100 LIFE AND DEATH CIF'WILLIAM BEDELL. 1633-4, to Dr. Samuel Warde,* Bishop Bedell begs to be re- membered to Dr. Chaderton and Dr. Sancroft, the only two besides Dr. Samuel Warde he had knowledge of while he lived at Cam- bridge—that is, the only two then at Cambridge. Dr. Sancroft died at Bury St. Edmund's in 1637. The Dr. William Sancroft who was afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury was nephew of the preceding. Of Emmanuel College, he graduated M.A. 1641, became Fellow 1642, graduated B.D. 1648, and D.D. 1653. He was elected Master of Emmanuel College, August 14, 1662, in room of Dr. William Dillingham. Dr. Sancroft was successively Dean of York, Dean of St. Paul's, and Archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of the Seven Prelates put on their trial by King James II.; but, after the Revolution of 1688, refusing to take the oaths to William and Mary, he was deprived. He now retired to Fressingfield his native parish, where he died and was buried in 1693. Archbishop Sancroft, as shown in the preface, contemplated at one time the publication of the Life and Works of Bishop Bedell. For this purpose he obtained the MS. of the text here printed from Capt. Ambrose Bedell, and from Mr. Clogie a copy of his narrative. The Archbishop probably relinquished his intention on the ap- pearance of Burnet's "Life." CHAPTER III. RESIDENCE IN VENICE.—SIR HENRY WOTTON.—FATHER PAULO. On the 23rd of January, 1601-2, Mr. Bedell was licensed as a preacher in the Diocese of Norwich, having been appointed suc- cessor to the Rev. George Estye (author of an Exposition of the Creed and Ten Commandments) at St. Mary's, Bury St. Edmund's. * Tanner MS. lxxi. 189, Bodleian Library. KESIDENCE IN VENICE. 101 After being five years resident at this place he received an in- vitation to go to Venice in the capacity of chaplain to the English Embassy there. Sir Henry Wotton the ambassador had been, in June 1604, accredited by King James to the Serene Republic for the purpose of supporting the Signiory in heart and courage against the Pope (Leo XI.) and that which they more feared—the power of Spain by which he was backed. In May 1605, Camillo Borghese was elected Pope, in succession to Leo XL, and took the title of Paulo V. In about four months after, a quarrel with the Republic of Venice broke out, on account of various grievances which it was alleged the Church suffered at the hands of the Venetians; the crowning grievance being that the Signiory resisted the demand of the Court of Rome to deliver up to its authority two Ecclesiastics who had been committed to prison by the Civil Power in Venice for flagrant crimes. The dispute at last culminated in the Interdict which the Pope issued against Venice on the 17th of April, 1606. Nothing daunted, however, the Signiory ordered that no regard should be paid to the excommunication, and gave notice by a proclamation, dated April 28, 1606, " That whosoever hath received from Rome any copie of a Papal Interdict published there, as well against the law of God as against the honour of this Commonwealth, shall presently render it unto the Councill of X, uppon payne of death."* At the same time the Jesuits, Theatines, and Capuchins, because they stood up as violent partisans of the Pope against the Republic, were expelled from the country. Isaak Walton in his Life of Sir Henry Wotton says, that Sir Henry, on being appointed to the Venetian Embassy, " left England nobly accompanied through France to Venice by gentlemen of the best families and breeding that this Nation afforded; they were too * Besides this, which is quoted from a letter of Sir Henry Wotton, there is, among the Venetian State Papers in the Public Record Office, a printed reply of the Council of Ten to the Pope's Interdict. 102 LIFE AND DEATH OF WILLIAM BEDELL. many to name, but these two for following reasons may not be omitted, Sir Albertus Morton, his nephew, who went his secretary, and William Bedell, a man of choice learning and sanctified wisdom, who went his chaplain." That Bedell accompanied Sir Henry Wotton to Venice in 1604 is however a mistake, which has been repeated in the published biographies of Bedell; and appeared even in the text, but by an alteration of three or four words I have corrected it. The fact is that Mr. Bedell only joined Sir Henry Wotton at Venice in 1607, in succession to the Rev. Nathaniel Fletcher (son of Dr. Richard Fletcher, who was Bishop of London from 1594 till his death in 1596), who had returned to England in the latter end of September 1606.