The name 'Bedeman' occurs more than once as 'Bedenam' or 'Bedmond' (Boase, 194); in the older editions of Foxe it is given as 'Redman.' Other documents style him 'Stevine' ('Stevyn' or 'Stephen'), the fuller description being 'Laurentius Stephyn, alias dict. Bedeman' (Wilkins, iii. 168).
[Boase's Register of Exeter College (Oxford, 1879); Fasciculi Zizaniorum, pp. 273-5, 309-11. ed. Shirley, Rolls Series; Wilkins's Concil. Magn. Brit. iii. 157-65. 168; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of the Univ. of Oxford, i. 509 sq., ed. Gutch.]
BEDERIC or DE BURY, HENRY
(fl. 1380), theologian, was born at Bury, in Suffolk, from which place he derived his surname. Bale, whose account seems to have been followed both by Pamphilus and Pits, tells us that he embraced the monastic life very early by entering the Augustinian foundation at Clare, in Suffolk,
sixteen miles south of Bury St. Edmunds, as
the bent of his whole mind was towards
letters. For the sake of increasing his facilities for study, we are told that he visited the most renowned resorts of the learned in England, a phrase which Tanner translates more definitely into several years' residence at Oxford and Cambridge. He then passed on to the Sorbonne divinity schools at Paris, where, according to Pits, after long studies and almost daily exercises in the schools, he took his doctor's degree. On his return to England he was appointed provincial of his whole order for this country, and Pits enumerates his many qualifications for this office — his uprightness of life and prudence in
business. Bale praises his keen intellect and
his readiness in public preaching ('declamandas e suggesto conciones'), but qualifies his admiration by adding that this was done in papist fashion. The chief works of this
writer, as enumerated by the last-mentioned
biographer, are: 'Lectures on the Sentences of Peter Lombard,' certain 'Quæstiones Theologiæ' 'Sermones de Beatâ Virgine,' and
'Sermones per Annum.' Bandellus, according to Bale, quotes him as an authority for
maintaining that the Virgin Mary was conceived in original sin. Bale and Pits state that John Bederic flourished about 1380; but Pamphilus gives an account of his life
under the year 1373.
[Bale, 481; Pamphili Chronica Ordinis Frat. Eremit. S. August. 61; Pits, 526; Tanner.]
BEDFORD, Countess of (d. 1627).
[See Russell, Lucy.]
BEDFORD, Duke of (d. 1435). [See
Plantagenet, John.]
BEDFORD, Dukes and Earls of. [See
Russell.]
BEDFORD, ARTHUR (1668–1745),
miscellaneous writer, was born at Tiddenham
in Gloucestershire 8 Sept. 1668. At the age
of sixteen he proceeded to Brasenose College,
Oxford, graduated B.A. in February 1687-8, M.A. in July 1691, and was ordained in 1688. After acting as curate to Dr. Read of St. Nicholas Church, Bristol, he was presented by the corporation of that town to the Temple Church in 1692 (in Barrett s
'History of Bristol' 1672 is an obvious error
for 1692). He remained there for eight years, and was presented by Joseph Langton to the private living of Newton St. Loe in Somerset (Preface to Scripture Chron. pp. 1, 2).
Here Bedford spent twenty-four years, was
made chaplain to Wriothesly, Duke of Bedford, and occupied himself with many important questions. He joined Collier and the other pamphleteers in their crusade against the stage, and issued a series of tracts, of which one became notorious, viz.,
'A Serious Remonstrance in behalf of the
Christian Religion against the Horrid Blasphemies and Impieties which are still used
in the English Playhouses' (1719). This
curious work cites a number of scripture
texts travestied, and 7,000 immoral sentiments collected from the English dramatists,
especially those of the last four years. The
great variety of the quotations shows that
the author had carefully studied the dramatists he condemned. Bedford also gave his attention to church music; his aim was to promote a purer and simpler style of religious music. He published 'The Temple
Musick' (Bristol, 1706), 'The Great Abuses of Music' (1711), and 'The Excellency of Divine Music' (1733). Soon after removing to Newton he projected a work on chronology, on a suggestion in the preface to Archbishop Ussher's 'Annals' that astronomy might simplify ancient chronology, but he suppressed his papers for the time on hearing that Sir Isaac Newton promised a work on the same
subject. In 1724 he was appointed chaplain
to the hospital of the Haberdashers' Company
at Hoxton, and he resumed the subject of chronology by publishing in 1728 'Animadversions on Sir I. Newton's book entitled
"The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms
amended,"' and again in 1741 'Scripture
Chronology demonstrated by Astronomical
Considerations.' These theories were fully
discussed in the 'Republick of Letters' (ii.,
iii., vi.). Bedford's views were afterwards
superseded by the work of Hales.
In 1730 Bedford returned to the attack
