THE

WORKS

of

NICHOLAS RIDLEY, D.D.

SOMETIME LORD BISHOP OF LONDON,

MARTYR, 1555

EDITED FOR

The Parker Society,

by the

REV. HENRY CHRISTMAS, M.A. F.R.S. F.S.A.

CAMBRIDGE:

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

M.DCCC.XLIII.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biographical Notice of Ridley

ORIGINAL TREATISES

1. Brief Declaration or Treatise against Transubstantiation

2. Piteous Lamentation

3. Treatise against Image Worship

CONFERENCES

4. Conferences with Latimer

5. Conference with Secretary Bourne

JUDICIA

6. A Determination concerning the Sacrament

7. Judicium de Epistolis Decretalibus

DISPUTATIONS AND EXAMINATIONS

8. Disputation at Oxford

9. Examination before the Queen’s Commissioners

SMALLER DOCUMENTS

10. Ridley’s account of his disputation at Oxford

11. The Theological Variations of Stephen Gardiner

12. Answer to certain Queries touching the abuses of the Mass

13. Injunctions to the Diocese of London

14. Reasons why the Lord’s board should be in the form of a table

LETTERS

15. Letters.—XXXIV

APPENDICES

I. Disputatio habita Oxonii

II. Articles of accusation against Ridley

III. Letter of Dr Turner to John Fox

IV. Letter from Gardiner to Ridley

V. Letter from the Protector to Ridley

VI. Letter from Edward VI. to Ridley

Notes

Index

A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE

of

NICHOLAS RIDLEY, D.D.,

bishop of london, 1550–1553

Dr Nicholas Ridley1 was born in the beginning of the sixteenth century (the exact date is not known), in Northumberland, not far from the Scottish border. Thus much he states himself; and to this his friend and fellow-collegian, Dr Turner1, adds, that the place of his birth was Wilmontswick. “His father,” says Dr Glocester Ridley, “was the third son of a very ancient family, which had been seated there through a long descent of knights for many generations; the second son was John, father to Dr Lancelot Ridley, and a fourth son was Dr Robert Ridley.”

“Descended from this ancient stock, he degenerated not from the virtues of his ancestors, but gave a much greater lustre to his family than he derived from it.” His school education he received at Newcastle upon Tyne, from whence he was removed, about a.d. 1518, to Pembroke College in Cambridge, at the expence of his uncle Dr Robert Ridley, then a Fellow of Queens’ College.

The following dates of the chief events in Ridley’s life are collected from Dr Glocester Ridley and Bp Godwin2:

Born in the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Entered at Pembroke College, about	a.d. 1518
B. A.	1522
Elected fellow of University College, Oxford, but declined the honour	1524
Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge	1524
M.A.	1525
College agent for Tylney, Soham, and Saxthorpe Churches	1526
Went to Paris, and studied at the Sorbonne	1527
Returned to England. Junr. Treasurer of Pembroke College	1530
Senior Proctor	1533
Signed the decree against the Pope’s Supremacy at Cambridge	1534
B. D.	1534
Chaplain to the University and Public Orator	1534
Chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer	1537
Vicar of Herne	1538
Master of Pembroke College, and D.D....