United Protestant Council

30/10/2021

“A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it.” - Martin Luther

21/10/2021

1455 Gutenberg Produces the First Printed Bible

This event was the true catalyst used by God for the Reformation...

1455 Gutenberg Produces the First Printed Bible

This event was the true catalyst used by God for the Reformation. This article is an excerpt from Christianity Today

(https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-28/1455-gutenberg-produces-first-printed-bible.html)

Using his revolutionary invention—printing from movable type—he (Gutenberg) made the Scriptures potentially accessible to every person.

Christianity, following Judaism, has always been a religion of the Book. For centuries scribes dedicated themselves to copying the Scriptures by hand—primarily on papyrus or animal skin parchment. With the rise of monasteries, copying the Scriptures became the occupation for some monks. But it was truly a labor. The idea that every believer or family could have a Bible was unthinkable.

In the 1440s, the German Johann Gutenberg began experimenting with novel, mysterious ways of approaching printing. So did many other Europeans, all looking for a faster, cheaper way to produce books. Usually, if Europeans didn’t write by hand, they used hand stamps or woodcuts—an improvement, but still painfully slow. And the printing methods used in the Orient, primarily block printing, were unknown in Europe.

Gutenberg had an advantage: he was skilled in engraving and metal working. While living in Strasbourg, Gutenberg perfected several unique ideas: a hand-held mold that could adjust to cast any letter accurately and in large quantities; a durable tin alloy that melted and solidified quickly and without distortion; an oil-based ink; and a modified printing press. By about 1440, he had assembled the necessary components for mass-produced printing, but if he printed anything in Strasbourg, it has not survived.

By 1448, Gutenberg returned to his hometown of Mainz and borrowed money for his printing business. He failed to repay the sizable loans, and in 1455, his creditor and partner foreclosed, taking possession of Gutenberg’s typefaces for two projects underway: a Bible printed in forty-two lines per page, and a psalter. Thus, no printed material that bears Gutenberg’s name has survived. Nor is there an authentic portrait of him or a copy of his autograph.

By the following August, however, a copy of Gutenberg’s forty-two-line Bible—specifically, Jerome’s Latin translation, the Vulgate—was completed. The Bible, which was printed simultaneously on six printing presses, was stunning. Some collectors say this first printed book is also the most beautiful ever printed, and they pay astounding sums for the forty or fifty copies that survive of the original two hundred. Gutenberg’s typeface was not like ours; rather, it resembled the ornate handwritten letters the scribes had used for ages. Each chapter began with a large illuminated initial. Later, in the interest of economy, more straightforward typefaces developed—easier to cast, eas-ier to read, but less beautiful.

Gutenberg’s techniques remained a guarded trade secret in Mainz—but not for long. By the time Martin Luther was born, in 1483, every large European country had at least one printing press. Within fifty years of Gutenberg’s first Bible, more copies of books were produced than in several of the previous centuries together.

Gutenberg’s new process sparked a revolution in society and the church. Books could now be produced in quantities and at prices that made them available to many people, not merely to scholars and monks. The resulting explosion of knowledge continues to accelerate in our day.

In the church, the Protestant Reformation might have been impossible in the pre-Gutenberg age. (Indeed, the Reformation became, in some ways, a war of books, each party pointing out the errors of the others.) Everything the Reformers said about the priesthood of all believers was rooted in the assumption that people could have access to the Bible in their own language. Thus, Luther and the other Reformers worked to translate the Scriptures so that no priest, pope, or council needed to stand between the plowboy and the Word of God.

The chief book being printed was the Bible, thus spreading Christian teaching. As more were printed, more people became readers, and readers demanded more books, thus spreading literacy. And even for the illiterate, the Bible became more accessible, because the pastor could read from, and preach about, a Bible that was more readily available.

Christianity, the religion of the Book, was becoming universal in a new way. Religion did not have to end at the church door; thanks to the possession of Bibles, every household could become a training ground for faith.

20/10/2021

The life and martyrdom of Thomas Bilney

- a key figure early in the English Reformation

October 20

Thomas Bilney - Reformation Martyr

Thomas Bilney was burnt to death for declaring and standing to the Biblical truths at the age of 36. He was a lesser, almost forgotten reformation hero. He lacked the energy and eloquence of Latimer, and the scholarly dedication of Tyndale, Bilney nevertheless played a great role in God’s mighty reformation and influenced many of his illustrious contemporaries.

