same plan is pursued in the present publication; the involved construction of sentences, common in writers of that period, has also been removed. Those words which have become unintelligible or offensive, are exchanged for others, or are explained by notes when it is desirable that they should be retained. These variations, if they may be so called, were as necessary to render this work generally useful, as the adoption of modern orthography. The utmost care has been taken that the meaning of the author should be strictly preserved, and the various pieces have been collated with the best and earliest editions, or with manuscript copies. This has been done, that the meaning of the author might be given as nearly as possible, not from the first editions being the most correct, as they often abound with errors, for which the hurried or careless manner in which they were for the most part passed through the press, will readily account. The present reprints, it is believed, will be found to present the most correct text of these writers that has hitherto appeared. More than half of the pieces included in this collection, have not been reprinted since the sixteenth century, and a considerable portion is now printed for the first time." The Volumes included under the title of THE BRITISH REFORMERS may be arranged in the following order: By order of the Executive Committee. WM. M. ENGLES, EDITOR. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF DR. NICHOLAS RIDLEY, Bishop of London, and Martyr, 1555. DR. NICHOLAS RIDLEY was born in the beginning of the sixteenth century, at Willemonstwick, a town in Northumberland, near the borders of Scotland. His father was the third son of an ancient and respectable family who had long resided in that country. After being educated at Newcastle on Tyne, he was removed to Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge, about the year 1518, just at the time when Luther's opposition to the pope's bulls respecting indulgences began to excite general attention. He applied studiously to acquire the learning then most in repute, and, as his biographer states, 'his character at that time, appears to have been that of an ingenious, virtuous, zealous papist.' After some years passed at Cambridge, Ridley visited France, and studied at the universities of Paris and Louvain. On his return (about 1529), he pursued his theological studies with much earnestness, in particular committing to memory the greater part of the epistles in the original Greek, and his mind appears to have been enlightened by the study of the scriptures. In 1534, he took an active part in the public discussions relative to the pope's supremacy, and, in 1537, archbishop Cranmer appointed him one of his chaplains. In 1538, Ridley was collated to the vicarage of Herne, in Kent, where the people for many miles round crowded to attend his preaching; and he diligently instructed his charge in the doctrines of the gospel, although on the point of transubstantiation, he was not as yet fully emancipated from popish errors. When the act of the six articles came out, Ridley bore public testi |