Nicholas Ridley, an English bishop, born at Wilmontswick, Northumberland, about 1500, burned at the stake in Oxford, Oct. 16, 1555. He graduated at Pembroke hall, Cambridge, in 1518, and in 1524 took holy orders. In 1527 he went to study at the Sorbonne, and was afterward at Louvain till 1529. On his return to Cambridge he was chosen under treasurer of the university. He became domestic chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer in 1537, vicar of Herne in Kent in 1538, and master of his college in 1540. He preached against the use of images and holy water, and gradually became a strenuous supporter of Protestant doctrines. At the instigation of Bishop Gardiner he was accused of preaching against the six articles, but the accusation being referred to Cranmer, he was acquitted. In 1545 he was made a prebendary of Westminster, and in 1547 bishop of Rochester. He sat on the commission that deprived Bonner of the bishopric of London, and in 1550 was appointed his successor; he also shared in the deposition of Bishop Gardiner. He assisted Cranmer in preparing the 41 articles. Having sought an interview with the princess Mary, he expressed his views very freely, and requested permission to preach before her, which was peremptorily refused.

Moved by a sermon of Ridley's, Edward VI. converted Grey Friars and St. Bartholomew's priories, with their revenues, into charitable institutions, and his own house of Bridewell into a compulsory workhouse for such as were in distress through wilful idleness. In a sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross Ridley espoused the cause of Lady Jane Grey, and warned the people of the evil that would follow to Protestantism if Mary should come to the throne. On Mary's accession he was at once arrested and committed to the tower (July, 1553), and in April, 1554, was taken to Oxford, to attend a discussion on the real presence. At its close he was with Cranmer and Latimer adjudged an obstinate heretic, and confined at Oxford; and after many attempts to induce him to recant, he was led to the stake with Latimer. His works were collected by the Parker society (1 vol. 8vo, 1841).