Hugh Latimer was a sixteenth-century English bishop and a major promoter of the English Reformation. The church office of Bishop is high placement, and yet Latimer came from a yeoman farmer's family. While it was and remains helpful to come from a rich and noble family, even in the sixteenth century it was possible for the low to rise to great heights.

The sixteenth century was a time when knowledge and learning were encouraged, and even a poor boy might attend university, if he displayed appropriate apptitude. Such was Latimer's case. When he was but fourteen he was accepted to the University of Cambridge. However, he had begun schooling at the age of four, trained to study literature (most likely Latin and Greek), as well as the masculine pursuits of shooting and hunting. Apparently higher education led to his questioning of the Roman faith, and by the time he was thirty he was dedicated to the cause of religious reformation in England.

He completed a B.A. in 1510 and then an M.A. in 1514. Sometime while he was working on the master's degree he also took holy orders.He was apparently a powerful and convincing speaker, even as a young man. For some time he kept his heretical views to himself, but once they were revealed he was censured from preaching in the university or in any of its diocese.

While he was priest at an Augustinian monastery he was called before the powerful Cardinal Wolsey to explain himself. Had Latimer been born a few decades earlier, he might have experienced a different fate. However, he came to his full, bold, reformist philosophy right at the time Henry VIII was willing to break from the Roman church. Had he not possessed a certain wit and sagacity, he still might have fallen on the wrong side of the king, which would have likely led to execution. Henry apparently appreciated Latimer's style, and in 1530 he was appointed one of the royal chaplains. While court life did not agree with him, he continued to gain influence with the king. At the time of the break with Rome, Latimer had both the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer's and the powerful Thomas Cromwell's ear.

In 1535 Latimer was made Bishop of Worcester, but in 1539 he was pressured to resign the position, as that was the king's wish. In 1546 he was summoned before the king's council and sent to the Tower of London. However, King Henry died before Latimer's trial could take place, and Henry's successor, Edward VI pardoned him and he was released. He refused any official office, but continued to preach, gathering a great many followers. When the Catholic Mary I took the throne, he was hauled into council again. This time he was ordered to be burned at the stake. A contemporary account reports that Latimer "received the flame as if to embrace it. After he had stroked his face with his hands, and bathed them a little in the fire, he soon died...with very little pain or none."