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rerum", "De temporibus", "De temporum ratione", dealing with science as it was then understood and especially with chronologj', are only accessible in the unsatisfactor3' texts of the earlier editors and Giles. Beyond the metrical life of St. Cuthbert and some verses incorporated in the "Ecclesiastical History" we do not possess much poetry that can be assigned to Bede with confidence, but, lilvs other scholars of his age, he certainly -svTote a good deal of verse. He himself mentions his "book of hjTnns" composed in different metres or rhythms. So Alcuin says of him: Plurima rersifico cccinit quoqiie carmina plcctro. It is possible that the shorter of the two metrical cal- endars printed among his works is genuine. The Penitential ascrilied to Bede, though accepted as genuine by Haddan and Stubbs and Wasserschleben, is probably not his (Plumraer, I, 157).

Venerable Bede is the earliest witness of pure Gre- gorian tradition in England. His worlds "Musica theoretica" and "Do arte Metrica" (Migne, XC) are found especially valuable by present-day scholars engaged in the study of the primitive form of the chant.

GoDET in Diet, de thiol, cath.: Plaink in Diet, de la Bible. l\ Wkrner in Kirchenlex.. II; Hunt in Diet. Nat. Biog.; Stdbbs in Diet. Christ. Biog.: Plimmer. Bede's Eecles. Hist. (Oxford, 1S96), Introd.; Gehle, De V. Beda- vita et seriptis (Levden, 1S3S); Werner, Beda d. Ehrwiirdige u. s. Zeit (Vienna, 1881); Pl.\!Ne in Revue Anglo-Romaine (189G), III, 49-96; Ebert, Gesch. der Lilt, des Mittelalters (Leipzig, 1SS9), I; M.\yor and LcMBY, Bede's Eecles. Hist. (Cambridge, 1879): Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church (London, 1848); Morin in Re\'ue Bene- dictine, IX. 121; XI, 472; Roger, L'enseignement des lettres elassiques (Paris, 1905). 304-310; Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship (Cambridge. 1903). 451-454; Rawnslet, The Venerable Bede (Sunderland, 1903). For further bibl. cf.. Chevalier, Repertoire, Bio-bibl. (Paris. 1905); Peter Wagner, Einfiihrung in die gregorianischen Mclodien (Fribourg, Switzer- land, 1900); GIET.M.ANN, Kirchenmusifcatisches Jahrbitch (Ratis- bon, 1905).

Herbert Thurston.

Bedford, Gunning S.. medical WTiter and teacher, b. at Baltimore, Maryland, V. S. A., of a distinguished family in 1S06; d. in New York, 5 September, 1870. He was a nephew and namesake of Gunning Bedford, first Attorney-General of Delaware and one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States, who was aide-de-camp to General Washington and was appointed bj^ him U. S. Judge for the District of Delaware. Dr. Bedford gradtiated in 1825 at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, and took his degree in medicine from Rutgers College. New York. He spent two years in foreign study and in 1833, when only twenty-six years of age, became professor of obstetrics in Charleston Medical College. From here he accepted a professorship in the Alba.ij' Medical College. He went to New- York in 1836 and four years later founded the Vm- versity Medical College, which became a great suc- cess. In connexion with it he established an obstet- rical clinic for those too poor to pay a doctor's fee. This was the first of its kind in the country and was of great service to the poor and to medical science. Dr. Bedford continued to teach until his health broke down in 1862 and he died in 1870. His funeral panegjTic was preached by Archbishop McCloskey who had been his fellow student at Mount St. Mary's. Two books written by him, "Diseases of Women" and "Practice of Obstetrics" went through many editions, were translated into French and German, and were adopted as textbooks in American schools.

Medical Record, files (New York, 1870), p. 330; Cyclopcedia of American Biography, s. v.

James J. Walsh. Bedford, Henry, writer, educator, b. in London 1 October, 1816; d. in Dublin, Ireland, 21 May, 1903. With the intention of becoming a clergjTnan of the Church of England, to which liis family belonged, he entered Cambridge University in 1835 and after a distinguished course received the degree of M. A.

He made his theological studies and after ordination was given charge of a church in London where he became noted in High Church circles as a popular \\Titer and preacher. A very advanced "Puseyite" sermon during the Tract arian excitement brought him in conflict with the Bisliop of London and led to his conversion to Catholicism in 1851. He wished to take Holy orders, but a natural defect in his right hand was a canonical obstacle to ordination. In 1852 he accepted an invitation to join the staff of All Hallows Missionary College, Drumcondra, near Dublin, Ireland, and there lived a long life of active, effective work as professor of natural science, treas- urer, and one of the college directors. He also did much in furtherance of the Catholic movement then at its height in England and was a constant contribu- tor to Catholic periodicals and a public lecturer on Catholic topics. His writings on a variety of sub- jects, embracing travels, archaeology, art, science, music and the general treatment of past periods of English literature were frequent features of "The Month", "The Irish Monthly", and "The Irish Ecclesiastical Record". Some of them were later reprinted for private circulation in pamphlet form, notably his "Vacation Rambles", which were issuecl in a series (1874-75-76-78-79) subsequent to their appearance in "The Month".

All Hallows Annual (Dublin. 1906); The Freeman's Journal files (Dublin); The Irish Monthly files (Dublin).

Thomas F. Meehax.

Bedingfeld, Frances (filias Long) superioress of the English Institute of Mary, b. 1616 of a gentle family of Norfolk, England; d. at Munich. Germany, 1704. She and her eleven sisters entered religious life. Sent abroad to finish her education, she entered the English Institute of Mary at Munich and was pro- fessed m 1633. This society, founded at St. Omer in 1603, had been transferred in 1629 to Liege and then to Munich. Frances's sister Winefrid, the first superioress, died 26th December, 1666. In 1669, Frances, who had become head of the Mu- nich house, was induced by Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II, to establish a liouse in London. With a group of the English members she set up a school for young women, first at St. Martin's Lane, then at Hammersmith. In England, she wore a sec- ular garb, and was known as Mrs. Long. Summoned before a magistrate, she was liberated through family influence, but warned against harbouring priests or instructing youth. Though disregarding this injunc- tion, she was not again molested. In 1677, with the aid of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, she established a com- munity in the north, in a house on the site of the pres- ent convent, outside Micklegate Bar, York. From 1677 to 1686 she divided her time between her two English communities, but after 1686, having trans- ferred the care of the Hammersmith house to Mrs. Cic- ely Cornwallis, she remained at York. In her seventy- eighth year, after her house had been repeatedly searched and threatened with destruction, she, with her niece. Mother Dorothy Paston Bedingfeld, was summoned before the Mayor of York and committed to Ousebridge Gaol. Released soon afterwards, she was again attacked, and in 1695 her house barely escaped destruction. In 1699. resigning in favour of lier niece. Mother Bedingfeld returned to Munich and died there, one year after the rule of her institute had been approved by Clement XI.

GiLLOw, Bibl. Diet, of Eng. Cath.; Foley, Rec. Eng. Prov. S.J., V; Petre, Notices of English Colleges and Convents Abroad.

J. Vincent Crowne.

Bedingfeld, Sir Henry, Knight, b. 1509; d. 1583. He was the grandson of Sir Edmund Beding- feld who had served in the Wars of the Roses, and to whom were granted by Edward IV for his faithful ser- vice letters patent autliorizing him "to build towers.