This is just one of a number of interventions that John Foxe attributed to Hugh Latimer in his extended discussions with his fellow prisoner Nicholas Ridley in the year 1555. The ordeals of Latimer and Ridley in their journeys towards trial and execution number among the most famous and most often cited narratives of Foxe’s magnum opus described in the 1583 edition as the Acts and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church with an vniuersall history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitiue age to these latter tymes of ours, with the bloudy times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions agaynst the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperours, as nowe lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realme of England and Scotland. In their exchanges both Latimer and Ridley not only seek to defend their doctrinal position in opposition to that of their Catholic persecutors, we also find them centrally concerned with diverse forms of remembering, and pondering the act of being remembered. Furthermore, in this, they are representative of a whole host of different martyrs portrayed throughout the huge collection. In direct comparison with many other Foxean ‘worthies’, Latimer is seen to subscribe to an Augustinian position whereby recollection may facilitate access to a higher spiritual truth and a renewed commitment to faith.

More broadly, throughout The Acts and Monuments it is made repeatedly apparent that the faculty of memory not only yields valuable insights into any understanding of human epistemology, it also constitutes an indispensable resource for true Christian worship. In the depiction above of his captivity, Latimer is discovered drawing upon his rhetorical training as a scholar: by recalling select fragments from scriptural apophthegms, the divine is seen to formulate an appropriate ethos, to shape a legitimate and authoritative self, with which to confront his accusers. Repeatedly exploiting such arresting images of the faithful beset by enemies, Foxe hailed both Latimer and Ridley as ‘two … speciall & singuler Captaines, & principall pillers of Christes Churche … of whose famous doinges & memorable learning, & incomparable ornaments & giftes of grace, ioyned with no lesse co[m]mendable sincerity of lyfe, as all the Realme canne witnes sufficiently’ (Acts [1583], p. 1717).