* That this was really the time when Bedell first went to Venice appears from several documents, which, as they illustrate our subject in various ways, I shall here set down in abstract: 1°. In a post- script to a letter (Venetian State Papers in the Public Record Office) dated Venice the 23rd of February 1606-7, to the Earl of Salisbury, Sir Henry Wotton begs his " Lordship's paSport and in- couragement for one Mr. Beadle whom I shall be very glad to have with me in the place of Chapelan, because I heare very singular commendation of his good gifts and discreet behaviour. It may therefore please yr Lo? (when he shall take the boldnesse to present himself before you) to sett forward also this piece of God's service."f 2°. Among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, there is a letter from Mr. Bedell to Dr. Samuel Warde, referring to preparations for his journey to Venice, and begging Dr. Warde to inquire of Mr. Fletcher, Sir Henry Wotton's previous chaplain, by what route he returned from Venice.^ 3°. In * See a note in the handwriting of Dr. Birch on a fly-leaf of. the copy of Burnet's Life of Bishop Bedell, 1692, in the British Museum. f See also the MS. note in Burnet's Life of Bedell 1692, in the British Museum, just referred to. J It does not appear what answer Bedell received to this inquiry; nor by what route Bedell travelled to Venice, beyond the remark in the text that his passage RESIDENCE IN VENICE. 103 the letter which Bedell wrote to Mr. Adam Newton, lay Dean of Durham, and Preceptor of Henry Prince of Wales, dated Venice, " New year's day in our own stile 1607," being January 1, 1608, there is an indication of the date of his arrival in Venice, thus :—Bedell writes as if it was his first letter to Mr. Newton from Venice, and that he had been already sqme months in that city. He states that peace between Rome and Venice was concluded a few days before his arrival, by the revocation, on the 21st of April, 1607, of the interdict * which the Pope had fulminated against Venice on the 17th of April 1606. Then again Bedell states that the attempt to assassinate Father Paulo was not long after the first interview he had with him. The attempt to assassinate Paulo was made on the 5th of October, 1607, and, as Bedell's first interview with the Father did not take place until after Bedell had been already some time resident in Venice, we may conclude that the date of Bedell's arrival in that city was early in the summer of 1607. The letter last quoted from is one of a correspondence between Mr. Bedell when in Venice and Mr. Adam Newton.f This cor- respondence has been published under the following title : " Some original letters of Bishop Bedell concerning the steps taken toward a Reformation of religion at Venice, upon occasion of the quarrel over the Alps was especially difficult. Apropos of this it may here be stated that Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter (Sir Ralph Winwood's Memorials, ut supra, vol. ii.) dated July 19, 1604 (from Dover on his way to Venice), mentions that the route he was going to take was first to Boulogne then to Amiens, and so through Lorraine to Strasburg and thence by Augsburg. In returning to England in 1610 Sir Henry, "we shall see, came by Lombardy and France, taking Paris in his way. * Among the Venetian State Papers in the Public Record Office, there are two or three copies of the printed circular, dated April 21, 1607, which the Senate sent to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Republic, announcing the conclusion of peace with the Pope. f Newton was a native of Scotland, and was made Dean of Durham in 1606 by King James, which dignity, though not in Orders, he held till 1620, when he resigned it, and was made a Baronet. Newton married Dorothy, daughter of Sir 104 LIFE AND DEATH OF WILLIAM BEDELL. between that State and the Pope Paul V. Dublin, 1742, edited by E. Hudson." The letters were printed from copies which had been supplied by Bedell to Archbishop Ussher.* The originals of the two principal letters, as received from Venice by Mr. Adam Newton, are contained in Volume 90 of the Lansdowne MSS., Articles 54 and 66, in the British Museum. A copy of Bedell's signature, traced from Letter II. which was written in the beginning of the year 1608-9, is here given: In a letter from Venice to Dr. Samuel Warde, " dated St. Stephen's Day, in your account," 1607, Bedell, referring to the attempt made to assassinate Father Paulo, says, " I hope this accident will awake him (Paulo) a little more, and put some more spirit in him, which is his only want.