Nicholas Ridley (1) (–1555)

Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London.
After studying at Cambridge, the Sorbonne, and Louvain, he became Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge (c. 1530), chaplain to Thomas Cranmer (1537), vicar of Herne in Kent (1538), and Master (1540) of Pembroke Hall. In 1547 he became Bishop of Rochester and in 1550 Bishop of London. From c. 1535 he had had definite leanings towards the teachings of the Reformers and around 1546 he was a major influence in shifting Cranmer’s views away from Roman Catholic doctrine. He assisted in the compilation of the Book of Common Prayer (1549) and in the establishment of Protestantism at Cambridge University.
In 1553 he supported the claims of Lady Jane Grey to the Crown, and on Mary’s accession was deprived of his see. After the Oxford disputations (1554) he was excommunicated, and, when heresy was made a capital offense, was burned with Hugh Latimer at Oxford, Oct. 16 1555.
Like Latimer, he preached on the social injustices of his age, and a sermon he preached before the King was partly the occasion of the foundation of Christ’s Hospital, St Thomas’s Hospital, and Bridewell.