Chapter 24

(D. G. H.)

LATEEN(the Anglicized form of Fr.latine,i.e.voile latine, Latin sail, so-called as the chief form of rig in the Mediterranean), a certain kind of triangular sail, having a long yard by which it is suspended to the mast. A “lateener” is a vessel rigged with a lateen sail and yard. This rig was formerly much used, and is still the typical sail of thefeluccaof the Mediterranean, anddhowof the Arabian Sea.

LA TÈNE(Lat.tenuis, shallow), the site of a lake-dwelling at the north end of Lake Neuchâtel, between Marin and Préfargier. According to some, it was originally a Helveticoppidum; according to others, a Gallic commercial settlement. R. Forrer distinguishes an older semi-military, and a youngercivilian settlement, the former a Gallic customs station, the latter, which may be compared to thecanabaeof the Roman camps, containing the booths and taverns used by soldiers and sailors. He also considers the older station to have been, not as usually supposed, Helvetic, but pre- or proto-Helvetic, the character of which changed with the advance of the Helvetii into Switzerland (c.110-100B.C.). La Tène has given its name to a period of culture (c.500B.C.-A.D.100), the phase of the Iron age succeeding the Hallstatt phase, not as being its starting-point, but because the finds are the best known of their kind. The latter are divided into early (c.500-250B.C.), middle (250-100B.C.) and late (100B.C.-A.D.100), and chiefly belong to the middle period. They are mostly of iron, and consist of swords, spear-heads, axes, scythes and knives, which exhibit a remarkable agreement with the description of the weapons of the southern Celts given by Diodorus Siculus. There are also brooches, bronze kettles, torques, small bronze ear-rings with little glass pearls of various colours, belt-hooks and pins for fastening articles of clothing. The La Tène culture made its way through France across to England, where it has received the name of “late Celtic”; a remarkable find has been made at Aylesford in Kent.

See F. Keller,Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, vi. (Eng. trans., 1878); V. Gross,La Tène unoppidumhelvète(1886); E. Vouga,Les Helvètes à La Tène(1886); P. Reinecke,Zur Kenntnis der la Tène Denkmäler der Zone nordwärts der Alpen(Mainzer Festschrift, 1902); R. Forrer,Reallexikon der prähistorischen ... Altertümer(1907), where many illustrations are given.

LATERAN COUNCILS,the ecclesiastical councils or synods held at Rome in the Lateran basilica which was dedicated to Christ under the title of Salvator, and further called the basilica of Constantine or the church of John the Baptist. Ranking as a papal cathedral, this became a much-favoured place of assembly for ecclesiastical councils both in antiquity (313, 487) and more especially during the middle ages. Among these numerous synods the most prominent are those which the tradition of the Roman Catholic church has classed as ecumenical councils.

1. The first Lateran council (the ninth ecumenical) was opened by Pope Calixtus II. on the 18th of March 1123; its primary object being to confirm the concordat of Worms, and so close the conflict on the question of investiture (q.v.). In addition to this, canons were enacted against simony and the marriage of priests; while resolutions were passed in favour of the crusaders, of pilgrims to Rome and in the interests of the truce of God. More than three hundred bishops are reported to have been present.

For the resolutions seeMonumenta Germaniae, Leges, iv., i. 574-576 (1893); Mansi,Collectio Conciliorum, xxi. p. 281 sq.; Hefele,Conciliengeschichte, v. 378-384 (ed. 2, 1886).

2. The second Lateran, and tenth ecumenical, council was held by Pope Innocent II. in April 1139, and was attended by close on a thousand clerics. Its immediate task was to neutralize the after-effects of the schism, which had only been terminated in the previous year by the death of Anacletus II. (d. 25th January 1138). All consecrations received at his hands were declared invalid, his adherents were deposed, and King Roger of Sicily was excommunicated. Arnold of Brescia, too, was removed from office and banished from Italy.

Resolutions, ap. Mansi, op. cit. xxi., 525 sq.; Hefele,Conciliengeschichte, v. 438-445 (ed. 2).

3. At the third Lateran council (eleventh ecumenical), which met in March 1179 under Pope Alexander III., the clergy present again numbered about one thousand. The council formed a sequel to the peace of Venice (1177), which marked the close of the struggle between the papacy and the emperor Frederick I. Barbarossa; its main object being to repair the direct or indirect injuries which the schism had inflicted on the life of the church and to display to Christendom the power of the see of Rome. Among the enactments of the council, the most important concerned the appointment to the papal throne (Canon 1), the electoral law of 1059 being supplemented by a further provision declaring a two-thirds majority to be requisite for the validity of the cardinals’ choice. Of the participation of the Roman clergy and populace, or of the imperial ratification, there was no longer any question. Another resolution, of importance for the history of the treatment of heresy, was the canon which decreed that armed force should be employed against the Cathari in southern France, that their goods were liable to confiscation and their persons to enslavement by the princes, and that all who took up weapons against them should receive a two years’ remission of their penance and be placed—like the crusaders—under the direct protection of the church.

