1576 Edition | Book 11 | Page 1654 
gation, & so, I assure you, I thinke euen at this daye. My doctrine and my preachyng you say you haue heard often, and after your iudgment haue thought it godly, sauing onely for the sacrament, MarginaliaB. Ridley euer a Reuerend handler of the Sacrament.whiche thing although it was of me reuerently handled and a great deale better then of the rest (as you) yet in the margent you write warily, and in this world wisely: and yet me thought all sounded not well.MarginaliaQ. Mary. An. 1555. October. Sir, but that I see so many changes in this world, and so much alteration, els at this your saying I would not a litle marueile. I haue taken you for my frende, and a man whom I fāsied for plainnes and faithfulnes, as much (I assure you) as for your learning: and haue you kept this so close in your hart from me vnto this day? Syr, I consider moe things then one, & wyll not say al that I thinke. But what neede you to care what I thinke, for any thyng I shalbe able to do vnto you, either good or harme? You geue me good lessons to stand in nothing agaynst my learnyng, & to beware of vaine glory.
CloseJudging from the preceeding paragraph, West had written to Ridley urging him to recant.
To write vnto those whō you name, I cā not see what it wyll auaile me.
CloseWest must have been urging Ridley to write to those in authority to seek a pardon.
CloseA cure was usually the benefice for which a clergyman was spiritually responsible; Ridley is saying that he was thus responsible for West and the other members of his household.
This conscience doth moue me also now to require both you and my frend MarginaliaD. Haruy charged.Doct. Haruy, to remēber your promises made to me in tymes past, of the pure setting forth & preaching of Gods woord and his truth. MarginaliaGood monitions of B. Ridley to his old Chaplēs.These promises, although you shal not neede to feare to be charged with thē of me hereafter before the world, yet looke for none other (I exhort you as my frendes) but to be charged with them at Gods hand. This conscience and the loue that I beare vnto you, byddeth me now say vnto you both in Gods name, feare God and loue not the world: for God is able to caste both body and soule into hell fire. MarginaliaPsal. 2.When his wrath shall sodenly be kyndled, blessed are all they that put their trust in hym. And the saying of saint Iohn is true: MarginaliaIohn. 2.All that is in the world, as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, & the pride of life, is not of the father, but of the worlde, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that dooth the wyll of God abideth for euer. If this gyfte of grace (which vndoubtedly is necessarily required vnto eternal saluation) were truely and vnfainedly graffed & firmely stablished in mens hartes, they would not be so light, so sodenly to shrinke from the maintenance & cōfession of the truth, as is nowe (alas) seene so manifestly of so many in these dayes. But here peraduenture you would know of me MarginaliaWhat is truth.what is the truth. Syr, Gods word is the truth, as saint Iohn saith,MarginaliaIohn. 17. and that euen the same that was heretofore. For albeit man doth vary & change as the Moone,MarginaliaEccle. 27. yet Gods word is stable & abideth one for euermore: and of Christ it is truely sayd, MarginaliaHeb. 13.Christ yesterday and to day, the same is also for euer.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaCommon prayer in the common tongue.When I was in office, all that were esteemed learned in Gods worde, agreed this to be a truth in Gods word written, that the common prayer of the Churche should be had in the common tongue. You know I haue conferred with many, and I ensure I neuer found man (so farre as I do remember) neither olde nor new, gospeller nor papist, of what iudgement soeuer he was, in this thing to be of a contrary opinion. If thē it were a truth of Gods word, thinke you that the alteration of the worlde can make it an vntruth? If it can not, why then do so many men shrinke
[Back to Top]from the confession and maintenance of this truth receyued once of vs al? MarginaliaWhat it is to confesse Christ.For what is it, I pray you, els to confesse or denye Christe in this worlde, but to mainteyne the truth taught in Gods word, or for any worldly respect to shrinke from the same? This one thing haue I brought for an ensample:
CloseExample.
