Remembering HUGH LATIMER, BISHOP AND MARTYR (16 OCTOBER 1555), NICHOLAS RIDLEY, BISHOP AND MARTYR (16 OCTOBER 1555), From the #Episcopal calendar. Commentary from The Anne Boleyn Files: Today is the anniversary of the burnings of two of the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London. The third Oxford Martyr was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was burned at the stake on 21st March 1556. Hugh Latimer was born around between 1480 and 1494 in Thurcaston, Lancashire. He studied at the University of Cambridge and worked there as the university preacher and chaplain. He was deeply affected by hearing the confession of Thomas Bilney, a man who was later burned for heresy in 1531, and began to accept reformed doctrines, meeting regularly with the likes of Bilney and Robert Barnes, who was also burned for heresy. Latimer was appointed as Bishop of Worcester in 1535, an appointment which is said to have been due to the patronage of Anne Boleyn who was queen at this time. Latimer was introduced to Anne Boleyn by Dr William Butts, Henry VIII’s physician, who acted as Anne’s ‘talent spotter’, helping Anne to choose her chaplains “from the most promising young reformist scholars, particularly from Cambridge” and his old college there, Gonville Hall. Latimer was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1539 for his opposition to Henry VIII’s Six Articles but was restored to favour during the reign of Edward VI, becoming a court preacher and chaplain to Catherine Willoughby, the Duchess of Suffolk. He was arrested shortly after Mary’s I’s accession in 1553. Nicholas Ridley was born c. 1500 in Tynedale, Northumberland. He studied at the University of Cambridge and finished his education at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1534, he became senior proctor of Cambridge University and then was appointed as one of Archbishop Cranmer’s chaplains in 1537. He served as one of the King’s Chaplains in 1540-41 and was made Master of Pembroke College. Ridley was accused of heresy in 1543 but managed to escape punishment and was made Bishop of Rochester in 1547 and then Bishop of London in 1550. He helped his good friend, Cranmer, with the Book of Common Prayer in 1548 and was also a member of the commission who tried Stephen Gardiner and Edmund Bonner in 1549. Ridley is known for his clashes with John Hooper, a reformer who had lived in Zurich in exile during Henry VIII’s reign. In July 1553, after the death of Edward VI, Ridley signed letters patent confirming that Lady Jane Grey was Queen and went on to preach a sermon at St Paul’s Cross on the 9th July 1553 proclaiming that Mary and Elizabeth were bastards. He was imprisoned when Mary I proclaimed herself Queen. Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer were imprisoned initially in the Tower of London before being transferred to Oxford’s Bocardo Prison. They were tried for heresy on the 12th September 1555 and all three were found guilty. On 15th October 1555, Ridley and Latimer were condemned to death, but Cranmer,as Archbishop, had to wait for a decision from Rome as to his sentence. Ridley and Latimer were burned at the stake just outside Balliol College in Oxford. Their lives and deaths, and that of Cranmer, who was also executed there in March 1556, are commemorated by a cross on the road which marks the execution site and also by Martyrs’ Memorial, a stone monument standing at the intersection of St Giles’, Magdalen Street and Beaumont Street, near Balliol College. For more information, go to: satucket/lectionary/Latimer&Ridley.htm More here: christianity/ChurchHistory/11629990/ From Theologynetwork : theologynetwork.org/unquenchable-flame/the-reformation-in-britain/the-martyrdom-of-nicholas-ridley-and-hugh-latimer.htm From The Elizabeth Files: elizabethfiles/the-burnings-of-ridley-and-latimer-2/4398/ From The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music: liturgyandmusic.wordpress/2010/10/16/october-16-hugh-latimer-and-nicholas-ridley-bishops-and-martyrs-1555/
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 12:25:43 +0000
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