Resolutions,ap.Mansi,op. cit.xxii. 212 sq.; Hefele,Conciliengeschichte, v. 710-719 (ed. 2).

4. The fourth Lateran council (twelfth ecumenical), convened by Pope Innocent III. in 1215, was the most brilliant and the most numerously attended of all, and marks the culminating point of a pontificate which itself represents the zenith attained by the medieval papacy. Prelates assembled from every country in Christendom, and with them the deputies of numerous princes. The total included 412 bishops, with 800 priors and abbots, besides the representatives of absent prelates and a number of inferior clerics. The seventy decrees of the council begin with a confession of faith directed against the Cathari and Waldenses, which is significant if only for the mention of a transubstantiation of the elements in the Lord’s Supper. A series of resolutions provided in detail for the organized suppression of heresy and for the institution of the episcopal inquisition (Canon 3). On every Christian, of either sex, arrived at years of discretion, the duty was imposed of confessing at least once annually and of receiving the Eucharist at least at Easter (Canon 21). Enactments were also passed touching procedure in the ecclesiastical courts, the creation of new monastic orders, appointments to offices in the church, marriage-law, conventual discipline, the veneration of relics, pilgrimages and intercourse with Jews and Saracens. Finally, a great crusade was resolved upon, to defray the expenses of which it was determined that the clergy should lay aside one-twentieth—the pope and the cardinals one-tenth—of their revenues for the next three years; while the crusaders were to be held free of all burdens during the period of their absence.

Resolutions,ap.Mansi,op. cit.xxii. 953 sq.; Hefele,Conciliengeschichte, v. 872-905 (ed. 2). See alsoInnocent III.

5. The fifth Lateran council (eighteenth ecumenical) was convened by Pope Julius II. and continued by Leo X. It met from the 3rd of May 1512 to the 16th of March 1517, and was the last great council anterior to the Reformation. The change in the government of the church, the rival council of Pisa, the ecclesiastical and political dissensions within and without the council, and the lack of disinterestedness on the part of its members, all combined to frustrate the hopes which its convocation had awakened. Its resolutions comprised the rejection of the pragmatic sanction, the proclamation of the pope’s superiority over the council, and the renewal of the bullUnam sanctamof Boniface VIII. The theory that it is possible for a thing to be theologically true and philosophically false, and the doctrine of the mortality of the human soul, were both repudiated; while a three years’ tithe on all church property was set apart to provide funds for a war against the Turks.

See Hardouin,Coll. Conc.ix. 1570 sq.; Hefele-Hergenröther,Conciliengeschichte, viii. 454 sq.; (1887). Cf. bibliography underLeo X.

(C. M.)

LATERITE(Lat.later, a brick), in petrology, a red or brown superficial deposit of clay or earth which gathers on the surface of rocks and has been produced by their decomposition; it is very common in tropical regions. In consistency it is generally soft and friable, but hard masses, nodules and bands often occur in it. These are usually rich in iron. The superficial layers of laterite deposits are often indurated and smooth black or dark-brown crusts occur where the clays have long been exposed to a dry atmosphere; in other cases the soft clays are full of hard nodules, and in general the laterite is perforated by tubules, sometimes with veins of different composition and appearance from the main mass. The depth of the laterite beds varies up to 30 or 40 ft., the deeper layers often being soft when the surface is hard or stony; the transition to fresh, sound rockbelow may be very sudden. That laterite is merely rotted crystalline rock is proved by its often preserving the structures, veins and even the outlines of the minerals of the parent mass below; the felspars and other components of granite gneiss having evidently been convertedin situinto a soft argillaceous material.

