derived by Spelman, Vossius, and others from Sax. Bidel, which signifies a crier; thus bishops, in many old Saxon MSS., are called the "Bedells of God," praecones Dei. The name is now applied in England almost exclusively to the bedells of the. universities, who carry the mace before the chancellor or vice-chancellor. Martene says that the inferior apparitors, who cited persons to court, were also called bedells. — Landon, Eccl. Dict. 2, 121.
(See BEADLE).