a monafterial life, in which he lived very regularly, and fo died.

When Dr. Hall, the late Bishop of Norwich, came into England, he wrote to Mr. Wadsworth, (it is the first epistle in his printed decades,) to perfuade his return, or to fhew the reafon of his apoftafy. The letter feemed to have in it many sweet expreffions of love; and yet there was in it fome expreffion that was fo unpleasant to Mr. Wadfworth, that he chose rather to acquaint his old friend Mr. Bedel with his motives; by which means there paffed betwixt Mr. Bedel and Mr. Wadsworth divers letters, which be extant in print, and did well deferve it; for in them there feems to be a controverfy, not of religion only, but who fhould answer each other with moft love and meekness; which I mention the rather, because it too feldom falls out to be fo in a book-war.

There is yet a little more to be said of Mr. Bedel, for the greatest part of which the reader is referred to this following

letter

letter of Sir Henry Wotton's, written to our late King Charles the first :

"May it please Your moft Gracious Majefty, "Having been informed that certain "perfons have, by the good wishes of "the Archbishop of Armagh, been di"rected hither, with a moft humble pe"tition unto your Majefty, that you will "be pleased to make Mr. William Bedel "(now refident upon a fmall benefice in "Suffolk) Governor of your college at "Dublin, for the good of that fociety; "and myself being required to render "unto your Majefty fome teftimony of "the faid William Bedel, who was long "my chaplain at Venice, in the time of "my firft employment there, I am bound "in all confcience and truth (fo far as

your Majefty will vouchsafe to accept "my poor judgment) to affirm of him, "that I think hardly a fitter man for that "charge could have been propounded "unto your Majefty in your whole king"dom, for fingular erudition and piety, conformity to the rites of the church, 03

66

" and

"and zeal to advance the cause of God, "wherein his travels abroad were not ob"fcure in the time of the excommuni"cation of the Venetians.

"For it may please your Majesty to "know, that this is the man whom Padre "Paulo took, I may fay, into his very "foul, with whom he did communicate "the inwardeft thoughts of his heart; "from whom he profeffed to have re"ceived more knowledge in all divinity, "both fcholaftical and pofitive, than from "any that he had ever practifed in his "days; of which all the paffages were "well known to the King your father, "of moft blessed memory. And fo, with

your Majefty's good favour, I will end "this needlefs office; for the general "fame of his learning, his life, and Chrif❝tian temper, and those religious labours "which himself hath dedicated to your "Majefty, do better describe him than I am able.

"Your Majefty's

"Moft humble and faithful fervant,

"H. WOTTON."

Το

To this letter I fhall add this; that he was (to the great joy of Sir Henry Wotton) made governor of the faid college; and that, after a fair discharge of his duty and truft there, he was thence removed to be Bishop of Kilmore . In both which places his life was fo holy, as feemed to equal the primitive Chriftians for as they, fo he kept all the Ember-weeks, obferved (befides his private devotions) the canonical hours of prayer very ftrictly, and fo he did all the feafts and fast-days of his mother, the Church of England. To which I may add, that his patience and charity were both fuch as fhewed his affections were fet upon things that are above; for indeed his whole life brought forth the fruits of the fpirit; there being in him fuch a remarkable meeknefs, that as St. Paul advised his Timothy in the election of a bifhop, That be bave a good report of thofe that be without; fo had he: for thofe that were without, even those that in point of

a Aug. 1627.

b

Sept. 3, 1629.

04

c 1 Tim. iii. 7. reli

religion were of the Roman perfuafion, (of which there were very many in his diocese,) did yet (fuch is the power of vifible piety) ever look upon him with respect and reverence, and teftified it by a concealing and safe protecting him from death in the late horrid rebellion in Ireland, when the fury of the wild Irish knew no distinction of perfons; and yet there and then he was protected and cherished by thofe of a contrary perfuafion; and there and then he died, not by violence or misusage, but by grief in a quiet prifon (1629). And with him was loft many of his learned writings, which were thought worthy of preservation; and amongst the rest was loft the Bible, which by many years labour, and conference, and study, he had translated into the Irish tongue, with an intent to have printed it for public use.

More might be faid of Mr. Bedel, who, I told the reader, was Sir Henry Wotton's first chaplain; and much of his fecond chaplain, Isaac Bargrave, Doctor in Divinity, and the late learned and hofpitable

Dean