William Bedell

The Rt. Rev. William Bedell, D.D. (Irish: Uilliam Beidil; 1571 – 7 February 1642), was an Anglican churchman who served as Lord Bishop of Kilmore became a martyr of the Reformation during the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

He was born at Black Notley in Essex, and educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was a pupil of William Perkins. 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, theologian, printer, and Missionary to the faithful leaving under Roman Catholic tyranny of the Inquisition.

He translated the Book of Common Prayer into Italian, and was on terms of close friendship with the Italian patriot, and supporter of the Reformation, Paolo Sarpi. He wrote a series of sermons with Fulgenzio Micanzio, Sarpi's disciple. 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.