Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/293

 cular confession, his alleged condemnation of some church ceremonies as beggarly, and his direction that the Te Deum should be sung in English at Herne church were among accusations that he appears to have refuted to the satisfaction of commissioners sent to examine him by the king. But there is little doubt that his alienation from ancient catholic dogma and practice was steadily growing, and just before Henry VIII's death he finally renounced the dogma of transubstantiation. His conclusions on the subject were at once adopted by Cranmer.

The reign of Edward VI gave Ridley his opportunity. When visitors were deputed to propagate the doctrines of the reformation in the dioceses of York, Durham, Carlisle, and Chester, he was sent with them as their preacher. At the same date his college presented him to the vicarage of Soham, Cambridgeshire. But a higher honour was in store for him. On 4 Sept. 1547 he was nominated bishop of Rochester, with permission to hold in commendam, till Christmas 1552, his two vicarages and his two canonries.

At the end of 1548 he was appointed one of the visitors for the visitation of Cambridge University, whose business it was, besides the work of general reorganisation, to establish protestantism there on a firm basis. The visitors did not arrive till May 1549, when Ridley opened the proceedings by preaching a sermon in the university church. He next presided over three disputations between protestant and catholic champions on the subject of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and on 20 June pronounced a learned judgment in favour of the view of the reformed church. He repeated these opinions in a sermon preached in the university church ten days later. He differed from his fellow-commissioners as to the desirability of merging Clare College in Trinity Hall, and, although he carried his point, he was withdrawn from the commission before its labours terminated by direction of Protector Somerset (, ii. 274–275). He was afterwards ordered to visit the unhappy anabaptist, Joan Bocher [q. v.] while a prisoner in Lord Rich's house in London, and vainly invited the poor woman to recant. In 1548 he helped to compile the first English prayer-book. In 1549 he was nominated to the commissions for the reform of ecclesiastical law and for the deprivation of Bonner, bishop of London, and Gardiner, bishop of Winchester. On 12 April 1550 he was installed Bonner's successor in the bishopric of London. He showed much good feeling in his attitude to the ejected prelate's mother and sister, whom he permitted to reside at his palace at Fulham and often entertained at his own table. While zealously supporting the reformed doctrines, he insisted on the observance of due order in public worship, and a few months after settling in London sought to convince John Hooper, one of his chaplains who had been nominated to the see of Gloucester, of the folly of refusing to wear the prescribed episcopal vestments. But he ordered all altars in his diocese to be replaced by communion tables, and gave preferment to many men of advanced reforming tendencies. With Bradford, whom he made a prebendary, he lived on terms of close friendship, and he was a patron of John Rogers [q. v.], whom he also appointed to a prebendal stall.

In 1552, after holding an ordination at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, of which he still retained the mastership, he paid, on his way back to London, a visit to the princess Mary at Hunsdon, Hertfordshire. He came without any invitation, and was politely received by the princess, but she peremptorily declined his offer to preach before her. Early in 1553 he appealed to the young king, while preaching before him at Westminster, to make better provision for the destitute London poor. After the sermon Edward VI invited Ridley to give him more detailed advice. At the bishop's suggestion royal letters were sent inviting the co-operation of the lord mayor and corporation, and in the result Christ's Hospital, St. Thomas's Hospital, and Bethlehem Hospital were founded jointly by the king and corporation to alleviate the poverty of London. The greed of Edward VI's courtiers and their raids on church property, which had contributed to the spread of poverty throughout the country, disquieted Ridley, and his remonstrances brought upon him the suspicion of the Duke of Northumberland. But he did not prove resolute enough to withstand the duke's persuasions that he should sign the letters patent which acknowledged the title to the crown of the duke's daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey. At the same time he was promised the rich bishopric of Durham. On Sunday, 9 July 1553, just after the king's death, but before it had been publicly announced, Ridley preached at St. Paul's Cross before the lord mayor and corporation. He declared the princesses Mary and Elizabeth to be illegitimate, and vehemently denounced Mary's religious opinions.

When Ridley perceived that Lady Jane's cause was lost, he made his way to Queen Mary's camp at Framlingham and flung himself upon her mercy. She ordered him to