the king's counsel, and also in the same
capacity at Dunstable before Archbishop
Cranmer and the Bishop of Lincoln 'on the
morrow after Ascension day, 1632, when
Cranmer gave final sentence that the pope
could not license such marriages' as that of
Henry and Katharine. During this period
Bell showed great courage in preventing
the appointment of Elinor Carey, sister of
Mary Boleyn's husband, as abbess of Wilton,
by reporting her (as Wolsey's commissary
for the diocese of Salisbury) to have been
guilty of 'gross incontinency,' at a time, too,
when the king was contemplating his appointment to the archdeaconry of Oxford.
Two years before the sentence of divorce
was pronounced by Cranmer, Henry sent
Bell, together with the Bishop of Lincoln
and Foxe, to Oxford, to obtain an opinion condemning marriage with a deceased brother's
wife. Oxford hung back in spite of threats
and promises. Eventually the commissioners
only succeeded by the exclusion of the junior
members of convocation from any voice in
the matter. The excitement was so great
that it was thought necessary to hold a secret
conclave by night to affix the university seal.
Bell was in 1529 one of a commission, including Sir John More, to assist the archbishop in preparing a royal proclamation
against Tyndal's translation of the Scriptures and a number of heretical books, and to
present it in St. Edward's chapel to be signed
there by Henry in person (Collier, Eccl. Hist. iv. 145). In 1532 he took part in the
proceedings of the convocation which decided that the king's marriage was contrary
to divine law, and consequently that the
pope's dispensation was ultra vires, and which
drew up 'the articles about religion,' of
which the original may be seen, with John
Bell's name attached, in the Cotton Library.
In 1537 he was one of 'the composers' of
the 'Bishop's Book,' and one of the learned
divines who, in the course of its preparation,
were called upon to define the true meaning
of various church ordinances. In this year,
too, he was present at the baptism of Edward VI at Hampton Court. On 11 Aug.
Bell was promoted to the see of Worcester.
As bishop he was a member of the committee
of the convocation of 1540 who pronounced
the marriage of Henry and Anne of Cleves
illegal, and was also one of six bishops appointed by the king 'to examine what ceremonies should be retained in the church, and
what was the true use of them.' In the following year he promised his support to Cranmer, when he brought forward in the House
of Lords 'an act for the advancement of
true religion and the abolishment of the
contrary,' but when he saw the angry excitement of the popish opposition 'he fell away
from him' (Strype, Cranmer, p. 141). In
the convocation of 1542, when the bishops
undertook the work of a revised translation
of the New Testament, the first and second
epistles to the Thessalonians were assigned
to Bell. On 17 Nov. 1543 Bell resigned his
bishopric. Burnet, after speculating as to
his motive, decides to 'leave it in the dark.'
Nichols (Lit, Anecdotes, iii. 109) says he
was 'deprived,' but the form of his resignation may be seen in Rymer's 'Fœdera'
(xv. 10), by which it would appear to have
been quite voluntary. Bell retired to Clerkenwell, then a fashionable suburb. Of his
life there we only learn from his will that
he was 'priest of Clerkenwell parish.' He
died on 2 Aug. 1550, and was buried with
episcopal honours on the south side of the
east end of the chancel of St. James's
Church, where Bishop Burnet was also afterwards buried. The monumental brass from
his tomb, engraved by Malcolm in his 'Londinium Redivivum,' was in 1806 in the possession of Mr. J. G. Nichols (Nichols,
Herald and Genealogist, iii. 444). He gave
by his will 2/. to the poor of Clerkenwell,
5/. to Stratford-upon-Avon, and some legacies
to Jesus chantry in St. Paul's Cathedral,
desiring that 'his soul might be prayed for.'
He was also a benefactor to Balliol College,
Oxford, and to Cambridge, but especially to
the former, where he provided for the main-
tenance of two scholars born in the diocese
of Worcester. Coote says of Bishop Bell
(English Civilians) : 'He died with the character of an eloquent preacher and advocate,
a learned divine, and a man of integrity and
beneficence.'
[Godwin, De Praesuilibus Angliæ, Camb. 1743; Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, Singer's ed.; Chambers's Biog. Illustrations of "Worcestershire; Thomas's Henry VIII, 1774; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation; Strype's Eccl. Memorials and Life of Cranmer; Thomas's Survey of Worcester Cathedral; Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII, vols, ii., iii., iv., v., vi., and vii.]
BELL, JOHN (1691–1780), traveller,
son of Patrick Bell of Antermony, was born on the paternal estate in 1691. No details of his education are extant, but it is stated that, after obtaining the degree of doctor of medicine, he determined to visit foreign countries. He obtained recommendatory
letters to Dr. Areskine, chief physician and
privy counsellor to the Czar Peter I, and
embarked at London in the month of July 1714. An embassy was then preparing from the czar to the sophy of Persia, On Dr.
