View source for William Bedell

{{Short description|16th/17th-century Anglo-Irish churchman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder 
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Reverend]]
| name          = William Bedell
| image         = 
| order         = 5th
| office        = Provost of Trinity College Dublin 
| term_start    = 1 August 1627
| term_end      = 31 July 1629
| predecessor   = [[William Temple (logician)|William Temple]]
| successor     = [[Robert Ussher]]
| office1       = [[Irish House of Commons|Member of Parliament]]<br>for [[Dublin University (constituency)|Dublin University]]
| term_start1   = 10 January 1628
| term_end1     = 24 July 1628 
| predecessor1  = William Temple
| successor1    = William Fitzgerald
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1571|9|22|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Black Notley]], [[Essex]], England 
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1642|2|7|1571|9|22|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Cloughoughter Castle]], [[Lough Oughter]], [[County Cavan]], Ireland 
| resting_place = [[Kilmore Cathedral]], County Cavan, Ireland 
| spouse        = Leah Bowles<br>{{small|(m. 1610; d. 1642)}}
| children      = 4
| education     =
| alma_mater    = [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]]<br>(B.A., 1589; M.A., 1592)
| signature     =
|}}
 [[File:William Bedell plaque, Kilmore, County Cavan.jpg|thumb|340px|Plaque on a gate pillar of the graveyard beside [[Kilmore Cathedral]], [[County Cavan]].]]
[[The Right Reverend|The Rt. Rev.]] '''William Bedell''', [[Doctor of Divinity|D.D.]] ({{langx|ga|Uilliam Beidil}}; 22 September 1571{{snd}}7 February 1642), was an English [[Anglican]] bishop who served as the 5th [[List of Provosts of Trinity College Dublin|Provost of Trinity College Dublin]] from 1627 to 1629. He also served as [[Bishop of Kilmore|Lord Bishop of Kilmore]] and as a member of the [[Irish House of Commons]] from January 1628 to July 1628. 

==Early life and education==
He was born at [[Black Notley]] in [[Essex, England]], the son of John Bedell, yeoman. He was admitted pensioner at [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]] in 1584, where he was a pupil of [[William Perkins (Puritan)|William Perkins]]:<ref name=DNB>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Bedell, William}}</ref> he took B.A. in 1588/89 and M.A. in 1592, being elected a Fellow of Emmanuel College in 1593. He was ordained priest on 10 January 1596/97, by Bishop John Sterne, suffragan bishop of Colchester, and was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Divinity in 1599. He served as vicar of St Mary, [[Bury St Edmunds]], from 1601 to 1607.<ref>{{acad|id=BDL584W|name=Bedell, William}}</ref>

==Career==
===Anglican priest===
In 1607, he was appointed chaplain to Sir [[Henry Wotton]], then English Ambassador to [[Venice]], where he remained for three years, acquiring a great reputation as a [[scholar]] and [[theology|theologian]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He translated the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' into [[Italian language|Italian]], and both corresponded and was on terms of close friendship with the Venetian [[Republicanism|Republican]] statesman and political theorist [[Paolo Sarpi]]. Bedell wrote a series of Protestant sermons with [[Fulgenzio Micanzio]], Sarpi's disciple.<ref>[[Roland Mousnier]], ''The Assassination of Henry IV'' (1973 translation), p. 181.</ref>

Having returned to [[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury]] in 1610, he married Leah, daughter of John Bowles, Esq., of [[Earsham]], Norfolk, and widow of the Recorder of Bury St Edmunds, Robert Maw (died 1609), by whom she had already four children (two of whom survived to be raised by their stepfather). Bedell had by her three sons, William, John, and Ambrose, and a daughter Grace. In 1616, he was appointed to the nearby rectory of [[Horringer|Horningsheath]] by Sir [[Thomas Jermyn (died 1645)|Thomas Jermyn]] of [[Rushbrooke Hall]] (son of [[Robert Jermyn (1539–1614)|Sir Robert Jermyn]], benefactor of Emmanuel College).<ref>Jones (ed.), ''A True Relation'', [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924062544436&seq=36 pp. 14-15] (Hathi Trust).</ref> This benefice he held for twelve years.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

===Provost of Trinity College, Dublin===
In 1627, he became [[List of Provosts of Trinity College Dublin|Provost]] of [[Trinity College Dublin]], despite having no prior connection with Ireland. The Provostship paid roughly the same as his Horningsheath rectory and he clung to his living in [[Suffolk]] until forced to surrender it on grounds of [[benefice]]. Owing to his wish to advance the [[Irish Reformation]], Bedell decreed a chapter of the Irish-language New Testament to be read aloud during dinner by a native Irish speaker and for Irish-language prayers to be offered in his chapel.<ref name=ODNB>Karl S. Bottigheimer and Vivienne Larminie, "Bedell, William (bap. 1572, d. 1642)", [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]], Oxford University Press, Sept 2004</ref>

[[File:IMG KilmoreCathederal0532.jpg|thumb|340px|The Cathedral Church of St Fethlimidh, Kilmore (Bedell Memorial Church)]]

===Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh===
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]] by the clergy, and personally undertook many of the duties generally discharged by the bishop's lay chancellor.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He is noted for commissioning the translation of the Bible into the Irish Language, which was undertaken by the Protestant Rector of Templeport parish, [[The Reverend|The Rev.]] [[Muircheartach Ó Cionga]]. He also chose to appoint only Irish speakers to parishes.

