The game of chess has a fascinating history that reaches back to ancient civilizations. One of the oldest and most complex games, it is one of the few games in the world that does not contain any measure of chance. Chess is a true game of skill— a game of skill in which the ability to foresee and anticipate an opponent’s move gives an advanced player a decided edge. The best chess players are able to see a wide variety of options, and they know exactly how each possibility will play out in the moves ahead.

One of the best chess players in England five centuries ago was a churchman named Nicholas Ridley. Ridley is best known as a martyr who gave his life during the reign of Bloody Mary. He was also a respected bishop of the Church of England.

Traveling chess players from Germany and France would call upon Ridley in London to test their skills against his sharp, active mind. After reading and studying the Scriptures, Ridley usually spent an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening conversing with guests and playing chess. His mastery of chess matched his mastery of the Word of God, and his skill was attested by his opponents.

Nicholas Ridley was born in A.D. 1500 in the extreme north of England, very near the Scottish border. The Ridleys were an ancient house of knights whose bravery was known and admired throughout the border country. They could meet an enemy with calm courage, keep their heads in the heat of battle, and endure pain without flinching. These qualities would be seen in Nicholas Ridley, but he was a knight of a different kind. Ridley was a knight who wielded the Sword of Truth with unflinching courage. He was resolved to win the victory, though he must die an agonizing death.

Like Hugh Latimer, the man who became his close friend and example, Ridley went to Cambridge University. There he came into contact with other young students, such as John Rogers, Thomas Bilney, John Bradford, and William Tyndale. These Cambridge scholars became known as the “Scripture men.” They met in the White Horse Inn to study and discuss the Bible.

The steps of Ridley’s conversion are not known. His conversion was slow, gradual, but just as sure. According to his writings, it appears that he began, while in the halls and gardens of Cambridge University, to memorize large sections of Scripture. What the sword was to the ancient house of Ridley, the Bible was to be to Nicholas Ridley.

At the same time, similar to the slow, sure conversion of Ridley, the English Reformation did not gush forth from the earth like a geyser. Rather, it grew slowly and steadily, just as the melting snow on a mountainside descends into the valleys where it forms creeks, then streams, then a mighty river that rolls silently and slowly along with resistless power. So grew the English Reformation.

Nicholas Ridley was recognized by friends, such as Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer, as the intellectual leader of the English Reformation. He had a mind that retained all it was given, and his memory was remarkable. He studied for several hours each day and was an active reader whose conversation delighted and edified all who came to stay with him in his parsonage. Chess was a diversion that gave him occasional breaks from his diligent study.

Along with Latimer and Cranmer, Ridley knew that he would not long survive Queen Mary’s reign. After the death of King Edward VI, Ridley gave strong support to the coronation of Lady Jane Grey. When she and her young husband went to the block, Ridley was a marked man, already from the very start of Bloody Mary’s reign. Notwithstanding his knowledge of her hatred of him, Ridley went to greet Queen Mary, and he even offered to serve her and hold services for the royal court. This request was turned down.

For his support of Lady Jane Grey, Nicholas Ridley was arrested on the charge of treason. But the charge was changed to a religious one, and he was eventually tried and executed for heresy. Long debates failed to move him an inch from his position.

Like his ancestors, Ridley would not flinch in the public arena. When the formal trial was made, Ridley had the audacity to put his cap on his head whenever the Pope was mentioned. When Ridley was charged with denying the validity of the Mass, he replied calmly and clearly, “Christ made one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, neither can any man reiterate that sacrifice of His.”

On the day of his execution, Nicholas Ridley dressed in his best attire. His elderly friend Latimer would also be burned at the stake with him. While Latimer wore a plain and simple gown, Ridley dressed in a black gown trimmed with fur and velvet. His chosen attire was not for the purpose to be proud or showy. Rather, Ridley was from an ancient house of knights, and he was going out to his final victory. While Latimer tottered forward because of age and infirmity, Ridley walked firmly and boldly to the stake. When questioned if he would recant, Ridley declared, “So long as the breath is in my body, I will never deny my Lord Christ and His known truth.”

Ridley then gave away all his fine garments and stood in a plain undergarment. As the smith chained him to the stake, Ridley said, “Good fellow, knock it hard, for the flesh will have its way.” Nicholas Ridley did not want the intense pain to make him flee the stake.

As the faggots (bundles of sticks) were lit and laid at the feet of the two men, there was perfect silence in the air as the tension mounted. As the flames began to leap upward, Latimer broke the tense silence, calling out to Ridley with those immortal 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.”

Like a chess master making a sacrifice in order to achieve victory on the board, Ridley knew full well that the sacrifice of his own life would lead to victory for the truth in England. As the fire blazed upward, the wind blew the flames to the side of “Old Father Latimer.” Latimer looked upward and said peacefully, “Father of heaven, receive my soul.” He soon died with little apparent pain.

It was not so with Ridley. He indeed needed to “play the man.” The wind blew the fire hard to Latimer’s side, and the fire on Ridley’s side was poorly kindled. The green wood on top would not catch fire, but the wood at the bottom burned fiercely.

While Ridley’s face and body were unharmed, his legs were almost wholly consumed by the fire. Yet, at the same time, his shirt was not even singed! He involuntarily leaped up and down in the fire as the burning flesh and muscles reacted to the pain, but he would not utter a scream or cry of reproach. John Foxe wrote, “Even in this torment, he did not forget to call on God, saying ‘Lord, have mercy on me.’”

A relative of Ridley’s tried to relieve his agony by adding more wood on the fire. However, this compassion-driven action only worsened the problem! Despite his suffering, Ridley remained resolute. Finally, one of the guards realized the problem with the uneven flames. He reached forward with the hook at the end of his halberd and pulled away the topmost wood. Suddenly, with oxygen fully available to fuel the flames, the fire blazed upward through the wood. Ridley cried out in Latin the words he had learned long ago, “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum.” But then, as though he remembered that he was an Englishman and that the Bible was now in the hands of the common man, he repeated the prayer in his native tongue, “Lord, receive my spirit.”

The omniscient God Who ordained the destiny of Nicholas Ridley holds us also. He is the perfect, loving “Chess Master” Who knows the end of every move and decision. If we are willing to be as humble pawns in His mighty hand, we can rest assured of the victory—the victory of good over evil, of light over darkness, and the power of God triumphing over the schemes of the enemy. May we, like Nicholas Ridley and other brethren of the faith, be resolute in our confession, as those who “overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:11).

Sources and Further Reference:

Foxe, John. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011.

Loane, Marcus. Masters of the English Reformation. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2005.