420 RIDLEYS OF WILLIMOTESWICK, NORTHUMBERLAND.
Says a learned writer, "In his important offices he so diligently applied
himself by preaching and teaching the true and wholesome doctrine of
Christ, that no good child was more singularly loved by its parents, than
he by his flock and diocese. Every holiday and Sabbath he preached in
one place or other, except he was hindered by weighty matters; and
to his sermons the people resorted, swarming around him like bees, and so
faithfully did his life portray his doctrines that his enemies could not re-
prove him." His memory was so great that he himself wrote: "In my
orchard (the walls, butts, and trees, if they could speak would bear me
witness) I learned without books almost all Paul's epistles; yea, and I
ween all the canonical epistles, save only the Apocalypse." He had at-
tained such reading and learning that his biographer says:
*
"He deserved to be compared with the best men of his age, as his works,
sermons, and sundry disputations in both universities, will testify. He
was wise in counsel, and very politic in all his doings. He was, in fine,
so good a man in all points, so pious and spiritual, that England never
saw his superior. He was comely in person, and well proportioned; took
all things in good part, bearing no malice nor rancor in his heart toward
any, but straightway forgave all injuries and offences done against him.
He was very kind to his relatives, and yet laying down as a rule that they
should look for nothing at his hand unless they lived a righteous life. He
used various means to mortify himself, and was much given to prayer and
meditation; for duly every morning, as soon as he was dressed, he went
to his bed-chamber, and there upon his knees prayed for half an hour;
which being done, he went to his study, where he continued till ten o'clock,
and then came to common prayer in his house. This being over, he went
to dinner, where he talked but little, and then was sober and discreet. The
dinner done, he would sit for an hour talking or playing chess; he then
returned to his study, and there continued, except business abroad, or vis-
itors prevented him, until five o'clock at night, when common prayers as
in the forenoon, and thence to supper, where he behaved himself as in the
morning. When his labors for the day were over at eleven o'clock, he
said his prayers upon his knees and retired to his bed.
"When at his manor at Fulham, he read daily lectures to his family, at
the hour of common prayer, from the writings of Paul and the Psalms;
so interested was he in the study of the Scriptures, that he would hire
others, with money, to commit certain portions to memory. He was mar-
velously careful over his household that they might be patterns of virtue
and honesty to others; in short, as he was godly and virtuous himself, so
nothing but virtue and godliness reigned in his house.
66
Ridley had been educated in the Roman Catholic religion, but was
brought over to the reformed faith by reading Bertram's book on the
sacrament; and he was confirmed in this belief by frequent conferences
with Cranmer and Peter Martyr, so that he became a zealous promoter
of the reformed doctrines and discipline during the reign of King Edward.
Upon the death of Edward, he was earnest in his endeavors to seat Lady
Jane Grey upon the throne; but when that design had miscarried he went
to Queen Mary to do her homage, and, as he might have expected, was at
once committed to the Tower of London, and afterwards to the Bocardo
prison in Oxford; from whence he was removed and placed in the custody
*In an orchard at Cambridge he walked back and forth in his study of the Scrip-
tures until the place was, and now is, called " Ridley's Walk."