Laterite occurs in practically every tropical region of the earth, and is very abundant in Ceylon, India, Burma, Central and West Africa, Central America, &c. It is especially well developed where the underlying rock is crystalline and felspathic (as granite gneiss, syenite and diorite), but occurs also on basalts in the Deccan and in other places, and is found even on mica schist, sandstone and quartzite, though in such cases it tends to be more sandy than argillaceous. Many varieties have been recognized. In India a calcareous laterite with large concretionary blocks of carbonate of lime is called kankar (kunkar), and has been much used in building bridges, &c., because it serves as a hydraulic cement. In some districts (e.g.W. Indies) similar types of laterite have been called “puzzuolana” and are also used as mortar and cement. Kankar is also known and worked in British East Africa. The clay called cabook in Ceylon is essentially a variety of laterite. Common laterite contains very little lime, and it seems that in districts which have an excessive rainfall that component may be dissolved out by percolating water, while kankar, or calcareous laterite, is formed in districts which have a smaller rainfall. In India also a distinction is made between “high-level” and “low-level” laterites. The former are found at all elevations up to 5000 ft. and more, and are the products of the decomposition of rockin situ; they are often fine-grained and sometimes have a very well-marked concretionary structure. These laterites are subject to removal by running water, and are thus carried to lower grounds forming transported or “low-level” laterites. The finer particles tend to be carried away into the rivers, while the sand is left behind and with it much of the heavy iron oxides. In such situations the laterites are sandy and ferruginous, with a smaller proportion of clay, and are not intimately connected with the rocks on which they lie. On steep slopes laterite also may creep or slip when soaked with rain, and if exposed in sections on roadsides or river banks has a bedded appearance, the stratification being parallel to the surface of the ground.

Chemical and microscopical investigations show that laterite is not a clay like those which are so familiar in temperate regions; it does not consist of hydrous silicate of alumina, but is a mechanical mixture of fine grains of quartz with minute scales of hydrates of alumina. The latter are easily soluble in acid while clay is not, and after treating laterite with acids the alumina and iron leave the silica as a residue in the form of quartz. The alumina seems to be combined with variable proportions of water, probably as the minerals hydrargillite, diaspore and gibbsite, while the iron occurs as goethite, turgite, limonite, haematite. As already remarked, there is a tendency for the superficial layers to become hard, probably by a loss of the water contained in these aluminous minerals. These chemical changes may be the cause of the frequent concretionary structure and veining in the laterite. The great abundance of alumina in some varieties of laterite is a consequence of the removal of the fine particles of gibbsite, &c., from the quartz by the action of gentle currents of water. We may also point out the essential chemical similarity between laterite and the seams of bauxite which occur, for example, in the north of Ireland as reddish clays between flows of Tertiary basalt. The bauxite is rich in alumina combined with water, and is used as an ore of aluminium. It is often very ferruginous. Similar deposits occur at Vogelsberg in Germany, and we may infer that the bauxite beds are layers of laterite produced by sub-aerial decomposition in the same manner as the thick laterite deposits which are now in course of formation in the plateau basalts of the Deccan in India.

The conditions under which laterite are formed include, first, a high seasonal temperature, for it occurs only in tropical districts and in plains or mountains up to about 5000 ft. in height; secondly, a heavy rainfall, with well-marked alternation of wet and dry seasons (in arid countries laterite is seldom seen, and where the rainfall is moderate the laterite is often calcareous); third, the presence of rocks containing aluminous minerals such as felspar, augite, hornblende and mica. On pure limestones such as coral rocks and on quartzites laterite deposits do not originate except where the material has been transported.Many hypotheses have been advanced to account for the essential difference between lateritization and the weathering processes exhibited by rocks in temperate and arctic climates. In the tropics the rank growth of vegetation produces large amounts of humus and carbonic acid which greatly promote rock decomposition; igneous and crystalline rocks of all kinds are deeply covered under rich dark soils, so that in tropical forests the underlying rocks are rarely to be seen. In the warm soil nitrification proceeds rapidly and bacteria of many kinds flourish. It has also been argued that the frequent thunderstorms produce much nitric acid in the atmosphere and that this may be a cause of lateritization, but it is certainly not a necessary factor, as beds of laterite occur in oceanic islands lying in regions of the ocean where lightning is rarely seen. Sir Thomas Holland has brought forward the suggestion that the development of laterite may depend on the presence in the soil of bacteria which are able to decompose silicate of alumina into quartz and hydrates of alumina. The restricted distribution of laterite deposits might then be due to the inhibiting effect of low temperatures on the reproduction of these organisms. This very ingenious hypothesis has not yet received the experimental confirmation which seems necessary before it can be regarded as established. Malcolm Maclaren, rejecting the bacterial theory, directs special attention to the alternate saturation of the soil with rain water in the wet season and desiccation in the subsequent drought. The laterite beds are porous, in fact they are traversed by innumerable tubules which are often lined with deposits of iron oxide and aluminous minerals. We may be certain that, as in all soils during dry weather, there is an ascent of water by capillary action towards the surface, where it is gradually dissipated by evaporation. The soil water brings with it mineral matter in solution, which is deposited in the upper part of the beds. If the alumina be at one time in a soluble condition it will be drawn upwards and concentrated near the surface. This process explains many peculiarities of laterites, such as their porous and slaggy structure, which is often so marked that they have been mistaken for slaggy volcanic rocks. The concretionary structure is undoubtedly due to chemical rearrangements, among which the escape of water is probably one of the most important; and many writers have recognized that the hard ferruginous crust, like the induration which many soft laterites undergo when dug up and exposed to the air, is the result of desiccation and exposure to the hot sun of tropical countries. The brecciated structure which many laterites show may be produced by great expansion of the mass consequent on absorption of water after heavy rains, followed by contraction during the subsequent dry season.Laterites are not of much economic use. They usually form a poor soil, full of hard concretionary lumps and very unfertile because the potash and phosphates have been removed in solution, while only alumina, iron and silica are left behind. They are used as clays for puddling, for making tiles, and as a mortar in rough work. Kankar has filled an important part as a cement in many large engineering works in India. Where the iron concretions have been washed out by rains or by artificial treatment (often in the form of small shot-like pellets) they serve as an iron ore in parts of India and Africa. Attempts are being made to utilize laterite as an ore of aluminium, a purpose for which some varieties seem well adapted. There are also deposits of manganese associated with some laterites in India which may ultimately be valuable as mineral ores.(J. S. F.)

