William Bedell
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William Bedell (1571 - February 7, 1642) was an Anglican churchman.
He was born at Black Notley in Essex, and educated at Cambridge. He became a fellow of Emmanuel in 1593, and took orders. In 1607 he was appointed chaplain to Sir Henry Wotton, then English ambassador at Venice, where he remained for four years, acquiring a great reputation as a scholar and theologian.
He translated the Book of Common Prayer into Italian, and was on terms of closest friendship with the reformer, Paolo Sarpi. In 1616 he was appointed to the rectory of Horningsheath (near Bury St Edmunds, where he had previously worked), which he held for twelve years. In 1627, he became Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and, in 1629, he was appointed to become Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh. He set himself to reform the abuses of his diocese, encouraged the use of the Irish language, and personally undertook the duties generally dischaiged by the bishop's lay chancellor. He is noted for translating the Bible into the Irish Language.
In 1633, he resigned the see of Ardagh, retaining the more primitive Kilmore where he had encouraged quite a lot if opposition from Anglicans and Catholics alike for his undertaking of reaching out to the Irish, he set about rebuilding the neglected church buildings throughout the diocese, where in 1638 he held a synod of all the Anglican priests and officers within the diocese to discuss lax dicipline. Bedell was a man of simple life, often walking miles on foot, or on horse travelling the dangerous byways. Bedell provided assitance to converts to Protestantism enabling them to study for the ministry. After the outbreak of the 1641 Rebellion, Bedell's house at Kilmore in County Cavan was not only left untouched, but became the place of refuge for many dispossed Cavan and Fermanagh planters seeking shelter from the rebel insurgents. In the end, however, the rebels insisted upon the dismissal of all who had taken shelter in his house, and on the bishop's refusal he was seized and imprisoned with some others to the nearby island castle of Lough Oughter. Here he was detained for several weeks, and when released on signing a deposition, into the care of his friend Rev. Denis Sheridan, continued to suffer from the effects from being in the drafty and damp castle. Bishop Bedell died on 7th February 1642 and was afforded the dignity by his captors of being buried next to his wife Leah at Kilmore, where he received an honouable funeral in the presence of his O'Raghallaigh (O'Reilly) captors.
The story of his life was written by Bishop Gilbert Burnet in 1685, and also by his elder son (ed. TW Jones, for the Camden Society, 1872). [Details of time in Venice in Wotton And His Worlds, 2004 by Gerald Curzon, see http://www.henrywotton.org.uk ]
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Bishop William Bedells Last Will and Testiment is available through the UK National Archives, see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
[edit] Bibliography
- A true relation of the life and death of the Right Reverend father in God William Bedell, Lord Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland. Edited by Thomas Wharton Jones. Camden Society, 1872 (online version)