Thomas Bilney was born around 1495 in Norfolk, most likely in Norwich. Nothing is known of his parents except that they outlived him. He entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge at the age of ten in the year 1510. During his life he was nicknamed Little Bilney because of his short stature. Bilney was a shy, retiring student, with a serious disposition, but who suffered from a weak constitution. At Cambridge, he studied law, graduating LL.B. and taking holy orders in 1519.

While at Trinity Hall, Cambridge reading canon law, he became very depressed and thought that taking advice from priests would cure him. He looked up to the priests as the physicians of his soul, and followed to the letter every prescription they offered. He was advised to fast, do prolonged vigils, go to mass, pay indulgences (paying the Church money to reduce the penalty for sins committed). Anxious to know the truth and find peace with God, Bilney strove desperately to earn his salvation. However, it gradually dawned upon him that he would never obtain the peace he so desired in this way.

One day in 1516, he heard that someone was selling Erasmus’s New Testament, that was translated from the original Greek into Latin, and he thought about buying it but was afraid because it was banned. He eventually got up enough courage to visit the house where it was being sold, and he bought a copy. He hoped that these words of God would bring him some relief from his torment. During his reading in the Epistles, he was struck by the words of 1 Timothy 1:15, which in English reads, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief." "Immediately", he records, "I felt a marvellous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones lept for joy, Psal. 51:8.

After this, the Scripture began to be more pleasant unto me than the honey or the honeycomb; wherein I learned that all my labours, my fasting and watching, all the redemption of masses and pardons, being done without truth in Christ, who alone saveth his people from their sins; these I say, I learned to be nothing else but even, as St. Augustine saith, a hasty and swift running out of the right way".

Once liberated, he fed feverishly upon the Scriptures. Not long after being schooled in their teachings, Bilney, with unusual boldness, began to preach them in the colleges, to the absolute astonishment of his friends. Bilney soon realised that the real need was for a mighty work of God’s Spirit and prayed for such, exclaiming prophetically: ‘A new time is beginning. The Christian assembly is about to be renewed’.

Bilney would invite his friends to read the precious new book with him and many were touched. At this point William Tyndale arrived in Cambridge from Oxford and John Fryth became ‘born again’ and the three of them would meet together. These three young scholars set to work with a passion. They met to discuss and formulate this nascent Protestant theology. They declared that neither absolution by priests or any other religious rite could give remission of sins; that the assurance of pardon is obtained by faith alone; and that faith purifies the heart. They then told everyone they could the saying of Christ that so offended the monks: Repent and be converted!

Bilney, who longed for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, shut himself up in his room, fell on his knees, and called upon God to come to the assistance of his church. Then rising up, he exclaimed, as if prophesying: ‘A new time is beginning. The Christian assembly is about to be renewed...... Someone is coming to us, I see him, I hear him, it is Jesus Christ...... He is the King, and it is He who will call the true ministers to be commissioned to evangelise his people.’Tyndale, full of the same hopes as Bilney, left Cambridge in 1519. Therefore, the English Reformation began independently of those of Luther and Zwingle; deriving its origin from God alone.

It was not long before, under Bilney’s influence, a small Bible study group started meeting within the walls of Cambridge. The most outstanding member of this group was Stafford, a professor of divinity. Stafford’s conversion startled Cambridge and his lectures became a major attraction to young students. The Scriptures now became his chief study, and his influence led other young Cambridge men to think along the same lines.

Through the work of Bilney several influential men in Cambridge came to know Jesus. The most important of these was Hugh Latimer, the future Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester. Latimer was a priest known for his ardent fanaticism. Latimer viewed the change in Bilney and Stafford with great alarm. Being a priest and a zealot for the Catholic Church, he made it his duty publicly to attack and discredit the evangelical truths they had espoused. Like Saul of Tarsus, Latimer pursued the newly converted men, pitting all his intellectual powers against the truth. But he was soon to experience a ‘Damascus road conversion’ that would make him the ‘apostle of the Reformation’. Bilney perceived Latimer’s potential and sought by all means to win him. Knowing that the ‘battle is the Lord’s’, he determined to challenge and defeat the intellectual Goliath of Cambridge with the ‘sword of the Spirit’.

