De Coena Dominica Assertio, Contra Sceleratam Illam Transsubsrantiationis Haeresim. RIDLEY (Nicholas).

FATAL REFORMATION TEXTS

Printer's woodcut device on the title.

First Edition in Latin. 12mo. [148 x 100 x 16 mm]. 111 pp. Bound in 17th century calf, the boards with a blind fillet border, recently rebacked in matching calf with a red goatskin label, new endleaves, red sprinkled edges.

[Bound with]

Praefatio Et Protestatio Nicolai Ridlei, Habitae XX. Aprilis In Scholis Publicis Oxonii, Anno M.D.LV.

First edition. [16]ff.

Genevae: Apud Ioannem Crispinum, 1556

Minor staining and soiling to the title page, lightly damp-stained at the foot and closely cut, touching the headlines in places. A good copy. The second part was issued without a title-page. Only four copies have been sold at auction since 1975, the last being at Dominic Winter on 26/7/2006, fetching £1300.

An important and rare pair of works regarding the religious conflict of 16th century England. The views expressed by the author regarding the nature of the Lord's Supper ensured that he was burned at the stake by orders of Queen Mary I.

Nicholas Ridley (c.1500-1555), came from a prominent family in Northumberland and studied at Cambridge, Paris and Louvain. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, Ridley enjoyed considerable favour, being appointed King's Chaplain, Canon of Canterbury, Canon of Westminster and eventually Bishop of London in 1550. However, as a staunch supporter of Lady Jane Grey, Ridley fell out of favour with Princess Mary and in 1555 during her reign, he was sent before a tribunal to be tried for heresy.

Ridley was brought under question for his understanding of Christian Communion. In prison in Oxford he wrote out his treatise, De Coena Dominica Assertio, in which he boldly denied that the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are fully transformed into the body and blood of Christ. This was originally published in English in the year of his death, and this is the first Latin translation, printed in Geneva, a centre of Protestant reform.

The second work, Praefatio et Protestatio Nicolai Ridlei, is the first printing of a short work centred on a dispute early in the year of 1555 in Oxford between Ridley and his accusers, again based on the nature of Communion as well as whether scripture should be interpreted literally.

Ridley was condemned by the tribunal and imprisoned in the Tower. He was transferred to Oxford where we was burned at the stake alongside Hugh Latimer. Latimer is said to have encouraged Ridley with the words: "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as, I trust, shall never be put out". After the death of Mary I and with the ascension of Elizabeth I, Ridley became viewed as a martyr and his views and beliefs on the Lord's Supper came to define the position of the Anglican Church.

Stock no. ebc9206