their soules hadde no neede therof. His brother moued many men, seing his miserable case: seing I say him compelled to such infelicitie, that he thought then to doe him best seruice, when he hastened his end. Some cried out of fortune to see his endeuor, who most derely loued him and soughte his release, tourne to his greater vexation and encrease of paine. But who so c?sidered their prefermentes in time past, the places of honour that they sometime occupied in this common wealthe, the fauor they were in with their princes, and the opinion of learning they had in the vniuersitie they studied, coulde not chose but sorow with teares to see so great dignitie, honor and estimation, so necessary m?bers somtime accompted, so many godlye vertues, the study of so many yeares, such excell?t learning, to be put into the fire, and consumed in one moment. Wel, dead they are, and the reward of this world, they haue already.
[Back to Top]? Thou diddest heare before (good Reader) howe carefull master Ridley was in the behalf of such poore m?, as in his time had either taken or renued leases, & payd downe summes of money, and fines for the same, that euen being chained to the stake, & redy to haue the fire set vnto him, he wolde yet earnestly require my L. Williams of Tame to further his suit c?cerning those poore tenants of the sea of Lond?. He did also require D. Brookes (as you haue heard before) to be a suiter vnto the Quenes maiesty for his poore brother & sister, that wer iniuried by Boner. These. ii. points because he ioyned himselfe in one supplication vnto Quene Mary: we thought it not impertinent to communicate it as it came vnto oure handes. The Copye wherof here foloweth.
[Back to Top]Foxe's printing of this document was a favour to his source for the final events of Ridley's life, George Shipside. There were undoubtedly a number of reasons why Shipside co-operated with Foxe, but one of them was to use the pressure Foxe's text could generate in order to recover the property Ridley had leased to him. As one of Foxe's glosses indicates, this effort was not unsuccessful. BL, Harley 590, fos. 70r-75r is a copy of this petition among Foxe's papers.
[Back to Top]IT may please your maiesty for Christe our sauiors sake, in a matter of c?sci?ce (& now not for my selfe, but for other pore m?) to vouchsafe to hear & vnderst?d this mine h?ble supplication. It is so (honorable princes) that in the time whiles I was in the ministery of the sea of London diuers poore m? ten?ts therof haue tak? new Leases of their tenantries & holdings, and some hath renued & cha?ged their old, & therfore hath payde fines & s?mes of money (both to me & also to the chapter of Paules) for the confirmation of the same. Now I hear say that the B. which occupieth the same roume now, wil not allow the foresaid leases, which must redo?d to many poore mens vtter ruine & decay. Wherfore, this is mine h?ble supplicati? vnto youre honorable grace, that it may please the same for Christs sake, to be vnto the foresaid poore m? theyr gratious patrones, & defendor, either that they may enioy their fore said leases & yeres renued as (I suppose) when their mater shalbe heard with c?science, both iustice, c?sci?ce & equity shal require, for that their leases shalbe fo?d (I trust) made without fraud or cou?,
This is short for covenance; i.e., an agreement or contract.
me, & to the chapter for their leases & yeares, so now tak? fr? th? which thing c?cerning the fynes paid to me may be easily done, if it shal plese your maiesty to c?maund some porcion of these goods, which I left in my house, when I fled in hope of pardon for my trespas towardes youre grace, which goods (as I haue heard) be yet reserued in the same house. I suppose that halfe of the value of my plate which I left in mine offyces, & specially in an yron chest in my bed chamber will go nighe to restore al such fines receyued, the true s?mes & parcels wherof ar not set in their leases: & therfore if that way shall please your highnes, they muste bee knowen by suche waies & meanes as your maiesty by the aduyse of m? of wisdom & c?sci?ce shall appoint: but yet for christs sake I craue & most h?bly besech your maiesty, of your most gratious pitie and mercy, that the former way may take place. I haue also a poore sister that came to me out of the North, with. 3. fatherles childr? for her relief, whom I maried after to a seru?t of mine own house: she is put out of that I did prouide for th?.
Alice Ridley was Nicholas Ridley's sister who married George Shipside, a member of Bishop Ridley's household. She was expelled from diocesan property which her brother had leased to her.
Ridley is saying that after Edmund Bonner, Ridley's predecessor, was deprived of his bishopric, Ridley did not seize any of Bonner's movable property.
Use, utility.
After he was deprived of the bishopric of Worcester, Nicholas Heath was confined in Ridley's custody.
This letter is clearly a reply to a letter West sent to Ridley urging him to recant. It was first printed in the 1563 edition and reprinted in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 40-43 and then reprinted in all subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments. Copies of this letter are BL, Lansdowne 389, fos. 126v-129v, ECL 260, fos. 281r-282v and ECL 282, fos.162r-165v.
[Back to Top]I Wish you grace in god, and loue of the truthe without the which truely stablished in m?nes harts, by the mighty hand of almighty god, it is no more possible to st?d by the truth in christ in tyme of trouble, then it is for the waxe to abyde the heat of the fyre. Sir, know you this that I am (blessed be god) perswaded that this worlde is but transitory, and (as sainct IohnMarginalia1 Iohn. 8 saieth) the world passeth away and the luste thereof. I am perswaded Christes woordes to be true. MarginaliaMath. 10.Whoso euer shall confesse me before men, him wil I c?fesse also before my father which is in heauen. And I beleue that no earthly creature shall bee saued, wh? the redemer and sauior of the world shal before his father deny. This the lord gra?t that it may be so graffed, establyshed, and fyred in my heart, that neither thinges presente nor to come, hygh or lowe, life or death bee able to remoue me thence. It is a goodly wyshe that you wishe me, depelye to consyder thynges pertay-
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