To prove this, and vindicate the honour of the first Reformers and modern Divines of our Church, and demonstrate the entire conformity of the belief of both; it is thought convenient to cause some one Treatise of the first Reformers concerning this Subject to be Reprinted, that so every one might judge for himself, whether the pretensions of our Adversaries be indeed true and just; or rather the Present is entirely conformable to the precedent Doctrine of the Church of England. To this end, among all the Writings of the first Reformers, this Treatise of Bishop Ridley, which we here publish, will conduce most, by reason of the great and eminent Authority of the Author, which was so highly considerable beyond that of any other Reformer, that he may justly be esteemed the Standard of the Doctrine of the Church of England at that time. Not only the assurance of his great learning and eminent station in the Church, renders this probable; but that great part which he had in managing the Affairs of the Reformation, and the extraordinary deference paid to his Authority, and trust reposed in him by all Convocations, and the whole body of the Reformers, demonstrate it. None can reasonably be put in competition with him, except Archbishop Cranmer; and he also in his disputation at Oxford professed, that he received his Opinion concerning the Eucharist from Bishop Ridley. This the Romish Clergy were so sensible of in the time of Queen Mary, that by a plausible calumny they endeavoured to persuade the World, that the private opinion of ⟨image 5⟩Ridley was the only foundation of the Doctrine of the Reformed Church of England: For Brooks Bishop of Gloucester, 1Queen Mary's Commissioner, disputing against him in the public Schools at Oxford, used this among other Arguments, What a weak and feeble stay in Religion is this, I pray you? Latimer leaneth to Cranmer, Cranmer to Ridley, and Ridley to the singularity of his own Wit: So that if you can overthrow the singularity of Ridley's Wit, then must needs the Religion of Cranmer and Latimer fall also. To which I may add the words of Dr. Fecknam, Abbot of Westminster, in his Speech in Parliament, Primo Elizabethae, made in defence of the Church of Rome, which I have seen in Manuscript. Dr.
To prove this, and vindicate the honour of the first Reformers and modern Divines of our Church, and demonstrate the intire conformity of the belief of both; it is thought convenient to cause some one Treatise of the first Reformers concerning this Subject to be Reprinted, that so every one might judge for himself, whether the pretensions of our Adversaries be indeed true and just; or rather the Present is intirely conformable to the precedent Doctrine of the Church of England. To this end, among all the Writings of the first Reformers, this Treatise of Bishop Ridley, which we here publish, will conduce most, by reason of the great and eminent Authority of the Author, which was so highly considerable beyond that of any other Reformer, that he may justly be esteemed the Standard of the Doctrine of the Church of England at that time. Not only the assurance of his great learning and eminent station in the Church, renders this probable; but that great part which he had in managing the Affairs of the Reformation, and the extraordinary deference paid to his Authority, and trust reposed in him by all Convocations, and the whole body of the Reformers, demonstrate it. None can reasonably be put in competition with him, except Archbishop Cranmer; and he also in his disputation at Oxford professed, that he received his Opinion concerning the Eucharist from Bishop Ridley. This the Romish Clergy were so sensible of in the time of Queen Mary, that by a plausible calumny they endeavoured to persuade the World, that the private opinion of ⟨image 5⟩Ridley was the only foundation of the Doctrine of the Reformed Church of England: For Brooks Bishop of Glocester, 1Queen Maries Commissioner, disputing against him in the publick Schools at Oxford, used this among other Arguments, What a weak and feeble stay in Religion is this, I pray you? Latimer leaneth to Cranmer, Cranmer to Ridley, and Ridley to the singularity of his own Wit: So that if you can overthrow the singularity of Ridley's Wit, then must needs the Religion of Cranmer and Latimer fall also. To which I may add the words of Dr. Fecknam, Abbot of Westminster, in his Speech in Parliament, Primo Elizabethae, made in defence of the Church of Rome, which I have seen in Manuscript. Dr.
- 1Fox's Martyrol. Vol. 3. p. 425.
