ADVANCED TO A BISHOPRIC. 239 CHAPTER II. PROVOST OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN.- -BISHOP OF The pastors should, like watchmen, still be press'd WHEN Mr. Bedell entered this new sphere of usefulness, he took some time to look around him, to see with what duties his office was charged, and amongst what manner of people it was to be exercised. While he was thus quietly studying the statutes of the university, and the characters of the Irish, without taking any very bold or decided steps, but rather walking cautiously, he was suspected of being either weak or indolent; and it began to be feared that the university laboured under the disadvantage of having an inactive governor. It came to his knowledge, that even archbishop Usher participated in these apprehensions: and, therefore, on his return to England for the purpose of removing his family to Dublin, he wrote to the Archbishop, tendering his resignation of this new preferment. The thought of leaving a parish in which he had spent so many happy years, was painful to him, and he would have preferred to pass the residue of his days amongst the flock which he had so faithfully tended. But the archbishop replied in terms of great encouragement, which fixed his determination: and he wrote to express his willingness to retain the provostship to which he had been appointed. "My chief fear, in truth," he said, "was, and is, lest I should be unfit and unprofitable in that place; in which case, if I might have a lawful and honest retreat, I think no wise man could blame me to retain it; especially having understood that your grace, whose authority I chiefly followed at the first, did, from your own judgment, and that of other wise men, so truly pronounce of me that I was a weak man. Now that I have received your letters, so full of life and encouragement, it puts some more life in me.” He therefore resigned his benefice, and removed his family into Ireland, where he now felt himself prepared for a vigorous discharge of his duties. He corrected abuses, issued new regulations where he saw occasion, and adopted prudent measures for the promotion and encouragement of learning. Alive to the importance of making the universities seminaries of religion, as well as of science and letters, he applied himself with particular attention to the spiritual improvement of the students, whom he catechised once a-week, and addressed in appropriate sermons every Sunday. A course of lectures, which he delivered upon the church catechism, was so highly esteemed as a sound exposition of doctrine and duty, that even the notes taken by some of his hearers were much sought after, and accounted of great value. In this sphere of useful exertion, his services were of short duration. Scarcely two years had elapsed before he was advanced to the bishopric of Kilmore and Ardagh, in the province of Ulster. He owed this appointment, which took place in the year 1629, to the regard and influence of his friend, sir Thomas Jermyn. The official announcement of his promotion conveyed to him, in the king's name, an honourable acknowledgment of his services in the government of the college. And as we were pleased, [so this document declared,] by our former gracious letters, to establish the said William Bedell, by our royal authority, in the provostship of the said college of the blessed Trinity, near Dublin, where we are informed that by his care and good government, there hath been wrought great reformation, to our singular contentment; so STATE OF HIS DIOCESE. 241 we purpose to continue our care of the society, being the principal nursery of religion and learning in that our realm; and to recommend unto the college some such person from whom we may expect the like worthy effects, for their good, as we and they have found from Mr. Bedell. He had entered the fifty-ninth year of his age when he undertook the charge of ruling the church for Christ's sake. But he was in the enjoyment of the full vigour of his mind, and great strength of constitution; and he resolved at once to devote himself to the complete discharge of his ministry, in the spirit of those primitive bishops who shone like lights in the world. If he should meet with opposition in the performance of his duties, he was prepared to contend against it manfully, but with the temper of a christian. When he arrived in his diocese, he found it in such disorder that he scarcely knew where to commence his attempts at reformation. The revenues of the bishopric had been so wasted that they scarcely afforded him a maintenance; his cathedral at Ardagh was in ruins; the livings within his jurisdiction were occupied by a very small number of clergymen; and the most worthy incumbents, who were but seven or eight in each diocese, were Englishmen, and unable to minister in the language of the people. Of these melancholy circumstances he gave an account in the following letter to archbishop Laud: Right Reverend Father, my honourable good Lord,-Since my coming to this place, which was a little before Michaelmas, (till which time the