, off which two fingers were already burnt, as a signal that he held true to the gospel to the last. His death was the start of the Reformation in Scotland. The university and all of Scotland were inspired by his example, and he strikingly fulfilled that saying, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” 1

Last year we visited St. Andrews on the Scotland Faith and Freedom Tour, and we saw where Patrick Hamilton was killed.

It was in front of the college where Hamilton was burned

These initials mark where he was burned

1 J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2000) volume 3, book x, p. 70