rupted by suitors or any business. Prayer with his family then followed as in the morning, after which he supped; then after another hour of relaxation he resumed the labour of his study, in which he was occupied until eleven at night, when he retired to private prayer, and after that to his repose.

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He was still Master of Pembroke Hall, but from the pressure of other duties, had not been able to give the advantage of his personal superintendence to the Society. We find him at this time (1552), visiting his College, where, by permission of the Bishop of Ely, he held an ordination. In returning to London, he stopped by the way at his house at Hadham; and from thence waited on the Princess Mary, at Hunsdon. After a courteous reception from the Princess, he offered to preach before her the next Sunday if she would permit him. On hearing this, her countenance changed, and she was for some time silent,―at last she said; "As for this matter I pray you, my Lord, make the answer to it yourself." The Bishop proceeding to tell her, that his office and duty required him to make this offer, she again desired him "to make the answer to himself, as he could not but know what it would be. Yet, if the answer must come from her, she added, the doors of the parish church should be open to him if he came, and that he might preach if he pleased, but that neither would she hear him, nor should of her servants." any Madam," said the Bishop, "I trust you will not refuse God's word." "I cannot tell," said the Princess, "what you call God's word. That is not God's word now, which was God's word in my father's days." The Bishop observed, "God's word is all one in all times, but has been better understood and practised in some ages than in others." Upon which she could restrain, her anger no longer, but told him, "You durst not for your ears have avouched that for God's word in my father's days that now you do. As for your new books, I thank God, I never read any of them: I never did, nor ever will." Having indulged then in many invectives against the late public acts, of which she disclaimed the authority, she asked Ridley if he were one of the Council: on hearing that he was not, she observed, "You might well enough, as the Council goeth now a-days;" and parted from him with these words: "My Lord, for your civility in coming to see me, I thank you; but for your offering to preach before me, I thank you not a whit." After this the Bishop was conducted to the room where they had dined, where having drunk a glass of wine, he suddenly recollected himself, observing, "surely I have done amiss." Upon being asked the reason of this observation, he reproached himself for having drunk in that place where God's word had been refused, whereas, said he, "if I had remembered my duty, I ought to have departed immediately, and to have shaken off the dust from my feet, for a testimony against this house." These expressions the Princess never forgave.

Soon indeed he was destined to feel, that this avowal of his sentiments had been more honest than prudent. Not a year passed, before Mary had the power of wreaking her resentment upon him, and satiating her spirit of bigotry with the sacrifice of so illustrious a victim. But the short space of liberty and life which remained to

him, was not without its active usefulness. He had already shewn his care for the poor in providing in some measure for their relief. His charity was further shewn, in his obtaining a grant of linen from the spoils of the Church *, which had in many instances been wantonly diverted to common uses by the rapacity of private individuals, for the benefit of the hospital of Christ's Church, then recently founded. It was at his instance also, and through the impression produced by a sermon which he had preached on charity before the King, that those munificent royal grants were made, by which the poor population were provided with relief in distinct classes; the infirm both in mind and body, the old, and orphans, forming one class,-the sick and wounded, a second, the idle and disorderly, a third,-with separate endowments appropriated to them.

Had the life, indeed, of Edward been prolonged, it was intended that Ridley should receive new accession of honour, in his promotion to the See of Durham, vacated by the deprivation of Tonstal-but the premature death of the King occurred before his translation could be effected.

Immediately upon the death of the King, he was employed by the Council, then entirely under the influence of the Duke of Northumberland, in recommending from the pulpit at Paul's Cross, the claims of the Lady Jane Grey to the succession of the throne. But the people, not disposed to concede the disposal of the crown to the ambitious views of Northumberland, scarcely listened with patience to the discourse; and even the Protestant party, preferring a trust in the fair promises of Mary, who pledged herself to make no innovation on the established religion, to the alternative of a government decidedly Protestant, but swayed by Northumberland, who was the object of universal detestation. The Lady Jane being thus compelled to recede from her pretensions, and Mary being called to the throne by the voice of the people, Ridley, with others, who had openly opposed themselves to her claims, hastened thereupon to meet her at Framlingham, to implore her mercy. But mercy was not designed for so distinguished an opponent. He was immediately taken into custody, and conveyed to the Tower, on the 26th of July, 1553, performing the journey on a lame horse.

