the prisons, for the relief of the poor. At his visitation he made his clergy sit all with him, and be covered, whenever he himself was covered. For he did not approve of the state in which others of his order made their visitations, nor the distance to which they obliged their clergy. And he had that canon often in his mouth, ' that a presbyter ought not to be let stand after the bishop

was set.'

Our worthy Bishop, in his endeavours to reform the church of abuses, met with immense opposition from the chancellors of dioceses and other ecclesiastical officers, who profited by those abuses. He was borne down by the torrent of influence, but was never overcome in his purposes, which he maintained with the firmness of a Christian, who knew himself engaged in the cause of GOD and truth, and was not to follow the will of man, but of him who sent him to preach the Gospel. It must be acknowledged, to their reproach, that the other bishops did not stand by our Bishop in this matter, but were contented to let him fall under censure, without interposing in it as in a cause of common concern: Even the excellent primate, Usher, told him, the tide went so high that he could assist him no more: for he stood by him longer than any other of the order had done. But the Bishop was not disheartened by this. And as he thanked him for assisting him so long, so he said he was resolved, by the help of Gov, to try if he could stand by himself. But he went home, and resolved to go on in his courts as he had begun, notwithstanding this censure. For he thought he was doing that which was incumbent on him, and he had a spirit so made, that he resolved to suffer martyrdom, rather than fail in any thing that lay on his conscience. But his chancellor was either advised by those that governed the state, to give him no distur bance in that matter, or was overcome by the authority he saw in him, that inspired all people with reverence for him: For as he never called for the one hundred pound costs, so he never disturbed him any more, but named a surrogate, to whom he gave order to be in all things observant of the Bishop, and obedient to him: So it seems, that though it was thought fit to keep up the authority of the lay chancellors over Ireland, and not to suffer this Bishop's practice to pass into a precedent, yet order was given under hand to let him go on as he had begun; and his chancellor had so great a value for him, that, many years after this, he told my Author, that he

thought.

thought there was not such a man on the face of the earth as Bishop Bedell was; that he was too hard for all the civilians in Ireland, and that if he had not been borne down by mere force, he had overthrown the consistorial courts, and had recovered the episcopal jurisdiction out of the chancellor's hands. But now that he went on undisturbed in his episcopal court, he made use of it as became him, and not as an engine to raise his power and dominion; but considering that all church power was for edification, and not for destruction, he both dispensed that justice that belonged to his courts equally and speedily, and cut off many fees and much expence, which made them be formerly so odious; and also when scandalous persons were brought before him to be censured, he considered that church-censures ought not to be like the acts of tyrants, that punish out of revenge, but like the discipline of parents, that correct in order to the amendment of their children: So he studied chiefly to beget in all offenders a true sense of their sins. Many of the Irish priests were brought often into his courts for their lewdness; and upon that he took occasion, with great mildness, and without scoffing or insultings, to make them sensible of that tyrannical imposition in their church, in denying their priests leave to marry, which occasioned so much impurity among them; and this had a good effect on some.

This leads me to another part of his character, that must represent the care he took of the natives; he observed, with much regret, that the English had all along neglected the Irish, as a nation not only conquered but undisciplinable: And that the clergy had scarce consi dered them as a part of their charge, but had left them wholly into the hands of their own priests, without taking any other care of them, but the making them pay their tythes. And indeed their priests were a strange sort of people, that knew generally nothing but the reading their offices, which were not so much as understood by many of them: And they taught the people nothing but the saying their paters and aves in Latin. So that the state both of the clergy and laity was such, that it could not but raise great compassion in a man that had so tender a sense of the value of souls: Therefore he resolved to set about that apostolical work of converting the natives, with the zeal and care that so great an undertaking required. He knew the gaining on some of the more knowing of their priests was like to be the quickest way; for by their

" means

means he hoped to spread the knowledge of the reformed religion among the natives, or rather of the Christian religion, to speak more strictly. For they had no sort of notion of Christianity, but only knew that they were to depend upon their priests, and were to confess such of their actions, as they call sins, to them; and were to pay them tythes.

