ficed in one diocese, and all most dear and entire friends. But in Spain Mr. Wadsworth' met with temptations, or reasons, fuch as were so powerful as to perfuade him (who of the three was formerly obferved to be the most averfe to that religion that calls itself Catholic) to difclaim himself a member of the church of England, and declare himself for the church of Rome; difcharging himself of his attendance on the ambaffador, and betaking himself to a monaftic 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 reason of his apoftacy. The letter seemed to have in it many sweet expreffions of love; and yet there was in it fome expreffion, that was fo unpleasant to Mr. Wadsworth, that he rather' chofe 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 seems to be a controverfy, not of religion only, but who should answer each other with most love and meekness. Which I mention the rather, because it too feldom falls out to be fo in a book war.

There

Mr. James Waddefworth, who died a penfioner of the holy inquifition in Seville, was edu cated at Emanuel College in Cambridge, being a fellow-ftudent and a chamber-fellow with Mr. Bedel. They were also beneficed in the fame diocese; and they both left England at the fame time. When Sir Charles Cornwallis, Treafurer to Henry Prince of Wales, went ambaffador to Spain, he took with him Mr. Waddefworth as his chaplain, who was prevailed on to change his religion, and entirely to abandon his native country, and was afterward appointed to teach the Infanta the English tongue, when the match betwixt Prince Charles and her was believed to be concluded. "It appears," fays Bishop Burnet," as if in these two, Mr. Bedei "and Mr. Waddefworth, those words of our Saviour had been to be verified-There fhall be two "in one bed, the one fhall be taken and the other left. For as the one of thefe was wrought on to " forsake his religion, the other was very near the being an inftrument of a great and happy "change in the Republic of Venice."

The collection of these letters forms a very valuable appendix to Bishop Burnet's Life of Bishop Bedel. Those which paffed between Mr. Bedel and Mr. Waddefworth, on the converfion of the latter to Popery, difcover that mildnefs and benignity of temper on the part of the former, which fhould be preferved in all controverfies. On the contrary, the acrimony and harfhnefs of Mr. Jofeph Hall, writing on the fame fubject, are truly reprehenfible.

There is yet a little more to be faid of Mr. Bedel; for the greatest part of which the reader is referred to this following letter of Sir Henry Wotton's, written to our late King Charles I.

66

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY,

"HAVING been informed that certain perfons have, by the good wishes "of the Archbishop of Armagh, been directed hither with a most humble petition 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 re"quired 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 em"ployment there, I am bound in all confcience and truth (fo far as your "Majefty will vouchfafe to accept my poor judgment) to affirm of him, "that I think hardly a fitter man for that charge could have been pro"pounded unto your Majefty in your whole kingdom for fingular erudi❝tion and piety, conformity to the rites of the church, and zeal to advance "the cause of God; wherein his travels abroad were not obfcure in the "time of the excommunication of the Venetians.

"For it may please your Majefty to know, that this is the man whom "Padre Paulo took, I may say, into his very foul; with whom he did commu"nicate the inwardeft thoughts of his heart; from whom he professed to have "received more knowledge in all divinity, both fcholaftical and positive, than "from any that he had ever practised in his days: of which all the paffages "were well known to the king your father, of moft bleffed memory. "And fo, with your Majesty's good favour, I will end this needlefs office; "for the general fame of his learning, his life and Christian temper, and "thofe religious labours which himself hath dedicated to your Majesty, do "better defcribe him than I am able.

"Your Majesty's moft humble and faithful fervant,

"H. WOTTON."

Mr. Bedel had been prefented by Sir Thomas Jermyn to the living of Horingsbeath, in Suffolk.

To this letter I fhall add this, that he was, to the great joy of Sir Henry Wotton, made Governor of the faid college (August 1627); and that after a fair discharge of his duty and truft there, he was thence removed to be Bishop of Kilmore (September 3, 1629). 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 faftdays of his mother, the Church of England. To which I may add, that his patience and charity were both such as shewed his affections were fet upon things that are above;" for indeed his whole life brought forth the "fruits "of the spirit ;" there being in him such a remarkable meekness that, as St. Paul advised his Timothy in the election of a bishop, 1 Tim. iii. 7. "That he have a good report of those that be without;" fo had he: For those that were without, even those that in point of 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 fafe protecting him from death in the late horrid rebellion in Ireland, when the fury of the wild Irish knew no diftinction 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 mifufage, but by grief in a quiet prifon (1629). And with him was loft many of his learned writings, which were thought worthy of prefervation; and among the reft was loft the Bible, which by many years' labour, and conference, and study, he had tranflated into the Irish tongue', with an intent to have it printed for public use.

e Burnet's Life of Bedel, p. 180, 209.