In 1633, he resigned the [[Bishop of Ardagh|see of Ardagh]], retaining the more primitive [[Bishop of Kilmore|bishopric of Kilmore]], where he encountered opposition from Anglicans and Catholics alike for his practice of reaching out to and trying to evangelist the [[Gaels|native Irish]]. He was also determined to repair the neglected church buildings throughout the diocese, where, in 1638, he held a synod of all the [[Anglican clergy]] and officers within the diocese to discuss lax discipline. He was asked by the court of the Plantation Commission to "lay out" the town of [[Virginia, County Cavan|Virginia]] in the south of [[County Cavan]], after complaints from the Anglican residents there about local [[Anglo-Irish]] landlords' failure to build the town or provide a church for Anglican worship.

Bedell was a man of simple life, often walking miles on foot or travelling on horseback, travelling the dangerous byways. Bedell provided assistance to native Irish converts to [[Anglicanism]] and enable them to study for the ministry.

Bedell sided with the Catholics of Kilmore against the excess of Alan Cooke, the incumbent chancellor of the diocese. However, the church courts found that Cooke had legally acquired the right to become chancellor, and the Bishop was unable to remove him.

==Death==
Upon the outbreak of the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]], the local [[Irish clan]]s, led by the [[Chief of the Name|Chief]] of Clan O'Reilly, rose and took over control of the region. The O'Reillys, however, "gave comfortable words to the Bishop" and William Bedell's house at Kilmore in [[County Cavan]] was left untouched, became a refuge for those fleeing arrest by the clan. In the end, however, the O'Reillys demanded upon the dismissal of all who had taken shelter in his house, and on the bishop's refusal he was arrested and detained with some others on the nearby island castle of [[Lough Oughter]], [[Cloughoughter Castle]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He was detained for several weeks{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} and was released after signing a deposition and a remonstrance from his captors, "pleading on their behalf for graces from [[Charles I of England|King Charles]]." William Bedell was taken into the care of his friend Denis Sheridan but the sufferings of the Bishop's imprisonment had inflicted considerable damage. Shortly after his release Bedell died from his wounds and from exposure on 7 February 1642.

Bishop Bedell was granted the dignity by Clan O'Reilly of burial next to his wife Leah at Kilmore, where he received an honourable funeral in the presence of the Clan O'Reilly's leaders.

Bishop Bedell's earliest biography was written by Bishop [[Gilbert Burnet]] in 1685 and by his elder son (ed. [[T. W. Jones]], for the [[Camden Society]], 1872).<ref>Details of time in Venice in Wotton And His Worlds, 2004 by Gerald Curzon, see http://www.henrywotton.org.uk {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716233323/http://www.henrywotton.org.uk/ |date=16 July 2012 }}</ref> Bedell's Last Will and Testament is available through the UK National Archives.<ref>{{cite web |title=PROB 11/240/556: Will of William Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D774486 |website=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|National Archives]] |access-date=25 December 2021 |date=13 April 1654}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* Alexander Clogy, ''Memoir of the Life and Episcopate of Dr. William Bedell'' (London: Wertheim, Macintosh & Hunt, 1862). ([https://books.google.com/books?id=XuxeAAAAcAAJ Read at Google])
* ''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, New Series IV (1872) ([https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924062544436&seq=5 Read at Hathi Trust])
* ''Trasna na dTonnta or A Tale of Three Cities'' fictionalised biography by Christina Eastwood (Mothers' Companion Publications, 2017)
* Stefano Villani, ''Making Italy Anglican: Why the Book of Common Prayer Was Translated into Italian'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022)

==Notes==
{{More footnotes needed|date=May 2020}}
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Bedell, William|volume=3|page=616}}
* {{cite IrishBio|wstitle=Bedell, William}}

==External links==
*[http://www.dressage.net.au/tree/wbedell.pdf Descendant Chart]

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box
|before = [[William Temple (logician)|William Temple]]
|title = {{nowrap|[[List of Provosts of Trinity College Dublin|Provost of Trinity College Dublin]]}}
|years = 1627&ndash;1629 
|after = [[Robert Ussher]]
}}
{{s-rel|ie}}
{{succession box
|before = Thomas Moigne
|title = [[Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh]]
|years = 1629&ndash;1633
|after = Kilmore and [[Bishop of Ardagh|Ardagh]] separated
}}
{{succession box
|before = Thomas Moigne
|title = [[Bishop of Kilmore]]
|years = 1633&ndash;1642
|after = Robert Maxwell
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Bishops of Kilmore}}
{{Bishops of Kilmore and Ardagh}}
{{Provosts of Trinity College Dublin}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedell, William}}
[[Category:1571 births]]
[[Category:1642 deaths]]
[[Category:Anglican bishops of Kilmore]]
[[Category:Bishops of Kilmore and Ardagh]]
[[Category:Doctors of Divinity]]
[[Category:Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:People from Black Notley]]
[[Category:Provosts of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:16th-century English clergy]]
[[Category:16th-century English translators]]
[[Category:17th-century English Anglican priests]]
[[Category:17th-century English translators]]
[[Category:Translators of the Bible into Irish]]