1570 Edition | Book 11 | Page 1941 
MarginaliaAn. 1555. October.looked long ago to haue bene dispatched, for wee were all three on one day within a day or two of our disputations, of MarginaliaD. Weston condemner of Canter. Ridley, and Latymer.Doctor Weston being the head Cōmissioner, condemned for heritickes, & since that tyme we remayne as we were of him left. The Lordes will be fulfilled in vs, as I do not doubt, but by his grace it shall be to his glory and our endles saluation through IESVS CHRIST our Lord.
[Back to Top]Likewyse the Lord hitherto hath preserued aboue all our expectation, our deare brother, and in CHRISTES cause a strong Champion Ioh. Bradford. He is lykewyse condemned, and is already deliuered vnto the secular power, and writtes (as we haue heard say) geuē out for his execution, and called in agayne.MarginaliaWrittes for the burning of Ioh. Bradford called in agayne. Thus the Lorde, so long as his blessed pleasure is, preserueth whō he listeth, notwithstanding the wonderfull raging of the worlde. Many (as we heare say) haue suffred valiantly, confessing CHRISTES truth, and nothyng yelding to the aduersary, yea not for the feare or paynes of death.
[Back to Top]The names of them which I knewe, and haue nowe suffred, are these, MarginaliaNames of Martyrs.Farrar the Bishop of Saint Dauides, Hooper the Bishop of Worceter, Rogers tuus olim comprebendarius.
Close'Formerly your fellow prebendary'.
CloseJohn Cardmaker and his fellow martyr John Warne were burned on 30 May 1555; this passage dates this letter to the early days of June.
MarginaliaThis West, when he had relented and sayd masse agaynst his conscience, shortly after pined away and died for sorow.West your old cōpanion & sometime mine officer (alas) hath relented (as I haue heard) but the Lord hath shortened hys dayes, for anone hee dyed and is gone. Grimbolde was caught by the heele & cast into the Marshalse, but now is at liberty againe, but I feare me hee escaped not without some becking and bowyng (alas) of hys knee vnto Baal.
CloseI.e., Grimoald recanted.
My deare friendeThomas Ridley of the Bulhead in cheape, which was to me the most faithfull friend that I had in my trouble, is departed also vnto God. My brother Shipside that hath maried my Sister, hath bene almost halfe a yeare in prison, for deliuering (as hee was accused) of certaine things, I weene, from me: but now thankes be to God, he is at liberty again, but so that the bishop hath taken from him his *Marginalia* Note how Boner here requited the kindnes of B. Ridley shewed to hys mother. Parke.
[Back to Top]Of all vs three cōcaptiues at Oxford, I am kept most straite, & with least libertie, Vel quia viro in cuius ædibus, ego custodior, vxor dominatur (licet modo sit Præfectus ciuitatis) mulier vetula, morosa, & superstitiosiss. quæ etiam hoc sibi laudi ducit quod me dicatur arctissime & cautissime custodire, vir autē ipse Irischius nomine, mitis satis est omnib9, vxori vero plusquā obsequentiss. Licet vxoré (vti nosti) nūquā habuerim, tamen ex hac quotidiana cōsuetudine quē cū istis cōiugibus habeo, videor mihi nonnihil posse intelligere quā graue malum & intollerabile iugum sit cum mala muliere in coniugio colligari. Recte ergo sapiens dixit, vxor bona donum Dei: & iterum, mulieris bonæ beatus vir.
CloseThe wise man is Solomon; Ridley is quoting Proverbs 19:14 and 31:28 in the Vulgate.
CloseThe preceding paragraph, in translation, reads: 'either because the man in whose house I am detained, is dominated by his wife (even though he is the mayor), an old woman, bad-tempered and very superstitious, who takes it as praise for herself that she is said to guard me most strictly and with the greatest care. The man himself, who is named Irish, is on the other hand, easy-going enough but overly obedient to his wife. As you know, I have never had a wife, but from the daily association which I have had with this couple, I am able to understand somewhat how serious an evil and heavy a yoke it is to be joined in wedlock with a bad woman. Truly therefore has the wise man said, A good wife is the gift of God and again, blessed is the husband of a good woman. Whether it is for this reason, I say, or whether they have been commanded by higher powers, for whatever reason, when I complain about the severity of my imprisonment, it is a fact that [then] they frequently and zealously persecute me anew'.