Many hypotheses have been advanced to account for the essential difference between lateritization and the weathering processes exhibited by rocks in temperate and arctic climates. In the tropics the rank growth of vegetation produces large amounts of humus and carbonic acid which greatly promote rock decomposition; igneous and crystalline rocks of all kinds are deeply covered under rich dark soils, so that in tropical forests the underlying rocks are rarely to be seen. In the warm soil nitrification proceeds rapidly and bacteria of many kinds flourish. It has also been argued that the frequent thunderstorms produce much nitric acid in the atmosphere and that this may be a cause of lateritization, but it is certainly not a necessary factor, as beds of laterite occur in oceanic islands lying in regions of the ocean where lightning is rarely seen. Sir Thomas Holland has brought forward the suggestion that the development of laterite may depend on the presence in the soil of bacteria which are able to decompose silicate of alumina into quartz and hydrates of alumina. The restricted distribution of laterite deposits might then be due to the inhibiting effect of low temperatures on the reproduction of these organisms. This very ingenious hypothesis has not yet received the experimental confirmation which seems necessary before it can be regarded as established. Malcolm Maclaren, rejecting the bacterial theory, directs special attention to the alternate saturation of the soil with rain water in the wet season and desiccation in the subsequent drought. The laterite beds are porous, in fact they are traversed by innumerable tubules which are often lined with deposits of iron oxide and aluminous minerals. We may be certain that, as in all soils during dry weather, there is an ascent of water by capillary action towards the surface, where it is gradually dissipated by evaporation. The soil water brings with it mineral matter in solution, which is deposited in the upper part of the beds. If the alumina be at one time in a soluble condition it will be drawn upwards and concentrated near the surface. This process explains many peculiarities of laterites, such as their porous and slaggy structure, which is often so marked that they have been mistaken for slaggy volcanic rocks. The concretionary structure is undoubtedly due to chemical rearrangements, among which the escape of water is probably one of the most important; and many writers have recognized that the hard ferruginous crust, like the induration which many soft laterites undergo when dug up and exposed to the air, is the result of desiccation and exposure to the hot sun of tropical countries. The brecciated structure which many laterites show may be produced by great expansion of the mass consequent on absorption of water after heavy rains, followed by contraction during the subsequent dry season.

Laterites are not of much economic use. They usually form a poor soil, full of hard concretionary lumps and very unfertile because the potash and phosphates have been removed in solution, while only alumina, iron and silica are left behind. They are used as clays for puddling, for making tiles, and as a mortar in rough work. Kankar has filled an important part as a cement in many large engineering works in India. Where the iron concretions have been washed out by rains or by artificial treatment (often in the form of small shot-like pellets) they serve as an iron ore in parts of India and Africa. Attempts are being made to utilize laterite as an ore of aluminium, a purpose for which some varieties seem well adapted. There are also deposits of manganese associated with some laterites in India which may ultimately be valuable as mineral ores.

(J. S. F.)

