Nicholas Ridley, "England's Calvin" on the Lord's Supper

Panofré, Charlotte Anne. "From Latimer's Fellow-martyr to the 'English Calvin': Nicholas Ridley's Reputation and the Circulation of A brief declaration of the Lordes Supper, 1555-1570." Reformation & Renaissance Review: Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies 10.2 (2008): 175-193. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Nov. 2010.

A most commendable article. In summary,

Nicholas Ridley, the Edwardian Bishop of London, was executed in October, 1555, during Mary Tudor's reign. An active publicist, he composed in prison a treatise that promoted the Reformed view of Holy Communion. If Latimer was the "Apostle to England," a preacher, Ridley was significantly more erudite, "moderate" and "sharp" of mind. Ridley's work was published in Emden (1555) and in Strasbourg (1556). In 1556, A brief declaracion found its way to Geneva where a community of English exiles had it translated into Latin (Conrad Badius then issued a version in French). Not only did the translation acquire a polemical edge, but certain allusions, scattered in the preface and in the margins of the text, turned Ridley's treatise into a `Calvinist' manifesto with a trans-national readership. This came at a time when Calvin was defending his views against the Lutheran polemicist, Joachim Westphal. Ex-patriate English Reformers driven from their homes and families during the Marian period, Edmund Grindal (Frankfurt) and Whittingham (Geneva), both had access to Ridley's work. The former would be Elizabeth's second Protestant and Reformed Archbishop of Canterbury. The latter would become the influential Professor of Divinity, Cambridge, who would lock horns with Cardinal Bellarmine. Whittingham made Ridley's work known to Jean Calvin. Whittingham would also accuse Westphal of "impanation," a view close to transubstantiation. Meanwhile, Jean Crespin made use of Badius's version in his martyrologies and reprinted Ridley's treatise in his 1570 edition. Whereas in England, Ridley's works began to be perceived as controversial after Mary's death. Crespin and Beza (Icones, 1580) put Ridley in the Reformation pantheon, kept his treatise alive and heralded him as the 'English Calvin' in French Reformed circles. Also, Beza likens Latimer and Ridley, in their martyrdoms, to Polycarp and Igatius. This is not something that John Henry Newman would like hearing, but these are the facts.