Bilney watched him for some time and was impressed with his passion, even though it was misplaced. He had a great gift for discerning character which enabled him to recognise error, and to select the best method for combating it. Bilney prayed and made a plan to get close to Latimer. This was on the face of it quite a job as Latimer would not have anything to do with an evangelical. He went to the college where Latimer lived. ‘For the love of God,’ he said to him, ‘please hear my confession.’What an inspired strategy! Latimer was only too happy to hear Bilney’s confession as he saw this as a chance of persuading him to turn back to the Church, and if Bilney turned back, everyone else in Cambridge would.

Bilney told Latimer all about the pain he had experienced before his salvation and he explained what happened to him on reading the New Testament. Bilney, in his simple, candid way, ‘confessed’ to the zealous priest how, in anguish of soul, he had sought salvation and had found the blood of Christ as his only hope. As Latimer listened, the Holy Spirit applied Bilney’s simple testimony like a two-edged sword, piercing Latimer’s proud heart. As the truth gripped his mind and soul, so the priest became the penitent, while the supposed penitent pointed to the Great High Priest. Transformed, Latimer’s natural abilities and character were heightened by divine unction.

Bilney’s words were simple, but they cut into Latimer. Latimer said later, ‘I learned more by this confession, than by much reading and in many years before ......I now tasted the word of God and forsook the doctors of the school and all their fooleries.’ Latimer was horrified at the war he had been waging against God; he wept profusely with Bilney consoling him.

The conversion of Latimer was not lost on the University; many young men came to hear Bilney preach. He would spend much of his time in prayer and reading the Word. His body was weak; he kept a strict diet, normally only having one meal a day, and he would sleep just four hours a day. He and Latimer would spend a lot of time visiting the mad houses, the jails and the l***r hospitals. In Bilney’s company, Latimer quickly grew in grace. He began to preach the gospel with great boldness and authority. Bilney remained in the background, content to see the more able speaker take the public floor. While still shy before men, he was bold before God’s throne of grace.

Another person whom Bilney targeted was the influential Dr Robert Barnes. He spent a lot of time in prayer and after many conversations with Barnes, Holy Spirit did His work and Barnes was converted. Notice how Bilney targeted people of influence; understanding that it would ease the spreading of the Gospel.

In 1525 Bilney obtained a licence to preach throughout the diocese of Ely. He denounced saint and relic veneration, together with pilgrimages to Walsingham and Canterbury, and refused to accept the mediation of the saints. In 1526 Bilney was called to London and ordered not to preach the Reformed doctrines. Bilney took to open-air preaching. In 1527 Bilney, with his friend Thomas Arthur, preached powerfully around the country. With apostolic fervour, he boldly proclaimed the gospel. Such action soon attracted the attention of priests and friars, who took every opportunity to ridicule him. Each time Bilney challenged his opponents, and his comments were carefully noted and laid to his future reckoning with the church. In Ipswich he maddened the monks so much that twice, two of them pulled him out of the pulpit at St George’s. He was arrested and taken to London. Arthur continued to preach the same message and was also arrested; ending up with Bilney in the same dungeon.

They were brought before Cardinal Wolsey in the chapter house at Westminster, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and several bishops in the chapter-house at Westminster Abbey, he was convicted of heresy. Bilney was paraded in humiliation before the Council of Bishops and led back to gaol to serve his penance. Whilst languishing in prison, Bilney’s mind was filled with remorse over his action. His heart sank in darkness and despair as, like the writer of Psalm 51, he experienced a deeper imprisonment of the soul. For two years Bilney dwelt in the dungeons of St Paul’s Cross, more a prisoner of his own conscience than of the church.

Cardinal Wolsey left and the verdict was left to Tunstall, Bishop of London. From his cell Bilney thought that Tunstall, who was a friend of Erasmus, might be influenced when he heard that it was Erasmus’ New Testament that converted him. He therefore wrote a series of eloquent letters to Tunstall, trying to influence him. The bishop was touched and did not want Bilney’s death, as Bilney was one of the most admired men in the nation; loved not only by his friends, but also by his enemies, so he gave him every chance to recant. He kept threatening Bilney with death and then giving him time to reflect. Many of his friends came to see him and stayed with him day and night. Slowly, the idea of a compromise came to Bilney, so that he would be allowed to live to further carry out God’s work on earth. Following his friend Arthur, he abjured before the bishops. Latimer later commented that "if ever one was in prison you should not see your friends as they would do more harm than your enemies".

