ay PREFACE. ON N whichever side we elect to stand in regard to the controversies of the seventeenth century, we must feel, I think, that the men who took part in them were sincere. Theological definitions and dogmatic refinements which have now for most only an academic interest, were to them matters of life and death. Questions of Church Government, long ago settled, or at any rate indefinitely postponed, loomed so large in the eyes of the men of that time, that they became a chief element in the storm which was soon to overwhelm for a while both throne and Church; and the stern reality of the struggle does something to excuse the violent tone of much of the controversial writing of the day. The subject of these memoirs lived to see the storm begin in Scotland though not its final outburst in England: he was a witness of the evils in their acutest form which caused Ireland to be the scene of an outbreak that did much to precipitate the upheaval in England. Through all his life he had been busily engaged in trying to find a means of reconciling contending views in Theology. His standpoint was that of the Student and Scholar, always hoping against hope that some solution might be found which would satisfy all reasonable men. But there comes a period in controversy when reason and compromise cease to be of avail. Thus it happened that before he had been many months in his grave all the laborious arguments 949981 and suggestions of Bedell were out of date. Inter arma silet ratio. Still they have an historical interest: nor can it ever be too late to admire learning and devotion to truth, particularly when, as in Bedell's case, they are joined with courage and charity. He exercised a singular fascination over those with whom he came in contact. 'This is the man'-says Sir H. Wotton whom Padre Paulo took, I may say, into his very soul, with whom he did communicate the inwardest thoughts of his heart, from whom he professed to have received more knowledge in all Divinity, both scholastical and positive, than from any that he had ever practised in his days.' And though till within a few months of his death he was not brought into any circumstances of striking difficulty to test his character, yet he was for many years in positions which gave him the opportunity of shewing his sterling qualities, and of sufficient importance to make it worth our while to learn what manner of man he was. October 1902 |