1576 Edition | Book 11 | Page 1655 
MarginaliaAnno. 1555. October.daily for none other, but when it shall please GOD to say, come) you, blessed bee God, are enough through his ayde, to light & set vp againe the lanterne of his worde in England.
CloseAt this point in the letter Bull and Foxe deleted passages from the letter in which Ridley disapproved strongly of John Knox's determination to use the Geneva liturgy rather than the Book of Common Prayer in the English congregation's services there. (ECL 260, fos.114*r-v. The deleted passages are printed in The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], pp. 533-35, although Christmas does not indicate that these passages were deleted from this letter). It is worth pointing out that Foxe himself was in Frankfurt at this time and was a prominent supporter of Knox (see the introduction to this edition on Foxe's life).
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CloseGrindal had informed Ridley that he had a copy of Ridley's answers in the Oxford disputation (Letters of the Martyrs, p. 50, and The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], p. 388). Ridley is saying that unless Grindal had Ridley's version of his answers the versions which Grindal did have were inaccurate.
[Back to Top]As for the treatise in English Contra transubstantiationem, vix possum adduci vt credam operæpretium fore vt in latinum trāsferatur. Cæterum quicquid sit, nullo modo velim vt quicquam quocunq; modo meo nomine ederetur, donec quid de nobis dominus cōstituerit fieri, vobis prius certo constiterit:
CloseGrindal had informed Ridley that he had a copy of Ridley's attack on transubstantiation (Letters of the Martyrs, p. 51, and The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], p. 388). Ridley wrote his answer to this in Latin because it was particularly sensitive. His reply reads: 'I can scarcely be persuaded to believe that it is worth translating into Latin. Moreover, whatever may happen, I wish that nothing be published in my name in any way until it is certainly known to you what it may have pleased God to determine be done to us'. What Ridley is saying is that he did not want any works published in his name until his fate was settled; the bishop feared that such publication might trigger reprisals against Cranmer, Latimer and himself.
[Back to Top]The laste Lent saue one, it chaūced by reason of the tumult stirred vp in Kent,
CloseWyatt's rebellion.
CloseSeparate.
Blessed be God, we three at the writing hereof, were in good health, and (in God) of good cheare. We haue looked long ago to haue bene dispatched, for we were all thre on one day within a day or two of our disputations, of MarginaliaD. Weston cōdemner of Cāter. Ridley, and Latymer.D. Weston being the head commissioner, condemned for heretikes, & since that tyme we remayne as we wer of hym left. The lords wil be fulfilled in vs, as I do not doubt, but by his grace it shal be to his glory & our endles saluation through Iesus Christ our lord.
[Back to Top]Likewise the Lord hitherto hath preserued aboue al our expectation, our deare brother, & in Christes cause a strong Champion Iohn Bradforde. Hee is likewise condemned, and is already deliuered vnto the secular power, MarginaliaWrittes for the burning of Ioh. Bradford called in againe.& writtes (as we haue heard say) geuen out for his execution, and called in againe. Thus the Lord, so long as his blessed pleasure is, preserueth whom he listeth, notwithstandyng the wonderfull ragyng of the world. Many (as we heare say) haue suffered valiantly, confessyng Christes truth, and nothyng yelding to the aduersary, yea not for the feare or paynes of death.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaNames of Martyrs.The names of them which I knewe, and haue nowe suffred, are these, Farrar the Bishop of S. Dauides, Hooper the Bishop of Worcester, Rogers tuus olim cōprebēdarius.
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 against his conscience, shortly after pined away and dyed for sorow.Weste your old companion & somtyme mine officer (alas) hath relented (as I haue heard) but the lord hath shortned his daies, for anone he died and is gon. Grimbolde was caught by the heele and caste into the Marshalse, but now is at liberty again, but I feare me he escaped not without some beckyng and bowyng (alas) of his knee vnto Baall.
CloseI.e., Grimoald recanted.