I lyke very well your playne speakyng, wherein you saye: I must eyther agree or dye, and I thinke that you meane of the bodyly death, MarginaliaDeath common to good and bad.whiche is common both to good and bad. Syr, I knowe I must dye whether I agree or no. But what folly were it then to make such an agreement MarginaliaDamnable agreement.by the which I could neuer escape this death whiche is so common to all, and also incurre the gylt of death and eternall damnation? Lord graunt that I may vtterly abhorre and detest this damnable agreement so long as I lyue. And because (I dare saye) you wrote of frendship vnto me this shorte earnest aduertisement, and I thinke veryly, wishyng me to lyue, and not to dye, therefore bearyng you in my harte no lesse loue in GOD, then you doo me in the worlde, I say vnto you in the woorde of the Lord (and that I say to you, I say to all my frendes and louers in God) that if you do not confesse and mainteyne to your power and knowledge that whiche is grounded vpon Gods woorde, but wyll eyther for feare or gayne of the worlde, shrinke and play the *Marginalia* Apostata was he who fled from his Captayne to the enemie. He was also so called that departed from the Christians to the Iewes and Gentiles Apostata, in deede you shall dye the death: you knowe what I meane. And I beseeche you al my true frendes and louers in God, remember what I say, for this may be the last tyme peraduenture that euer I shall write vnto you.
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From Bocardo in Oxford, the. viij.
day of April. 1555.
MarginaliaThe summe of M. Grindals letter to B. Ridley.M. Grindall, now Archbishop of Canterbury, being in the time of exile in the citie of Frankford, wrote to D. Ridley then prisoner, a certaine Epistle. Wherin first he lamenteth his captiuitie, exhorting him withal to be cōstant. Secondly he certifieth hym of the state of the Englishe exiles being dispersed in Germany, and of the singular prouidence of God in stirring vp þe fauour of the Magistrates and rulers there towardes them. Thirdly, he writeth to knowe his mynd and wyl concernyng the printing of his booke against Transubstantiation, and of certaine other treatises, and his disputations. Wherunto Bishop Ridley answeareth againe in order, as foloweth.
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CloseThis letter was a response to a letter which Edmund Grindal, Ridley's close friend and protégé, had sent to Ridley from exile. (Grindal's letter is printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 49-51, and in The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], pp. 386-88). Grindal's letter was dated 6 May 1554 and Ridley's reply, judging by a reference to the execution of John Cardmaker, was written in early June. This letter was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 51-56) and was reprinted in the 1570 edition and all subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments. Bull and Foxe deleted an important section of this letter. ECL 260, fos. 114*r-115v is a copy of this letter.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaAn aunswere of B. Ridley to M. Grindals letter sent from Franckford.BLessed be God our heauenly father which enclined your hart to haue such a desire to write vnto me, and blessed be he againe which hath heard your request, & hath brought your letters safe vnto my handes: and ouer al this, I blesse hym through our Lord Iesus Christe, for the great comfort I haue receyued by the same, of the knowledge of your state, and of other our dearely beloued brethren and countreymen in those parties beyond the sea.
[Back to Top]Dearely beloued brother Grindall, I say to you and all the rest of our brethren in Christe with you, reioyce in the Lord, and as ye loue me and the other my reuerende fathers and concaptiues (which vndoubtedly are Gloria Christi,) lament not our state, but I beseeche you and thē all to geue to our heauenly Father for his endlesse mercyes and vnspeakeable benefites euen in the myddest of all our troubles geuen vnto vs, most harty thankes. MarginaliaExperience of Gods strength toward his Sayntes in their imprisonment.For know ye, that as the weight of his crosse hath increased vpon vs, so he hath not nor dooth not cease to multiplye his mercyes to strengthen vs,and I trust, yea by his grace I doubt nothing, but he wyll so doo for Christe our Maisters sake, euen to the ende. To heare that you and our other brethren doo finde in your exile fauour and grace with the Magistrates, Ministers and Citizens at Tigury, at Frankford, and other where, it dooth greatlye comfort (I dare say) all here that doo in deede loue Christe and his true woorde. I ensure you it warmed my hart, to heare you by chaunce to name some, as Scory and Coxe. &c.
CloseIn his letter, Grindal had reported that John Scory was head of an English exile congregation at Emden and that Richard Cox was head of the English congregation at Frankfurt. (Letters of the Martyrs and The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], p. 387. Unfortunately only Bull's version of Grindal's letter survives; judging from the manuscript copy of Ridley's response, Bull deleted passages from Grindal's letter about the disputes in the English church at Frankfort).
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CloseActually Grindal may not have had much information on some of these old friends of Ridley. Sir 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.
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