More

This zealous prelate, defirous that the free ufe of the Scriptures fhould diffeminate a knowledge of the true religion among the Irish, selected one King, a convert from Popery, who was supposed to be the most elegant writer of his native language then alive, whether in profe or verfe. Though he was much advanced in years, the Bishop thought him not only capable of undertaking an Irifh verfion of the Bible, but qualified for a higher character: He ordained him, gave him a benefice in his own diocese, and employed him in this ufeful work, directing him to found his verfion on the English tranflation. The good Bishop revised the whole: And it was his ufual cuftom after dinner and fupper to read over a chapter, and to compare it with the original Hebrew, the LXXII, and Diodati's Italian verfion. See Burnet's "Life of Bishop Bedel," p. 118, 119.

More might be faid of Mr. Bedel, who, I told the reader, was Sir Henry Wotton's firft chaplain, and much of his fecond chaplain Ifaac Bargrave", Doctor in Divinity, and the late learned and hofpitable Dean of Canterbury; as alfo of the merits of many others that had the happinefs to attend Sir Henry in his foreign employments: But the reader may think that in this digreffion I have already carried him too far from Eton college; and therefore I fhall lead him back as gently and as orderly as I may to that place, for a further conference concerning Sir Henry Wotton.

Sir Henry Wotton had propofed to himself, before he entered into his collegiate life, to write the life of Martin Luther", and in it the history of the reformation as it was carried on in Germany. For the doing of which he had many advantages by his several embassies into thofe parts, and his intereft in the several princes of the empire: By whose means he had accefs to the records of all the Hans towns, and the knowledge of many fecret paffages that fell not under common view; and in these he had made a happy progress, as is well known to his worthy friend Dr. Duppa, the late Reverend Bishop of Salisbury. But in the midft of this defign, his late Majefty, King Charles I. that knew the value of Sir Henry Wotton's pen, did, by a perfuafive loving violence, to which may be added a promise of five hundred pounds a year, force him to lay Luther afide, and betake himself to write the history of England: In which he proceeded to write some fhort characters of a few kings, as a foundation upon which he meant to build; but for the prefent meant to be more large in the ftory of Henry VI. the founder of that college, in which he then enjoyed all the worldly happinefs,

Of this excellent divine, and the cruel treatment he and his family received from Colonel Sandys, fee Mr. Todd's " Deans of Canterbury," p. 100. His learning and his hofpitality are particularly noticed in the infcription on his monument: "Amano ingenio pietatem et eru"ditionem ornavit;-gentibus exteris domique nobilibus gratiffimus hofpes hofpitio genero"fiflimo repofuit."

A life of this reformer, written with candour and impartiality, has long been a defideratum in the republic of letters. That which is extant in the English language, entitled "The Life "and Death of Dr. Marter, the Paffages whereof have bin taken out of his owne and other "godly and moft learned Men's Writings who lived in his time, 1 Theff. v. 12, 13," was printed in 1641, and is a mere literal tranflation from Melchior Adam.

nefs of his present being. But Sir Henry died in the midst of this undertaking; and the footsteps of his labours are not recoverable by a more than common diligence'.

This is fome account both of his inclination, and the employment both of his time in the college, where he feemed to have his youth renewed by a continual converfation with that learned fociety, and a daily recourfe of other friends of choiceft breeding and parts; by which that great bleffing of a cheerful heart was ftill maintained: He being always free, even to the last of his days, from that peevishness which usually attends age.

And yet his mirth was fometimes damped was fometimes damped by the rememberance of divers old debts, partly contracted in his foreign employments; for which his just arrears due from the King would have made fatisfaction. But being ftill delayed with court-promises, and finding fome decays of health, he did, about two years before his death, out of à Christian defire, that none fhould be a lofer by him, make his Laft Will. Concerning which, a doubt ftill remains, namely, whether it dif covered more holy wit, or confcionable policy? But there is no doubt, but that his chief design was a Christian endeavour that his debts might be fatisfied.

And that it may remain as fuch a teftimony, and a legacy to those that loved him, I shall here impart it to the reader, as it was found written with his own hand.

E e

iOf this hiftorical work a very small fragment is extant, written in the Latin language, with great elegance, and entitled "Henrici VI. Angliæ et Galliarum Regis, Hiberniæ "Domini, Etonensis ad Tamefin Collegii Conditoris vita et exceffus." Upon the King's return from Scotland, in 1633, Sir Henry Wotton wrote a Latin panegyric, printed in the "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ," with this title, "Ad Regem e Scotiâ reducem Henrici Wotton "Plaufus et Vota."

"Sir Henry Wotton is at this time under arreft for three hundred pounds, upon execu tion, and lies by it. He was taken coming from the Lord Treafurer's, foliciting a debt of four thousand pounds, due to him from the King." (Mr. Garrard to the Lord Deputy. Strafford's Letters, Vol. I. p. 338.)