LATH(O. Eng.laett, Mid. Eng.lappe, a form possibly due to the Welshllath; the word appears in many Teutonic languages, cf. Dutchlat, Ger.Latte, and has passed into Romanic, cf. Ital.latta, Fr.latte), a thin flat strip of wood or other material used in building to form a base or groundwork for plaster, or for tiles, slates or other covering for roofs. Such strips of wood are employed to form lattice-work, or for the bars of venetian blinds or shutters. A “lattice” (O. Fr.lattis) is an interlaced structure of laths fastened together so as to form a screen with diamond-shaped or square interstices. Such a screen was used, as it still is in the East, as a shutter for a window admitting air rather than light; it was hence used of the window closed by such a screen. In modern usage the term is applied to a window with diamond-shaped panes set in lead-work. A window with a lattice painted red was formerly a common inn-sign (cf. Shakespeare,2 Hen. IV.ii. 2. 86); frequently the window was dispensed with, and the sign remained painted on a board.

LATHE.(1) A mechanical appliance in which material is held and rotated against a tool for cutting, scraping, polishing or other purpose (seeTools). This word is of obscure origin. It may be a modified form of “lath,” for in an early form of lathe the rotation is given by a treadle or spring lath attachedto the ceiling. TheNew English Dictionarypoints out a possible source of the word in Dan.lad, meaning apparently a supporting framework, found in the name of the turning-lathe,drejelad, and also insavelad, saw-bench,vaeverlad, loom, &c. (2) One of five, formerly six, districts containing three or more hundreds, into which the county of Kent was divided. Though the division survives, it no longer serves any administrative purpose. It was formerly a judicial division, the court of the lathe being superior to that of the hundred. In this it differs from the rape (q.v.) of Sussex, which was a geographical rather than an administrative division. In O. Eng. the word waslaéð, the origin of which is doubtful. TheNew English Dictionaryconsiders it almost certainly identical with O. Norselad, landed possessions, territory, with a possible association in meaning with such words asleið, court,mótlaeaða, attendance at a meeting or moot, or with Mod. Dan.laegd, a division of the country for military purposes.

LATHROP, FRANCIS(1849-1909), American artist, was born at sea, near the Hawaiian Islands, on the 22nd of June 1849, being the great-grandson of Samuel Holden Parsons, and the son of George Alfred Lathrop (1819-1877), who for some time was United States consul at Honolulu. He was a pupil of T. C. Farrar (1838-1891) in New York, and studied at the Royal academy of Dresden. In 1870-1873 he was in England, studying under Ford Madox Brown and Burne-Jones, and working in the school of William Morris, where he devoted particular attention to stained glass. Returning to America in 1873, he became known as an illustrator, painted portraits, designed stained glass, and subsequently confined himself to decorative work. He designed the chancel of Trinity church, Boston, and decorated the interior of Bowdoin college chapel, at Brunswick, Maine, and several churches in New York. The Marquand memorial window, Princeton chapel, is an example of his work in stained glass. His latest work was a series of medallions for the building of the Hispanic-American society in New York. He was one of the charter members of the Society of American Artists, and became an associate of the National Academy of Design, New York, of which also William L. Lathrop (b. 1859) an artist who is to be distinguished from him, became a member in 1907. He died at Woodcliff, New Jersey, on the 18th of October 1909.

His younger brother,George Parsona Lathrop(1851-1898), born near Honolulu on the 25th of August 1851, took up literature as a profession. He was an assistant editor of theAtlantic Monthlyin 1875-1877, and editor of the BostonCourierin 1877-1879. He was one of the founders (1883) of the American copyright league, was prominent in the movement for Roman Catholic summer schools, and wrote several novels, some verse and critical essays. He was the author ofA Study of Nathaniel Hawthorne(1876), and edited the standard edition (Boston, 1883) of Hawthorne’s works. In 1871 he married in London the second daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne—Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (b. 1851). After his death Mrs Lathrop devoted herself entirely to charity. She was instrumental in establishing (1896) and subsequently conducted St Rose’s free home for cancer in New York City. In 1900 she joined the Dominican order, taking the name of Mother Mary Alphonsa and becoming superioress of the Dominican community of the third order; and she established in 1901 and subsequently conducted this order’s Rosary Hill home (for cancerous patients) at Hawthorne, N.Y. She published a volume of poems (1888);Memories of Hawthorne(1897); and, with her husband,A Story of Courage: Annals of the Georgetown Convent of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary(1894).