The Bishop prevailed on several priests to change, and he was so well satisfied with the truth of their conversion, that he provided some of them to ecclesiastical benefices, which was thought a strange thing, and was censured by many, as contrary to the interest of the English nation. For it was believed that all those Irish converts were still papists at heart, and might be so much the more dangerous, than otherwise, by that disguise which they had put on. But he on the other hand considered chiefly the duty of a Christian bishop: He also thought the true interest of England was to gain the Irish to the knowledge of religion, and to bring them by the means of that, which only turns the heart, to love the English nation: And so he judged the wisdom of that course was apparent, as well as the piety of it; since such as changed their religion would become thereby so odious to their own clergy, that this would provoke them to further degrees of zeal in gaining others to come over after them: And he took great care to work in those, whom he trusted with the care of souls, a full conviction of the truth of religion, and a deep sense of the importance of it. And in this he was so happy, that of all the converts that he had raised to benefices, there was but one only that fell back when the rebellion broke out: And he not only apostatized, but both plundered and killed the English, among the first. But no wonder if one murderer was among our Bishop's converts, since there was a traitor among the twelve that followed our Saviour. There was a convent of friars very near him, on whom he took much pains, with very good success. That he might furnish his converts with the means of instructing others, he made a short catechism, to be printed in one sheet, being English on the one page, and Irish on the other; which contained the elements, and most necessary things of the Christian religion, together with some forms of prayer, and some of the most instructing and edifying passages of Scripture: This he sent about all over his diocese; and it was received with great joy, by many of the Irish, who seemed to be hungering and thirsting

after

after righteousness, and received this beginning of knowledge so well, that it gave a good encouragement to hope well upon further endeavours.

The Bishop also set himself to learn the Irish tongue; and though it was too late for a man of his years to learn to speak it, yet he came to understand it to such a degree, as to compose a complete grammar of it, (which was the first that ever was made, as it is said) and to be a critic in it: He also had commonprayer read in Irish every Sunday in his cathedral, for the benefit of the converts he had made, and was always present at it himself; and he engaged all his clergy to set up schools in their parishes: For there were so very few bred to read or write, that this obstructed the conversion of the nation very much. The New Testament and the book of Common Prayer were already put in the Irish tongue; but he resolved to have the whole Bible, the Old Testament as well as the New, put also into the hands of the Irish; and therefore he laboured much to find out one that understood the language so well that he might be employed in so sacred a work: And by the advice of the primate, and several other eminent persons, he pitched on one King, that had been converted many years before, and was believed to be the elegantest writer of the Irish tongue then alive, both for prose and poetry. He was then about seventy, but notwithstanding his age and the disadvantages of his education, yet the Bishop thought him not only capable of this employment, but qualified for an higher character; therefore he put him in orders, and gave him a benefice in his diocese, and set him to work, in order to the translating the Bible: Which he was to do from the English translation; since there were none of the nation to be found that knew any thing of the originals. The Bishop set himself so much to the revising this work, that always after dinner or supper read over a chapter; and as he compared the Irish translation with the English, so he compared the English with the Hebrew and the seventy interpreters, or with Diodati's Italian translation, which he valued highly; and he corrected the Irish, where he found the English translators had failed.

he

He thought the use of the Scriptures was the only way to let the knowledge of religion in among the Irish, as it had first let the reformation into the other parts of Europe: And he used to tell a passage of a sermon that he heard Fulgentio preach at Venice, with which he was much

pleased:

ye not

pleased: It was on these words of Christ, Have ye not read? And so he took occasion to tell the auditory, that if Christ were now to ask this question, Have read? all the answer they could make to it was, No: for they were not suffered to do it. Upon which he taxed with great zeal the restraint put on the use of the Scriptures, by the see of Rome. This was not unlike what the same person delivered in another sermon preaching upon Pilate's question, What is truth? He told them, at last after many searches he had found it out, and held out a New Testament, and said, there it was in his hand, but then he put it in his pocket, and said coldly,

but

the book is prohibited; which was so suited to the Italian genius, that it took mightily with the auditory. The Bishop had observed that, in the primitive times, as soon as nations, how barbarous soever they were, began to receive the Christian religion, they had the Scriptures translated into their vulgar tongues: And that all people were exhorted to study them. But he had great opposition in this business, where he had reason to expect most assistance: And the great rebellion breaking out in Ireland soon afterwards, frustrated our good Bishop's design. Yet notwithstanding this rebellion, the manuscript of the translation of the Bible escaped the storm, and falling into good hands, was printed at the charge of that Christian philosopher, Mr. Boyle, who, as he reprinted upon his own charge the New Testament, so he very cheerfully went into a proposition for reprinting the Old.

But to go on with the concerns of our Bishop, as he had great zeal for the purity of the Christian religion, in opposition to the corruptions of the church of Rome; so he was very moderate in all other matters, that were not of such importance. He was a great supporter of Mr. Dury's design of reconciling the Lutherans and the Calvinists; and as he directed him by many learned and prudent letters, that he wrote to him on that subject, so he allowed him twenty pounds a-year, in order to the discharging the expence of that negociation, which he paid punctually to his correspondent at London. And it appeared by his managing of a business that fell out in Ireland, that if all that were concerned in that matter had been blest with such an understanding, and such a temper as he had, there had been no reason to have despaired of it.

There