Bonner, being released soon after from his imprisonment in the Marshalsea, lost no time in using his interest with the Queen to have his sentence of deprivation reversed. Delegates were appointed accordingly to examine his cause, and by these it was decided, that the sentence against him was rashly attempted to his prejudice, and was null in law, and they decreed him therefore to be restored to the possession of

* The Church was so robbed of its revenues, that many persons in holy orders were compelled to apply themselves for a subsistence to mechanical trades or mean employments. The lay patrons, who had purchased rectories and advowsons of the Crown, either farmed their benefices, appointing the rent at their own pleasure, or else held the benefices in their own hands, and allowed five or six pounds a year to a clerk, who never came near them. Many clergymen from poverty were carpenters and tailors, and some kept ale-houses. C

VOL. VII. NO. I.

his bishopric, with all its rights and appurtenances; allowing him to take his course for the expenses and incommodities of his imprisonment. A bill was then brought into Parliament, to make void all leases which Ridley had granted. But the Parliament was not prepared to concur with the iniquity of Bonner, and the bill was thrown out.

Inveterate, however, as the Queen was against him, it appears that he might yet have saved his life, if he would have brought over the weight of his learning and authority to that religion which was after her heart. To hold out such inducement to him, he was treated with more respect and indulgence than the other prisoners in the Tower, having the liberty of walking about within its boundaries. Neither compliment nor argument were spared to win him over. On one occasion he was invited to dine at the Lieutenant's table with Secretary Bourne, Feckenham, Dean of St. Paul's, and others, (who acted in reality as Commissioners from the Queen to examine him) when a debate took place respecting the controverted points in religion, and especially on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. But nothing was extorted from him in this conference, in which he set forth his opinion against transubstantiation with great triumph of, authority and reason over his adversaries.

Cranmer and Latimer were now his companions in imprisonment, having been sent soon after him to the Tower. He thus enjoyed the opportunity of conferring with these, his noble fellow-martyrs, upon those matters for which they were now suffering together, and of strengthening his own faith by their concurrent expositions of the truth. With Latimer he entered more particularly into a minute conference in writing on the several articles, in which they dissented from the creed of Rome.

Ridley derived so much comfort from this conference, that he sought to relieve his mind again by a second, in which he stated further his objections to the mass, and begged the counsel and assistance of Latimer, whom he addresses as an old soldier and an expert warrior in the Lord's service. This second conference was occasioned by the importunity of Gardiner and Bonner, who, through their emissaries, laboured to induce him to be present at the mass, that they might thus appear to the world to have gained him over to their cause. To them Ridley alludes, under the names of Diotrephes and Antonius *, placing in the mouth of Antonius the objections which it is his purpose to refute. Hitherto, the three distinguished prisoners had been confined in separate apartments in the Tower. Wyatt's rebellion, which broke out after their commitment, had now crowded the Tower with State prisoners to such a degree, that they were from this time confined all together in one apartment-a circumstance which proved some alleviation to their sufferings, as they were thus enabled to confer more freely, and

This Antonius, Ridley informs Latimer, was a most cruel Bishop of the Arians, and a very violent persecutor of them that were Catholics and of a right judgment, to whom Hunric, a tyrant of the Vandals, committed his authority, to turn the true Christians to his false religion, or else to punish and torment them."

to strengthen each other, as well by argument, as by the spectacle of pious and courageous resignation which each presented to the other.

When they had been imprisoned already some months, a little before Easter, in the course of March, 1554, they were all removed to Oxford, to undergo the solemn mockery of a disputation and trial, before the Convocation assembled there for the purpose of debating points relative to the doctrine of the Corporal Presence. On their reaching Oxford, their persecutors, with a malice which spoke their sentence to be predetermined before they had been heard, increased the rigour of their confinement-they were deprived of every thing but the garments which they wore ;-their own servants were removed from them, strapgers being appointed to attend them, and they were kept severally apart from each other.

