BEDYLL, THOMAS

Clerk of Privy Council; b. unknown; d. London?, Sept. 1537. He received his education at New College, Oxford, and became secretary to William warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, remaining in his service until the archbishop's death in August of 1532. He was then appointed clerk of the Privy Council. As such, he was engaged in securing the support of Oxford University for henry viii's proposed divorce from catherine of ara gon. When in May of 1533, Archbishop cranmer declared the marriage invalid, Bedyll, who was present, wrote Thomas cromwell expressing his approval of the decision and assuring him that it would "please the King's Grace very well." Throughout the next two years, he was occupied in administering the oath supporting the royal supremacy, in various religious communities. In 1536, after the trials of John fisher and Thomas more, in which he had participated, Bedyll made a series of visits to confiscated monastery lands and was then appointed to a committee considering the validity of certain papal bulls. Bedyll's only surviving works are his letters that, despite his later change of allegiance, show him to have been on moderately friendly terms with More and eras mus in his youth.

Bibliography: p. hughes, The Reformation in England (New York 1963). c. t. martin, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 2:120–121. The Epistles of Erasmus, ed. f. m. nichols, 3 v. (New York 1962).

[j. g. dwyer]