W Rev. James Ward, Dean of Cloyne, Rev. John Welsh of Dromore." THE THE LIFE. OF WILLIAM BEDELL, D. D. Bishop of KILMORE IN IRELAN D. W ILLIAM BEDELL was born at Black Notley in Effex, in the Year 1570. he was the younger Son of an ancient and good Family, and of no inconfiderable Estate, which has now defcended to his Son (his elder Brother dying without Iffue): After he had pafs'd through the common education at Schools, he was fent to Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and put under Dr. Chadderton's care, the famous and long-liv'd Head of that House; and here all those extraordinary things, that rendred him afterwards fo confpicuous, began to fhew themselves in fuch a manner, that he came to have a very eminent Character both for Learning and Piety: fo that Appeals were oft made to him, as Differences or Controverfies arofe in the Univerfity. He was put in Holy Orders by the Bishop Suffragan of Colchefter. Till I met with this paffage, I did not think these Suffragans had been continued fo long in England: How they came to be put down, I do not know; it is probable they did ordain all that defired Orders, fo promifcuously, that the Bishops found it neceffary to let them fall. For Complaints were made of this Suffragan, upon which he was threatned with the taking his Commiffion from him: For though they could do nothing but by a Delegation from the Bishop, yet the Orders they gave were ftill valid, even when they tranfgreffed in conferring them: Upon that the Suffragan faid a thing that was as infolent in him, as it was honourable for Mr. Bedell, That he had ordained a better Man than any the Bishop had ever ordained, naming Bedell. He was chofen Fellow of the College in 1593. and took his Degree of Batchelour of Divinity in the year 1599. From the University he was removed to the Town of S. Edmondsbury in Suffolk, where he ferved long in the Gofpel, and with great Succefs, he and his Colleague being of fuch different characters, that whereas it was faid of him that he made the difficulteft places of Scripture appear plain, it was faid, That his Colleague made the plaineft places appear difficult; the opening of dark paffages, and the comparing paring of many Texts of Scripture, together with a ferious and practical application of them, being the chief fubject of his Sermons : Which method feveral other great Men at that time followed, fuch as Bishop Uber, Dr. Jackfon, and Mr. Mede. He had an Occasion given him not long after his fettlement in this charge, to fhew his Courage, and how little he either courted preferment, or was afraid of falling under the difpleasure of great Men: For when the Bishop of Norwich propofed fome things to a meeting of his Clergy, with which they were generally diffatisfied, though they had not refolution enough to oppose them; He took that hard Province upon himself, and did it with so much strength of reafon, as well as discretion, that many of thofe things were let fall: Upon which when his Brethren came and magnified him for it, he checkt them and faid, He defired not the praises of Men. His reputation was fo great and fo well established both in the Univerfity and in Suffolk, that when King James fent Sir Henry Wotton to be his Ambassador at Venice, at the time of the Interdict; he was recommended as the fittest Man to go Chaplain in fo critical a conjuncture. This Imployment proved much happier and more honourable for him than that of his fellow Student and Chamber-fellow Mr. Waddefworth, who was at that time beneficed in the fame Diocess with him, and was about that time fent into Spain, and was afterwards appointed to teach the Infanta the English Tongue, when the match between the late King and her B 2 was was believed concluded: For Waddefiorth was prevailed on to change his Religion and abandon his Country, as if in them those Words of our Saviour had been to be verified, There fhall be two in one Bed, the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. For as the one of these was wrought on to forfake his Religi on, the other was very near the being an Inftrument of a great and happy change in the Republick of Venice. I need not fay much of a thing fo well known as were the quarrels of Pope Paul the V. and that Republick; cfpecially fince the Hiftory of them is written fo particularly by him that knew the matter beft, P. Paulo. Some Laws made by the Senate, not unlike our Statutes of Mortmain, restraining the exceffive Donations, extorted from superftitious Men, and the imprisoning two lewd Fryers, in order to the executing Juftice on them, were the grounds of the quarrel; and upon thofe pretences, the Ecclefiaftical Immunity from the Secular Tribunals was afferted to fuch a degree, that after that high spirited Pope had tryed what the Spiritual Sword could do, but without fuccefs, (his Interdict not being obferved by any, but the Jefuites, the Capuchins and Theatines, who were upon that banished the State, for the Age of the Anfelms and the Beckets could not be now recalled) he refolved to try the Temporal Sword next, according to the advice Cardinal Baronius gave him; who told him in the Confiftory, That there were two things faid to St. Peter, the first was, Feed my Sheep, the other was, |