LATIMER, HUGH(c.1490-1555), English bishop, and one of the chief promoters of the Reformation in England, was born at Thurcaston, Leicestershire. He was the son of a yeoman, who rented a farm “of three or four pounds by year at the uttermost.” Of this farm he “tilled as much as kept half a dozen men,” retaining also grass for a hundred sheep and thirty cattle. The year of Latimer’s birth is not definitely known. In theLifeby Gilpin it is given as 1470, a palpable error, and possibly a misprint for 1490.1Foxe states that at “the age of fourteen years he was sent to the university of Cambridge,” and as he was elected fellow of Clare in 1509, his year of entrance was in all likelihood 1505. Latimer himself also, in mentioning his conversion from Romanism about 1523, says that it took place after he was thirty years of age. According to Foxe, Latimer went to school “at the age of four or thereabout.” The purpose of his parents was to train him up “in the knowledge of all good literature,” but his father “was as diligent to teach him to shoot as any other thing.” As the yeomen of England were then in comparatively easy circumstances, the practice of sending their sons to the universities was quite usual; indeed Latimer mentions that in the reign of Edward VI., on account of the increase of rents, the universities had begun wonderfully to decay. He graduated B.A. in 1510 and M.A. in 1514. Before the latter date he had taken holy orders. While a student he was not unaccustomed “to make good cheer and be merry,” but at the same time he was a punctilious observer of the minutest rites of his faith and “as obstinate a Papist as any in England.” So keen was his opposition to the new learning that his oration on the occasion of taking his degree of bachelor of divinity was devoted to an attack on the opinions of Melanchthon. It was this sermon that determined his friend Thomas Bilney to go to Latimer’s study, and ask him “for God’s sake to hear his confession,” the result being that “from that time forward he began to smell the word of God, and forsook the school doctors and such fooleries.” Soon his discourses exercised a potent influence on learned and unlearned alike; and, although he restricted himself, as indeed was principally his custom through life, to the inculcation of practical righteousness, and the censure of clamant abuses, a rumour of his heretical tendencies reached the bishop of Ely, who resolved to become unexpectedly one of his audience. Latimer, on seeing him enter the church, boldly changed his theme to a portrayal of Christ as the pattern priest and bishop. The points of comparison were, of course, deeply distasteful to the prelate, who, though he professed his “obligations for the good admonition he had received,” informed the preacher that he “smelt somewhat of the pan.” Latimer was prohibited from preaching in the university or in any pulpits of the diocese, and on his occupying the pulpit of the Augustinian monastery, which enjoyed immunity from episcopal control, he was summoned to answer for his opinions before Wolsey, who, however, was so sensible of the value of such discourses that he gave him special licence to preach throughout England.

At this time Protestant opinions were being disseminated in England chiefly by the surreptitious circulation of the works of Wycliffe, and especially of his translations of the New Testament. The new leaven had begun to communicate its subtle influence to the universities, but was working chiefly in secret and even to a great extent unconsciously to those affected by it, for many were in profound ignorance of the ultimate tendency of their own opinions. This was perhaps, as regards England, the most critical conjuncture in the history of the Reformation, both on this account and on account of the position in which Henry VIII. then stood related to it. In no small degree its ultimate fate seemed also to be placed in the hands of Latimer. In 1526 the imprudent zeal of Robert Barnes had resulted in an ignominious recantation, and in 1527 Bilney, Latimer’s most trusted coadjutor, incurred the displeasure of Wolsey, and did humiliating penance for his offences. Latimer, however, besides possessing sagacity, quick insight into character, and a ready and formidable wit which thoroughly disconcerted and confused his opponents, had naturally a distaste for mere theological discussion, and the truths he was in the habit of inculcating could scarcely be controverted, although, as he stated them, they were diametrically contradictory of prevailing errors both indoctrine and practice. In December 1529 he preached his two “sermons on the cards,” which awakened a turbulent controversy in the university, and his opponents, finding that they were unable to cope with the dexterity and keenness of his satire, would undoubtedly have succeeded in getting him silenced by force, had it not been reported to the king that Latimer “favoured his cause,” that is, the cause of the divorce. While, therefore, both parties were imperatively commanded to refrain from further dispute, Latimer was invited to preach before Henry in the Lent of 1530. The king was so pleased with the sermon that after it “he did most familiarly talk with him in a gallery.” Of the special regard which Henry seemed to have conceived for him Latimer took advantage to pen the famous letter on the free circulation of the Bible, an address remarkable, not only for what Froude justly calls “its almost unexampled grandeur,” but for its striking repudiation of the aid of temporal weapons to defend the faith, “for God,” he says, “will not have it defended by man or man’s power, but by His Word only, by which He hath evermore defended it, and that by a way far above man’s power and reason.” Though the appeal was without effect on the immediate policy of Henry, he could not have been displeased with its tone, for shortly afterwards he appointed Latimer one of the royal chaplains. In times so “out of joint” Latimer soon became “weary of the court,” and it was with a sense of relief that he accepted the living of West Kington, or West Kineton, Wiltshire, conferred on him by the king in 1531. Harassed by severe bodily ailments, encompassed by a raging tumult of religious conflict and persecution, and aware that the faint hopes of better times which seemed to gild the horizon of the future might be utterly darkened by a failure either in the constancy of his courage or in his discernment and discretion, he exerted his eloquence with unabating energy in the furtherance of the cause he had at heart. At last a sermon he was persuaded to preach in London exasperated John Stokesley, bishop of the diocese, and seemed to furnish that fervent persecutor with an opportunity to overthrow the most dangerous champion of the new opinions. Bilney, of whom Latimer wrote, “if such as he shall die evil, what shall become of me?” perished at the stake in the autumn of 1531, and in January following Latimer was summoned to answer before the bishops in the consistory. After a tedious and captious examination, he was in March brought before convocation, and, on refusing to subscribe certain articles, was excommunicated and imprisoned; but through the interference of the king he was finally released after he had voluntarily signified his acceptance of all the articles except two, and confessed that he had erred not only “in discretion but in doctrine.” If in this confession he to some extent tampered with his conscience, there is every reason to believe that his culpable timidity was occasioned, not by personal fear, but by anxiety lest by his death he should hinder instead of promoting the cause of truth. After the consecration of Cranmer to the archbishopric of Canterbury in 1533 Latimer’s position was completely altered. A commission appointed to inquire into the disturbances caused by his preaching in Bristol severely censured the conduct of his opponents; and, when the bishop prohibited him from preaching in his diocese, he obtained from Cranmer a special licence to preach throughout the province of Canterbury. In 1534 Henry formally repudiated the authority of the pope, and from this time Latimer was the chief co-operator with Cranmer and Cromwell in advising the king regarding the series of legislative measures which rendered that repudiation complete and irrevocable.