After being released in 1529, he went back to Cambridge. Bilney realising what he had done, he was in torment; his friends were unable to console him. It seemed as if even the Scriptures condemned him. Fear made him tremble constantly, and he could hardly eat or drink. Then in 1531 Holy Spirit spoke to his heart, and he fell at the foot of the cross, shedding floods of tears, and there he found peace. The more God comforted him the greater seemed to be his crime, so he decided to become a martyr. Latimer wrote, he ‘came again like one rising from the dead’.

He was determined to preach again what he had held to be the truth. Bilney resolved to redeem the wasted years. At ten o’clock one night, when everyone in Trinity Hall was going to bed, Bilney called his friends around him, reminded them of what he had done and added: ‘You shall see me no more...... Do not stop me: my decision is made up, and I shall carry it out. My face is set to go to Jerusalem.’He shook hands with each of them and left Cambridge. Arriving back in Norfolk, he preached with great unction proclaiming, ‘That doctrine which I once abjured is the truth. Let my example be a lesson to all who hear me’.

The churches being no longer open to him, he preached openly in the fields. Fearing nothing, he preached the gospel, distributed New Testaments and exposed the errors of Rome. A friar was listening and noted down what he said. Back in London he bought some New Testaments, one of which he gave to a lady in Norfolk who lent it to those who visited her. The local bishop heard of this, reported it to Sir Thomas More who had Bilney arrested and brought to the Tower of London. Articles were drawn up against him by Convocation, he was tried, degraded from his orders and handed over to the civil authorities to be burned at London.

The blind octogenarian bishop of Norwich wanted to make an example in his diocese, so Bilney was taken to Norwich for trial. Many priests came to his cell to persuade him to recant. The trial began and the witness gave their testimony; there was no question as to what the result would be. Latimer tried to help his friend by urging the judges to decide according to justice. This was a very brave thing to do, but at this time he had a lot of favour with the King and this protected him from any repercussions.

Bilney was condemned, degraded and handed over to the sheriffs. A few of his friends went to Norwich to say goodbye, including Matthew Parker, the future Archbishop of Canterbury. His friends found him full of joy. It is said that after eating his last meal, he rose and placed his finger in the flame of a lamp. When questioned by his friends he replied: ‘I am only trying my flesh; tomorrow God’s rods shall burn my whole body in the fire’. He only withdrew his finger when the first joint had been burnt and then quietly recited the words of Isaiah 43:2: ‘When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee’ this passage is marked in Bilney’s Bible.

On 19 August 1531, at the age of 36 Thomas Bilney became only the third person to be burned in England during the Reformation. His ex*****on took place beyond the city gate known as Bishop’s Gate in a valley called Lollard’s Pit (so named because of the Lollards who were burned there over a hundred years earlier) which was in the shape of an amphitheatre. With his conscience clear, his mind anticipating the joy of heaven, Bilney repeatedly cried out ‘Jesus’ and ‘Credo’ (I believe), before finally engulfed in the flames.

Even Bilney’s enemies recognised the sort of man he was. The bishop of Norwich exclaimed, ‘I fear I have burned Abel and let Cain go.’ Latimer was inconsolable and twenty years later he said that his friend was always doing good, even to his enemies. D’Aubigne regarded him as ‘the spiritual father of the Reformation in England’. Latimer owed much to Bilney and called him ‘that blessed martyr of God’. His inevitable martyrdom in 1531 became the inspiration for many to follow in his steps.

Bilney was a man of prayer. He prayed for Cambridge, for Latimer’s conversion, and for the reformation of the church. God honoured those prayers. Despite mistakes and failures, Thomas Bilney was used by God in his martyrdom. He became the first disciple and evangelist of Reformation times to shed his blood that England might be freed from idolatry and superstition. He was the light of dawn in England’s night of darkness.