The Commissioners having met on the 14th of April, and opened the Convocation in great state, with the celebration of a mass of the Holy Ghost,-in the afternoon of the same day, the three Prelates were separately brought before them, and interrogated as to the articles proposed, from which having expressed their dissent, they were re-committed to their prison, each having his day of disputation appointed for him to answer for himself. Ridley signified his perfect readiness to defend the cause in which he had engaged; answering that " as long as God gave him life, he should not only have his heart, but also his mouth and pen, to defend his truth.' He only required time and books. The Tuesday following being the day on which he was appointed to appear before them, they conceded to him the use of his books until that time.

On Tuesday accordingly Ridley came before the Commissioners, and defended the true doctrine of the Real Presence against the gross interpretation of his Papist adversaries-fourteen of whom advanced to support each other against him. With great learning and dexterity, he turned the very authorities to which they appealed against themselves, shewing that even the Fathers *, on whom they rested so much, were clearly against their erroneous views. The proceedings were conducted, as in the case of the two other illustrious disputants, with great tumult and uproar from the prejudiced assembly, and in the absence of sound reason to parry his arguments, he was silenced by the clamour of his dogmatic and sophistical assailants.

On Friday, April 20th, the three Prelates were again brought together before the Commissioners, and required peremptorily to say whether they would subscribe the articles proposed, and, on their refusing, to subscribe, sentence was pronounced, that they were no members of the Church. They were then condemned as heretics. During the reading of their sentence they were asked, whether they would turn or

* Gloucester Ridley very justly censures the opinion of Gilpin, that Cranmer and Ridley were wrong in appealing to the fathers and schoolmen for confutation of the Papists, for surely no argument could be more effectual with such men, than that which exposed the futility of those authorities, under which they took refuge from the cogency of arguments derived from the Scriptures alone.

no: but they bade them "read on in the name of God, for they were not minded to turn."

After the sentence of condemnation was passed on them, Ridley in his turn observed: "Although I be not of your company, yet doubt I not but my name is written in another place, whither this sentence will send us sooner, than we should by the course of nature have come." He was then taken away to the Sheriff's house.

On the Monday following the Commissioners left Oxford, but before their departure, Dr. Glin, Dr. Young, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, who had succeeded Ridley in the mastership of Pembroke Hall, and Dr. Oglethorpe, of Oxford, came to the Sheriff's house, where Glin, in the presence of the other two, asked Ridley's pardon for his rude treatment of him in the disputation. Ridley, though at first hurt at such conduct from an old acquaintance and friend, had already forgiven the injury in his heart, resolving it into a time-serving infirmity on the part of his former friend. He then frankly forgave him, wishing him the clear knowledge of the Gospel truth, and praying, "that all offences remitted, not only to him, but to all others, they might all, being perfectly reconciled, be admitted together to the mansions of their heavenly Father."

Immediately after the sentence Ridley wrote an expostulatory letter to Dr. Weston, the Prolocutor, complaining that the promise of having his answers submitted to his inspection as they had been taken by the notaries had not yet been performed-and that sentence of condemnation was pronounced before his cause had been as fully heard as he had been led to expect. This letter producing no effect, he again wrote to Dr. Weston, briefly to the same purport, but with as little success. He also sent to Cranmer a copy of his answers to the three propositions which formed the articles of debate, with a letter expressing both his own resignation, and encouragement to his fellow-sufferer, concluding with these emphatic words, "Turn or burn.”

The proceedings against the three Prelates having been carried to this point, it remained yet for the Queen's Council, with the assistance of the Judges, to decide, what further measures should be adopted towards them. Bonner, who had summoned the convocation, by which they were tried, had no authority for the act, as the Queen herself disclaimed any Ecclesiastical supremacy, and the existing laws excluded that of the Pope. It was necessary, therefore, in order to sanction the proceedings, that the Parliament should first meet, and reinstate the Pope in his former authority.

În the meantime, while the proceedings were thus suspended, notwithstanding the evident illegality of all that had been done, the Prelates were treated with unabated rigour. They were still separated from each other, and debarred the liberty of conversation, except at their meals, when their keepers were present with them. Ridley was now guarded with even greater strictness than the other Prelates, being placed under the custody of Irish, the Mayor of Oxford, whose wife, an old

* Jewel, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, was one of the notaries appointed by Cranmer and Ridley to write down the disputation.