It was, however, the preaching of Latimer more than the edicts of Henry that established the principles of the Reformation in the minds and hearts of the people; and from his preaching the movement received its chief colour and complexion. The sermons of Latimer possess a combination of qualities which constitute them unique examples of that species of literature. It is possible to learn from them more regarding the social and political condition of the period than perhaps from any other source, for they abound, not only in exposures of religious abuses, and of the prevailing corruptions of society, but in references to many varieties of social injustice and unwise customs, in racy sketches of character, and in vivid pictures of special features of the time, occasionally illustrated by interesting incidents in his own life. The homely terseness of his style, his abounding humour—rough, cheery and playful, but irresistible in its simplicity, and occasionally displaying sudden and dangerous barbs of satire—his avoidance of dogmatic subtleties, his noble advocacy of practical righteousness, his bold and open denunciation of the oppression practised by the powerful, his scathing diatribes against ecclesiastical hypocrisy, the transparent honesty of his fervent zeal, tempered by sagacious moderation—these are the qualities which not only rendered his influence so paramount in his lifetime, but have transmitted his memory to posterity as perhaps that of the one among his contemporaries most worthy of our interest and admiration.

In September 1535 Latimer was consecrated bishop of Worcester. While holding this office he was selected to officiate as preacher when the friar, John Forest, whom he vainly endeavoured to move to submission, was burned at the stake for denying the royal supremacy. In 1539, being opposed to the “act of the six articles,” Latimer resigned his bishopric, learning from Cromwell that this was the wish of the king. It would appear that on this point he was deceived, but as he now declined to accept the articles he was confined within the precincts of the palace of the bishop of Chichester. After the attainder of Cromwell little is known of Latimer until 1546, when, on account of his connexion with the preacher Edward Crome, he was summoned before the council at Greenwich, and committed to the Tower of London. Henry died before his final trial could take place, and the general pardon at the accession of Edward VI. procured him his liberty. He declined to resume his see, notwithstanding the special request of the Commons, but in January 1548 again began to preach, and with more effectiveness than ever, crowds thronging to listen to him both in London and in the country. Shortly after the accession of Mary in 1553 a summons was sent to Latimer to appear before the council at Westminster. Though he might have escaped by flight, and though he knew, as he quaintly remarked, that “Smithfield already groaned for him,” he at once joyfully obeyed. The pursuivant, he said, was “a welcome messenger.” The hardships of his imprisonment, and the long disputations at Oxford, told severely on his health, but he endured all with unbroken cheerfulness. On the 16th of October 1555 he and Ridley were led to the stake at Oxford. Never was man more free than Latimer from the taint of fanaticism or less dominated by “vainglory,” but the motives which now inspired his courage not only placed him beyond the influence of fear, but enabled him to taste in dying an ineffable thrill of victorious achievement. Ridley he greeted with the words, “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.” He “received the flame as it were embracing it. After he had stroked his face with his hands, and (as it were) bathed them a little in the fire, he soon died (as it appeared) with very little pain or none.”

