THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. JANUARY, 1825. THE LIFE OF BISHOP RIDLEY*. NICHOLAS RIDLEY, descended from an ancient family of the county of Northumberland, which had for many generations held the rank of knighthood, was born at Wilmontswick, in Tynedale, not far from the Border. The period of his birth is not further known, than that he was born in the beginning of the 16th century. He received his school education at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, from whence, having given early proof of his talents, he was removed about the year 1518, at the charge of his uncle, Dr. Robert Ridley, Fellow of Queen's College, in Cambridge, to Pembroke Hall, in that University. Here he applied humself with great zeal to the acquisition of learning, and was soon distinguished as a proficient both in the Greek and Latin languages. Richard Crook, the first Public Orator of the University, about that time began to revive the neglected study of the Greek language; and Ridley enjoyed the advantage of attending his lectures... In the year 1522 he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts. So great a reputation had he already attained, that in the beginning of the year 1524, he was invited by the master and fellows of University College in Oxford, to accept of a fellowship, then recently founded by the Bishop of Durham, at their College. Declining this honour, he was, in the course of the same year, chosen Fellow of his own College. The year after he became Master of Arts, and the next following he was appointed by the College their general agent in all causes relating to the churches of Tilney, Soham, and Saxthorpe, belonging to Pembroke Hall. By the continued patronage of his uncle, he was enabled to extend his means of improvement by visiting foreign Universities. We find him accordingly, in the year 1527, and the two following years, a student, first at Paris, and then at Louvain. In the year 1530, returning to Pembroke Hall, he served the office of junior Treasurer in his College. He now applied himself with great diligence to the reading of the Scriptures. As a means of perfecting The authority which has been followed is The Life of Dr. Nicholas Ridley, some time Bishop of London, &c. by the Rev. Gloucester Ridley, LL.B. 4to. London, 1763. |