FERRAR
533
FERRARA
Huntingdonshire, and organized in the mansion a re- ligious community of some forty persons, male and female, including his mother. In 1&2G he was or- dained deacon by Laud (then bishop of St. David's). He now "signed a vow, that since God had heard his most humble petitions, and delivered him out of many dangers, and ia many desperate calamities had extend- ed his mercy to him, he would therefore now give himself up continiuilly to serve God to the utmost of his power in the office of a deacon, into which office he had that morning been regularly ordained; that he had lung ago scon enough of the manners and of the vanities of the world, and that he did hold them all in so low esteem that he was resolved to spend the re- mainder of his life in mortilications, in devotion and charity, and in a constant preparation for death." Benefices of great value were ottered him, but he re- fused, saj'ing that his fixed determination was to rise no higher in the Church than tlie place and office which ha now possessed, and which he hiid undertaken only with the view to be legally authorized to give spirit- ual assistance, according to his abilities, to his family and others with whom he might be concerned ; and that, as to temporal affairs, he had now parted with all his worldly estate, and divided it among his famih'. Ferrar allotted one room in his house as an oratory for the devotions of the whole family, besides two sepa- rate oratories for the men and women at night. His own lodgings were so contrived that he could conve- niently see that everything was conducted with de- cency and order. He established a school close to the house, and provided masters for the free instruction of the children. He was diligent in catechizing the chil- dren of the neighliorhood ; and every Sunday, after service, these children, more than one hundred in number, were hospitably entertained. After evening service, all went into the oratory, when select portions of the Psalms were repeated. After this they were at libert}'^ till eight o'clock, when the bell again summon- ed them to the orator}', where they sang a hymn to the organ and went to prayers, and then all retired. On the first Sunday in every month they received the communion. On week-days they rose at four, at five went to prayers, at six said the Psalms of the hour ; then they sang a hymn, repeated some passages of Scripture, and at half past six went to church. "At seven they said the Psalms of the hour, sang a h3'mn, and went to breakfast. At ten the}' went to church to litany ; at eleven to dinner, during which Scripture and pious books were road aloud. They went to even- ing prayers in the church at four, after which came supper and recreations till eight, at which time they prayed in their oratory. During the night there was a continual vigil or watching, in which several of the men and women, in their respective oratories, repeated the whole Psalter, together with prayers for the life of the king and his sons, from nine at night till one in tlie morning. The time of this watch being ended, they awoke Nicholas Ferrar, who constantly rose at one o'clock, and betook himself to religious meditation, according to these words, 'At midnight will I rise and give thanks.' Ferrar himself lay upon a skin stretch- ed on the floor, arrayed in a loose frieze gown, and he watcliod in the oratory or the church three nights in the week. King Charles I held Nicholas Ferrar in great reverence, and came more than once to visit this religious society ; and, having perused the Harmony of the Gospels which they had compiled, he was so much pleased with it that he requested them to pre- pare a copy for his own peculiar use." He died in 1C37. Ferrar translated and published (though with- out his own name) the CX Considciaiions of Valdes (1638). — Hook, Eccles. Biographi, v, 10>^ ; Peckard, Life of Ferrar, in Wordsworth, Ecclts. Blograph;/, iv, 111; Palmer, Church Histor!/, 184 sq. See Valdes, Juan.
Ferrar, Robert, bishop of St. David's, a martyr
of the reign of queen Mary, was born at Halifax, York* sliire, and was educated at Oxford, where he became B.D. and a regular canon of tlie order of St. Augustine. The duke of Somerset, lord protector in the reign of Edward VI, was his patron, and employed him in car- rying on the Reformation. He was one of the com- mittee nominated to compile the English liturgy. The zeal of Ferrar, who was consecrated bishop in 1547 (under Edward VI), soon procured him many enemies among the Papists, and after the fall of his eminent patron he was, under a false charge, committed to prison some time before the death of the king. On the accession of Mary he was tried on the new charge of heresy as a Protestant, degraded from his ecclesias- tical functions, and, in company with Hooper, Brad- ford, Rogers, Saunders, and others, delivered over to the secular power for punishment. A little before this good bishop suffered, a young gentleman who vis- ited him lamented the severity of the kind of death he was about to undergo. Ferrar replied, "If yon see me once to stir while I suffer the pains of burning, then give no credit to those doctrines for which I die." By the grace of God he was enabled to make good this assertion, for he never moved until he was struck down in the flames b}- a blow on his head. He was burned at Caermarthen, in Wales, March 30, 1555. — ■ Middlcton, Ecangdical Bir.graj)hy, i, 34G ; Burnet, Hist. of EeformaHon (4 vols.), ii, 347 sq. ; Fox, Book of Mar- tyrs; Hook, Eccles. Biography, v, 96.