My deare friende Thomas 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 yere in prison, for deliuering (as he was accused) of certaine things, I wene, from me: but now thankes be to God, he is at libertie againe, but so that the Bishop hath taken from hym his *Marginalia* Note how Boner here requited the kindnes of B. Ridley shewed to his mother. Parke.
[Back to Top]Of all vs three concaptiues at Oxford, I am kepte most strait, and with least liberty, Vel quia viro in cuius ædibus, ego custodior, vxor dominatur (licet modo sit Præfectus ciuitatis) mulier vetula, morosa, & superstitiosiss. quæ etiā hoc sibi laudi ducit quod me dicatur arctissime
& cautissime custodire, vir autē ipse Irischius nomine, mitis satis est oībus, vxorj vero plusquā obsequentiss. Licet vxorē (vti nosti) nunquā habuerim, tamē ex hac quotidiana cōsuetudine, quem cū istis coniugibus habeo, videor mihi nōnihil posse intelligere quā graue malū & intolerabile iugū sit cum mala muliere in cōiugio collocari. Recte ergo sapiēs dixit, vxor bona donū Dei: & iterū, mulieris bonæ beatus vir.
The wise man is Solomon; Ridley is quoting Proverbs 19:14 and 31:28 in the Vulgate.
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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]At Cambridge (as I heare say) MarginaliaAll the statutes of reformation in Cambridge broken, and all things reduced againe into the old state of Popery.Omnes studiorum & statutorum reformationes nuper factæ, nunc sunt denuo deformatæ & deletæ, & omnia sunt in pristinum chaos & in antiquum papismum reducta: omnes collegiorum præfecti qui synceritati Euangelij fauebant, vel qui coniugati erant, loco moti sunt, & alij Papisticæ factionis in eorū loca surrogati, quod & de socijs collegiorum qui noluerunt flectere genu Baal factum esse audio. Nec mirum, nā & istud passim factum est in vniuerso regno Angliæ, in omnibus Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Decanis, prebēdarijs, Sacerdotibus Ecclesiarum, & 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 olde vnkindnes and vnthankfulnes: for when he powred vpon vs the giftes of hys manifolde graces and fauour (alas) we did not serue him nor rendred vnto hym thankes accordyng to þe same. MarginaliaColdenes of pastors, corruptiō of Magistrates, waywardnes of the people, prouoked Gods wrathe.We pastors many of vs were to colde and bare to much (alas) wyth the wicked world, our Magistrates did abuse to their own worldly gaine, both Gods Gospel and the ministers of the same. The people in many places was waywarde & vnkinde. Thus of euery syde and of euery sort we haue prouoked Gods anger and wrath to fall vpon vs: but blessed might he be that hath not suffered hys to continue in those waies, which so wholy haue displeased his secret Maiestie, but hath awaked them by the fatherly correction of his owne sonnes crosse, vnto his glory & our endles saluatiō, through Iesus Christe our Lorde.
[Back to Top]My daily prayer is (as God doth know) and by gods grace shal 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 thynges then the truth of Gods word. It is euen the same that I vse to make to GOD for all those churches abroad through the world, which haue forsaken the kingdome of Antichrist, and professed openly the purity of the Gospell of Iesus Christ: that is, MarginaliaThe prayer of B. Ridley for al the churches abroad which openly professe the Gospell of Christ Iesus.that God our eternall father for our Sauiour Christes sake, wil daily encrease in you the gracious gifte of his heauenly spirite to the true settyng forth of his glory and of his Gospell, and make you to agree brotherly in that truth of the same, that ther arise no rote of bitternes amōg you that may infect that good seede whiche God hath sowen in your harts already, and finally that your life may be so pure and so honest, accordyng to the rule of Gods worde, & accordyng to that vocation wherunto we are called by the Gospell of Christe our Sauiour, that the honesty and purity of the same may prouoke all that shal see or know it, to the loue of your doctrine, & to loue you for your honesty and vertues sake, & so both in brotherlie vnity of your true doctrine & also in the Godly vertue of your honest life, to glorify our father which is in heauē.
[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 dilectorū, 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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