[Back to Top]This unfair characterization of the Irishes is corrected by Carl I. Hammer, 'The Oxford Martyrs in Oxford: The Local History of their Confinements and Keepers', Journal of Ecclesiastical History 50 (1999), pp. 238-44. It also should be noted that Margaret Irish seems to have been genuinely distressed by Ridley's impending execution.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaAl the statutes of reformacion in Cambridge broken and all thinges reduced againe into the old state of Popery.At Cābridge (so I heare say) Omnes studiorū & statutorū reformationes nuper factæ, nūc sunt denuo deformatæ & delretæ, & omnia sunt in pristinum chaos & in antiquum papismum reducta: omnes collegiorum præfecti qui sinceritati Euangelij fauebant, vel qui coniugati erāt, loco moti sunt, & alij Papisticæ factionis in eorū loca surrogati, quod & de socijs collegiorum qui noluerunt flectere genu Baal factum esse audio. Nec mirum, nam & istud passim factum est in vniuerso regno Angliæ, in omnibus Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Decanis, prebendarijs, Sacerdotibus Ecclesiarū, & in toto clero:
CloseThe preceding passages, translated into English, read: 'all the reformations of studies and statutes [which were] recently accomplished are now again deformed and abolished and everything reduced to its original chaos and ancient popery: all the heads of colleges who favoured the sincerity of the gospel, or who were married, are removed from their places and replaced by others of the popish faction and I hear this also of those fellows who could not bow their knees to Baal. This is not surprising, for this has happened throughout the kingdom of England, to all archbishops, bishops, deans, prebendaries, ministers of churches and all the clergy'.
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Close'Papistry reigns everywhere among us in all of its ancient strength'.
The Lord be merciful, and for CHRISTES sake pardon vs MarginaliaVnthankefull receauing of Gods great giftes and graces.our old vnkindnes and vnthankfulnes: for whē he powred vpon vs the giftes of hys manifolde graces and fauour (alas) we did not serue him nor rendered vnto hym thankes according to the same. MarginaliaColdenes of pastors, corruption of Magistrates, waywardnes of the people, prouoked gods wrath.Wee pastors many of vs were to colde and bare to much (alas) wyth the wicked world, our Magistrates did abuse to their own worldly gayne, both Gods Gospell and the ministers of the same. The people in many places was waywarde and vnkynde. Thus of euery syde and of euery sorte wee haue prouoked Gods anger and wrath to fall vpon vs: but blessed might he be that hath not suffred hys to continue in those wayes, which so wholy haue displeased hys secret Maiesty, but hath awaked them by the fatherly correction of his owne sonnes crosse, vnto his glory and our endles saluation, through IESVS CHRIST our Lord.
[Back to Top]My dayly prayer is (as God doth knowe) and by Gods grace shall be so long as I liue in this world, for you my deare brethren that are fled out of your owne countrey, bicause ye will rather forsake all worldly thinges then the truth of Gods word. It is euen the same that I vse to make to God for all those churches abroade through the world, which haue forsaken the kingdome of Antichrist, and professed openly the purity of the Gospell of IESVS CHRIST: that is, MarginaliaThe prayer of B. Ridley for all the churches abroad which openly professe the Gospell of Christ Iesus.that God our eternall father for our Sauiour CHRISTES sake, will dayly encrease in you the gracious gift of his heauenly spirite to the true setting forth of hys glory and of his Gospell, and make you to agree brotherly in þe truth of the same, that there ryse no rote of bitternes among you, that may infect that good seede which God hath sowen in your hartes already, and finally that your lyfe may be so pure and so honest, according to the rule of Gods worde and according to that vocation whereunto wee are called by the Gospell of CHRIST our Sauiour, that the honesty and purity of the same may prouooke all that shall see or know it, to the loue of your doctrine, and to loue you for your honesty and vertues sake, and so both in brotherly vnity of your true doctrine and also in the Godly vertue of your honest lyfe, to glorify our father which is in heauen.
[Back to Top]Ex nostratibus magni aliquot magistratus, Cancellarius Wint.
CloseStephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor.
ClosePhillip, the consort of Queen Mary.
CloseMary was going into confinement, or seclusion, because she was believed, inaccurately, to be pregnant and this was the custom before giving birth.
CloseI.e., Ridley expects that he Latimer and Cranmer will be martyred.