settling of the state of the college, and my lord primate's visitation, deferred my consecration,) I have not been unmindful of your lordship's commands to advertise you, as my experience should inform me, of the state of the church; which I shall now the better do, because I have been about my dioceses, and can set down, out of my knowledge and view, what I shall relate. And shortly to speak much ill matter in a few words, it is very miserable. The cathedral church of Ardagh, one of the most ancient. in Ireland, and said to be built by St. Patrick, together with VOL. II. R the bishop's house there, down to the ground. The church here, built, but without bell or steeple, font or chalice. The parish churches all in a manner ruined, and unroofed and unrepaired. The people, saving a few British planters here and there (which are not the tenth part of the remnant), obstinate recusants*. A popish clergy, more numerous by far than we, and in full exercise of all jurisdiction ecclesiastical by their vicar-general and officials; who are so confident, that they excommunicate those that come to our courts, even in matrimonial causes; which affront hath been offered to myself by the popish primate's vicar-general; for which I have begun a process against him. Their primate himself lives in my parish, within two miles of my house; the bishop in another part of my diocese, further off. Every parish hath its priest; and some, two or three a-piece; and so their masshouses also; in some places, mass is said in the churches. Friars there are in divers places, who go about, though not in their habit, and, by their importunate begging, impoverish the people; who, indeed, are generally very poor, as from that cause, so from their paying double tithes, to their own clergy and ours, from the dearth of corn, and the death of their cattle these late years, with the contributions to their soldiers and their agents; and (which they forget not to reckon among other causes,) the oppression of the court ecclesiastical, which in very truth, my lord, I cannot excuse, and do seek to reform. For our own, there are seven or eight ministers in each diocese of good sufficiency; and (which is no small cause of the continuance of the people in popery still,) English which have not the tongue of the people, nor can perform any divine offices, or converse with them; and which hold, many of them, two or three, four, or more vicarages a-piece; even the clerkships themselves are, in like manner, conferred upon the English; and sometimes two or three, or more, upon one man, and ordinarily bought and sold, or let to farm. His majesty is now, with the greatest part of the country, as to their hearts and consciences, king, but at the pope's discretion. Kilmore, April 1, 1630 WILL. KILMORE AND ARDAGH. * Refusers of the protestant doctrines. STATE OF HIS DIOCESE. 243 The wise lord Bacon remarks, that "a good husbandman is ever pruning in his vineyard or his field, not unseasonably indeed, not unskilfully, but lightly; he findeth ever somewhat to do." The truth of this observation was exemplified in the course pursued by bishop Bedell, and the first object to which he applied the pruning-knife was the system of pluralities; respecting the evils of which, in principle and practice, he thus stated his views to archbishop Usher by letter: ...... Plainly I do thus think, that of all of the diseases of the church in these times, next to the corruption of our [ecclesiastical] courts, this of pluralities is the most deadly and pestilent, especially when those are instituted into charges ecclesiastical, who, were they never so willing, yet, for the want of the language of the people, are unable to discharge them.. Let the thing itself speak. Whence flow the ignorance of the people, the neglect of God's worship, and defrauding the poor of the remains of dedicated things, the ruin of the mansion-houses of the ministers, the desolation of churches, the swallowing up of parishes by the farmers of them, but from this fountain? There may be cause, no doubt, why sometimes, in some place, and to some man, many churches may be committed; but now that (as appears by the late certificates) there are, besides the titular primate and bishop, of priests in the diocese of Kilmore and Ardagh sixty-six, of ministers and curates but thirty-two, (of which number also three whose wives come not to church,) in this so great odds as the adversaries have of us in number, (to omit the advantage of the language, the possession of people's hearts, the countenancing of the nobility and gentry,) is it a time to commit many churches to one man? When his plans of proceeding were sufficiently matured, he called a meeting of his clergy, in the town of Cavan; and, as A. C. describes, "after sermon, (wherein, out of the Scriptures and antiquity, having set before them with good evidence and demonstration of God's Spirit, the institution, nature, work, and end of the ministry of the gospel,) he propounds unto them, as a father to his children, or as a brother to his brethren, like another |