Two volumes of Latimer’s sermons were published in 1549. A complete edition of his works, edited by G. E. Corrie for the Parker Society, appeared in two volumes (1844-1845). HisSermon on the PloughersandSeven Sermons preached before Edward VI.were reprinted by E. Arber (1869). The chief contemporary authorities for his life are his ownSermons, John Stow’sChronicleand Foxe’sBook of Martyrs. In addition to memoirs prefixed to editions of his sermons, there are lives of Latimer by R. Demaus (1869, new and revised ed. 1881), and by R. M. and A. J. Carlyle (1899).

(T. F. H.)

1The only reasons for assigning an earlier date are that he was commonly known as “old Hugh Latimer,” and that Bernher, his Swiss servant, states incidentally that he was “above threescore and seven years” in the reign of Edward VI. Bad health and anxieties probably made him look older than his years, but under Edward VI. his powers as an orator were in full vigour, and he was at his book winter and summer at two o’clock in the morning.

LATINA, VIA,an ancient highroad of Italy, leading S.E. from Rome. It was probably one of the oldest of Roman roads, leading to the pass of Algidus, so important in the early military history of Rome; and it must have preceded the Via Appia as a route to Campania, inasmuch as the Latin colony at Cales was founded in 334B.C.and must have been accessible from Rome by road, whereas the Via Appia was only made twenty-two years later. It follows, too, a far more natural line of communication, without the engineering difficulties which the Via Appia had to encounter. As a through route it no doubtpreceded the Via Labicana (seeLabicana, Via), though the latter may have been preferred in later times. After their junction, the Via Latina continued to follow the valley of the Trerus (Sacco), following the line taken by the modern railway to Naples, and passing below the Hernican hill-towns, Anagnia, Ferentinum, Frusino, &c. At Fregellae it crossed the Liris, and then passed through Aquinum and Casinum, both of them comparatively low-lying towns. It then entered the interval between the Apennines and the volcanic group of Rocca Monfina, and the original road, instead of traversing it, turned abruptly N.E. over the mountains to Venafrum, thus giving a direct communication with the interior of Samnium by roads to Aesernia and Telesia. In later times, however, there was in all probability a short cut by Rufrae along the line taken by the modern highroad and railway. The two lines rejoined near the present railway station of Caianello and the road ran to Teanum and Cales, and so to Casilinum, where was the crossing of the Volturnus and the junction with the Via Appia. The distance from Rome to Casilinum was 129 m. by the Via Appia, 135 m. by the old Via Latina through Venafrum, 126 m. by the short cut by Rufrae. Considerable remains of the road exist in the neighbourhood of Rome; for the first 40 m., as far as Compitum Anagninum, it is not followed by any modern road; while farther on in its course it is in the main identical with the modern highroad.

See T. Ashby inPapers of the British School at Romeiv. 1 sq., v. 1 sq.

(T. As.)

LATINI, BRUNETTO(c.1210-c.1294), Italian philosopher and scholar, was born in Florence, and belonged to the Guelph party. After the disaster of Montaperti he took refuge for some years (1261-1268) in France, but in 1269 returned to Tuscany and for some twenty years held successive high offices. Giovanni Villani says that “he was a great philosopher and a consummate master of rhetoric, not only in knowing how to speak well, but how to write well.... He both began and directed the growth of the Florentines, both in making them ready in speaking well and in knowing how to guide and direct our republic according to the rules of politics.” He was the author of various works in prose and verse. While in France he wrote in French his proseTrésor, a summary of the encyclopaedic knowledge of the day (translated into Italian asTesoroby Bono Giamboni in the 13th century), and in Italian his poemTesoretto, rhymed couplets in heptasyllabic metre, a sort of abridgment put in allegorical form, the earliest Italian didactic verse. He is famous as the friend and counsellor of Dante (seeInferno, xv. 82-87).

For theTrésorsee P. Chabville’s edition (1863); for theTesoro, Gaiter’s edition (1878); for theTesoretto, B. Wiese’s study inZeitschrift für romanische Philologie, vii. See also the biographical and critical accounts of Brunetto Latini by Thoe Sundby (1884), and Marchesini (1887 and 1890).

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