RIDGLEY, THOMAS, 1667?-1734.
Exercises by way off [sic] catechising [sic] the Ten Commandments, 1717.

MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION NUMBER 205

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CITATION: Thomas Ridgley Exercises by way off [sic] catechising [sic] the Ten Commandments, MSS 205, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University. 

Thomas Ridgley was born in London around 1667.  He studied for the ministry in Wiltshire and was selected to assist the Pastor Thomas Gouge at the independent church at Three Cranes in London in 1695.  On Gouge's death in 1700, Ridgley succeeded as Pastor and remained in this office until his own death in 1734.  In 1712 he was elected to the office of Divinity Tutor at the Fund Academy, which was established by the London Congregational Fund Board.  In 1719 Ridgley participated in the Salter's Hall debates, arguing for strict adherence to the Church of England's 39 Articles.  Rejecting liberalizing doctrines as Arianism and Arminianism, Ridgley propounded a conservative Calvinism.  He published several sermons and lectures and wrote many religious works, including "The Unreasonableness of the Charge of ... Creed-making," (1719) and "An Essay concerning Truth and Charity," (1721) both written about the Salter's Hall subscription debates.  His work, Body of Divinity, (1731), regarding the catechism of the Anglican Church, became a textbook for moderate Calvinism and garnered its author an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Aberdeen.  He died March 27, 1734.

This volume is an Anglican catechism consisting of a series of questions and answers concerning the Ten Commandments.  It is similar in content to the section concerning the Ten Commandments of Ridgley's Body of Divinity.  The text is handwritten in ink on paper and contains 625 pages.  There is an errata section on the last page.  The alternate title, "Catechiestical [sic] exercises on the Ten Commandments," appears on page one.

A handwritten note is bound into the beginning of the volume.  In addition to a brief biography of the author, Thomas Ridgley, it gives a short history of the volume, saying "This MS comes from the library of the Barnardiston family of the Ryes, Sudsbury, Suffolk." 

Archives & Manuscripts
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Atlanta, GA  30322