Omnium vestrum precibus me humillime & ex toto corde commendo: In primis, tuis ô chariss. in CHRISTO frater, & dilectiss. Grindalle, & chariss. fratrum & vnicè mihi in domino dilectorum, Checi, Coxi, Turneri, Leueri, Sampsonis, Chamberi,
CloseSir John Cheke had been imprisoned at the start of Mary's reign but had been released in the spring of 1554 and arrived in Strasbourg on 14 April. He journeyed on, reaching Padua in July and would remain in Italy until the spring of 1555. William Turner had fled England in September 1553 and went to Emden and subsequently traveled throughout Germany. Thomas Sampson's movements are mysterious although he eventually arrived in Strasbourg. Thomas Lever, on the other hand, arrived in Frankfurt in February 1555 and took a prominent role in the disputes there. Richard Chambers, the moneyman for the Marian exiles, settled in Zurich in 1554, but his movements would have been known to Grindal. Richard Cox was committed to the Marshalsea on 5 August 1553 but was released into house arrest two weeks later. He made his escape in May 1554, arriving in Strasbourg in June 1554. He arrived in Frankfurt in March 1555, becoming the chief opponent of John Knox in the dispute over whether the Book of Common Prayer or the Genevan liturgy would be used by the English congregation there.
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CloseThe preceding two paragraphs read, in translation: 'Some of our great magistrates, Chancellor Winchester [Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor], the earl of Arundel, and Lord Paget, are joined overseas with Cardinal Pole on an embassy to negotiate (as they say) peace between the emperor, our king [Phillip, the consort of Queen Mary], and the king of France. After the return of the magistrates and the confinement of the queen, which we now expect anyday, indeed we have expected it for some time - and which may God for the glory of his name undertake to make fortunate for her - we then expect nothing more than the triumphal crowns of our confession immediately from our ancient enemy [i.e., Ridley, Cranmer and Latimer expect to be martyred].
[Back to Top]I commend myself in all humility and with all my heart to the prayers of all of you; in you primarily, Grindal, a most dear and cherished brother in Christ, and of those most dear brothers to me, the Lord's beloved, Cheke, Cox, Turner, Lever, Sampson, Chambers and all our brothers and countrymen who abide among you and love our Lord Jesus Christ in truth. I also commend to you the most reverend fathers, and my fellow captives in the Lord, Thomas Cranmer, now truly most worthy of the name of chief pastor and archbishop, and that veteran, the true apostle of the English people and of Christ, Hugh Latimer. Forgive me, brother, for the verbosity of this letter, for after this, I believe, most dear brother, that you will never again be troubled with letters of mine'.
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CloseFrom the reference to the burning of John Rogers this letter must have been written fairly soon after 4 February 1555. This letter was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 72-73 and was reprinted in the 1570 edition, and all subsequent editions, of the Acts and Monuments. The orginal letter survives in Foxe's papers (ECL 260, fo. 278r-v); copies of the letter are Harley 416, fo. 16v and ECL 260, fos. 269r-270r and 283r.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaA letter of B. Ridley to one Austen Bernher.BRother Augustine, I blesse God with all my hart in his manifold mercifull giftes, geuen vnto our deare brethren in CHRIST, especially to our brother Rogers, whō it pleased to set forth first, no doubt but of his gratious goodnes & fatherly fauour towards him. And likewyse blessed be God in the rest, as MarginaliaCommemoratiō of Saintes.Hoper, Saunders, & Tailour, whom it hath pleased the Lord likewise to set in the forefront of the battail against his aduersaries, and hath endued them all (so far as I can heare) to stande in the confession of his truth, and to be content in hys cause, & for his Gospels sake to lose their life.
CloseRidley is refering to the examinations of John Hooper, Laurence Saunders and Rowland Taylor by Stephen Gardiner at the end of January 1555 and their refusal to recant.
CloseI believe
CloseObviously this passage was written after the execution of Rogers on 4 February 1555.
CloseRogers was a prebend of St Paul's in London. Grindal had been precentor of the cathedral. Ridley is anticipating the martyrdom of John Bradford (another prebend) and of himself (the bishop) to make up a trinity of martyrs from St Paul's.
CloseThe meaning of this passage is made clear from the original letter. Short of paper, Ridley wrote this letter to Bernher on the back of a letter which Bernher had sent to him.