Thomas Bilney's great strength lay in personal evangelism. He saw the potential in Latimer, and set about to win him for Christ. Bilney’s quiet influence on fellow students was immense. This should be a great encouragement to all believers, to be themselves in personal witness, for who knows how many Latimers may be won?

https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2001/the-death-of-thomas-bilney/
http://ukwells.org/wells/thomas-bilney
https://www.evangelical-times.org/articles/historical/thomas-bilney-the-forgotten-reformer/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bilney

20/10/2021

John Colet - English scholar and forerunner of the Reformation

John Colet and the New Learning

Earlier I posted how Erasmus was influenced by an English scholar named John Colet, Erasmus was impressed with Colet's teaching straight from the Scriptures. Colet challenged Erasmus to study the Scriptures. Here is a bit more about John Colet.

from: Five Minutes in Church History https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/john-colet/

The English theologian and translator John Wycliffe is known as “the Morning Star of the Reformation.” He was one of the forerunners of the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Wycliffe, however, was not the only star in the constellation—others anticipated some of the Reformation’s doctrines, as well. One such figure was a fellow Englishman named John Colet.

Colet was born in 1466. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where C.S. Lewis would later study. After his time at Oxford, he went to France and Italy to study further. He learned what the scholars were calling “the New Learning,” in contrast to the methods of the Scholastics. John Calvin too would come under this New Learning when he was a student at the University of Paris. The New Learning got at the heart of the Renaissance. Instead of piling up sources and rehashing what all of the authorities said, the New Learning said, “Let’s go back to the fount, to the primary sources.” When it came to studying the Scriptures, of course, the source is the Scriptures themselves. For theology, it meant studying Scripture itself rather than centuries of church tradition.

Colet was also exposed to the teachings of Giralomo Savonarola, another pre-Reformation reformer. Armed with ideas from Savonarola and the New Learning, Colet returned to England and began lecturing on Paul at Oxford in 1497. He lectured there until 1504. Among his students was the young humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus, who would go on to compile the Greek New Testament.

In 1504, Colet was appointed dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. This was a prestigious post. Up to this time, Colet had lived comfortably on his family’s fortune, though he lived rather simply. But at this time, his father died, and Colet received the inheritance. With the funds he established a school, St. Paul’s School, which provided a free education for one hundred and fifty boys, who were taught Christianity, Latin, and Greek.

In 1511, Colet was called upon to speak against Wycliffe and his followers, the Lollards. Everyone was surprised when Colet instead attacked the church. He sided with Wycliffe and the Lollards and pointed to significant problems in the church. This was six years before Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg. As you can imagine, this put Colet on the hot seat with church authorities, and from 1511 to 1518 he was embroiled in controversy. In 1518, he made one final move. He made it so that his school would be out from under control of the church. And then, in 1519, he died, just as the Reformation was dawning.
https://www.facebook.com/church.history01

18/10/2021

The Lollards

The “Poor Preachers”: The Lollards

The Morning Star of the Reformation, John Wycliffe (1320-1384), had died but his ideas did not, as a group called the Lollards kept his doctrines alive. The Lollards (meaning “mumblers”) continued Wycliffe's teachings. These “poor preachers,” with Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible in hand, traveled the country of England preaching the gospel. “Clad in russet robes of undressed wool, without sandals, purse, or scrip, a long staff in their hand, dependent for food and shelter on the good will of their neighbors, Wyclif’s poor priests soon became a power in the land.” (Church History in Plain Language).

The contrast between the poor, lowly Lollards and the professional clergy spoke to the common Englishman. One can easily see why farmers and peasants turned from the friars to listen to the poor preachers. One poet wrote a “portrait of the fat friar with his double chin shaking about as big as a goose’s egg, and the ploughman with his hood full of holes, his mittens made of patches, and his poor wife going barefoot on the ice so that her blood followed.”

A late 14th century poem called “Ploughman’s Complaint” complains that the popes, cardinals, monks, friars and priests were asking the poverty-stricken Englishmen to pay the fat clergy for spiritual support. He says, "I trowe (believe) Peter took no money, for no sinners that he sold. . . .Peter was never so great a fole (fool), to leave his key with such a losell (scoundrel).”

They grew very popular among the people. Many students of Oxford University were supporters of the Lollards. The English church quickly had the Lollards condemned, but many of the nobles protected them. Historian Phillip Schaff said the Lollards were so prevalent in England by the end of the 14th century that “of every two men found on the roads, one was sure to be a Lollard.”

“The preachers were picturesque figures in long russet dress down to the heels, who, staff in hand, preached in the mother tongue to the people in churches and graveyards, in squares, streets and houses, in gardens and pleasure grounds, and then talked privately with those who had been impressed.” (The Encyclopedia Britannica).

