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Ridley, Nicholas c.1500-55
English Protestant churchman

Born near Haltwhistle, Northumberland, he studied at Cambridge, Paris and Louvain (1527-30). His various posts included chaplain to Thomas Cranmer and Henry VIII, Master of Pembroke (1540), Bishop of Rochester (1547) and Bishop of London (1550). He was an outspoken reformer, and helped Cranmer to prepare the Thirty-Nine Articles. On the death of Edward VI he denounced Mary I and Elizabeth I as illegitimate, and supported the cause of Lady Jane Grey. On Mary I's accession, he was imprisoned and executed.