The Lollards grew so strong that they petitioned parliament to reform the church. They wanted reform on twelve points, called the “Twelve Conclusions,” as presented to the English Parliament in 1395 (see below). Here you can see the seeds of the Reformation that came 120 years later.

At the beginning of the 15th century, William Sawtrey, an English Roman Catholic priest and Lollard, was the first follower of Lollardy to die for his beliefs. He refused to recant and was burnt at St Paul’s Cross (March 1401). Other martyrdoms followed, which actually increased public support.

The Lollards lost some support from the people as King Henry V was successfully leading the English in battles against the French, and the Lollards opposed wars. Also, the news of the murder of Jon Hus at the Council of Constance in 1415 emboldened the English clergy to be more vigorous against the Lollards. The street preaching ceased, many left England and the Lollards met in secret.

However, in 1428, the Lollards were still numerous through their preaching and writings—according to the Archbishop of Canterbury. They became almost exclusively made up of tradesmen, peasants, and the urban poor. Many priests and clergy of poorer parishes were secretly followers of the Lollards. The persecutions continued in to the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547). Complaining of Martin Luther’s reforms, one English bishop wrote to Erasmus in 1523 “new arms are being added to the great band of Wycliffite heretics.”

In the 16th century, the Lollards joined forces with the Protestant Reformation. The Lollards were a part of the puzzle that helps explain the explosiveness and success of the Reformation. According to historian Bruce Shelley, their “influence is an example of the recurring empowerment of the Scriptures when read in the language of the people.”

The Twelve Conclusions (taken from gotquestions.org):
1. The Church of England has become subservient to the Church at Rome.
2. The ordination ceremonies for bishops and priests have no biblical support.
3. Celibacy of the clergy has encouraged so**my among the clergy.
4. The doctrine of transubstantiation leads to the idolatrous worship of the wafer.
5. Exorcisms and consecrations practiced by the priests are more in line with witchcraft than Christianity.
6. Men who hold powerful church offices should not simultaneously hold powerful secular offices.
7. The practice of praying for the dead should be rejected, and accepting money to say prayers for the dead corrupts the church.
8. Making pilgrimages and venerating relics are ineffective for spiritual growth and can lead to idolatry.
9. Confession of sin to a priest should be stopped because only God can forgive sins, and, if priests had the power to do it, they should forgive everyone regardless of whether or not they had confessed.
10. Christians should not participate in warfare, especially warfare that purports to have a spiritual basis (such as the Crusades).
11. Vows of celibacy among women have led to all kinds of sexual sin among those women.
12. Christians are spending too much time producing things, not being content with what they have.
https://www.facebook.com/church.history01

16/10/2021

On this day 16 October 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, the Oxford Martyrs, were burned at the stake under the reign of Queen "Bloody" Mary.

Latimer's words of encouragement to Ridley...

This day in history! October 16, 1555

16/10/2021

On this day 16 October 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, the Oxford Martyrs, were burned alive at the stake for the Reformation of the church and the true gospel.

Ridley's prayer while in prison...

Upon this day in 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, the Oxford Martyrs, were burned alive at the stake for being vocal critics of transubstantiation, purgatory, and justification. We often overlook these two bold vanguards of the Reformation for more well-known figures. Let us never forget the sacrifices they made for the sake of the un-adulterated gospel.

Here is a prayer by Master Ridley while in prison for the true doctrine of the sacrament to break forth:

“We ask thee this, O merciful Father, not in respect of our deserts, but for thy dear Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s sake. Thou knowest, O heavenly Father, that the controversy about the sacrament of the blessed body and blood of thy dear Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, hath troubled, not of late only, thy church of England, France, Germany, and Italy, but also many years ago. The fault is ours, no doubt, thereof, for we have deserved thy plague…

O Lord, we beseech thee, for whom thy martyr Stephen did pray, and whom thine holy Apostle did so truly and earnestly love, that, for their salvation, he wished himself accursed from thee. Remember, O heavenly Father, the prayer of thy dear Son our Saviour Christ upon the cross, when he said unto thee: “O Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” With this forgiveness, O good Lord, give me, I beseech thee, thy grace, so here briefly to set forth the sayings of thy Son our Saviour Christ, of his Evangelists, and of his Apostles, that, in this aforesaid controversy, the light of thy truth, by the lantern of thy word, may shine upon all them that love thee.”

Ridley, Nicholas. The Works of Nicholas Ridley, D.D. Ed. Henry Christmas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1843. Print.