Biddle, John, one of the first preachers of Socin- ianism in England, and cruelly persecuted on that ;;c- count. He was born at Wotton, Gloucestershire, in 1615. In 1041 he took the degree of M.A. at Oxford, and was appointed master of the grammar-school of Gloucester. He soon began to exhibit his Socinian bias, and was, in consequence, imprisoned and exam- ined by commissioners appointed for the purpose. He published, in 1647, Twelve Arguments, etc., against the Deity of the Holy Spirit (I.ond. 4to), which was burned by the hangman ; and in 1648 he put forth a Confession of Faith concerning tJw Trinity, for which he was a sec- ond time imprisoned. In 1654 he issued a Brief Scrip- ture Catechism (Lond. 8vo), which was answered by John Owen in his Yindicve Erangt lictr. Cromwell banished him, in 1665, to the Scilly Islands, but after three years he was recalled, and became minister of some congregation of Independents. In the reign of Charles II he was in trouble again, and was a third time put into prison, where he died in 1662. See Toul- min, Life and Character of Biddle (Lond. 1789, 12mo).
Biddulph, Thomas T., M.A., was born in Wor- cestershire, England, 1763, studied at Queen's College, Oxford, and became minister of St. James's, Bristol, 1798. He was laborious as pastor and writer, and died 1838. Among his published works are Practical Es- says on the Liturgy (bond. 3d ed. 1822, 3 vols. 8vo) : — Baptism a Seal of the Covenant (Lond. 1816, 8vo) : —
BIDKAU
812
BILDAD
Sermons (Lond. 1838, 12mo):— Theology of the Patri- archs (Lond. 2 vols. svo).
Bid'kar (Heb. Bidkar', "J?"'3! according to Ge- senius, for *lp"7""|3, son of stabbing, i.e. assassin; ac- cording lo Furst, for "IjS — 13?, servant [i. e. inhabitant] (/the city; Sept. Kavticdp; Josephus, BdduKpoc), Je- hu's "captain" (Obd; Josephus, o r/)c rpiYnc juo/pec fiyifttov, Ant. ix, 6, 3), originally his fellow-officer (2 Kings ix, 25), who completed the sentence, on Jeho- r im. son of Ahab, by casting his body into the field of Nabotb after Jehu had transfixed him with an arrow. B.C. 882. See Jehu.
Bidlack, Benjamin, a Methodist preacher of the ( iHeida < inference, was horn in 1759. Little is known of his early life. He was a soldier under Washington, and fought at Boston and Yorktown. The date of his conversion is unknown, but he entered the itinerant ministry in 1799. He was in the effective work lifteen years, located four years, and superannuated twenty- six years, forty-five in all. "Ho was distinguished for energy of character.'' He died in great peace at Kingston, Penn., 1815. — Minutes of Conferences, iv, 50; Peck, Early Methodism.
Biel, Gabriel, commonly called "the last of the schoolmen," a native of Spires, called also, from his work on Peter Lombard, by the name of Collector, pro- fessor of philosophy and theology in the University of Tubingen. He died in 1195, leaving, 1. Expositio sacris canonis Misste; copied, with a few alterations, from Eggelin (Angelus) of Brunswick (Tub. 1188) :— 2. Sermones (1199, fob, Brescia, 1583, 4to) :— 3. Epitome Scripti Guil. de Occam, et coll'ctorium circa ivlibros Sen- tentiarum in academia Tubingend edit urn (printed before 1500, without place or date, again at Basle, 1512). Biel denied the absolute supremacy of the pope, declared that the priest's absolution does not remit sins, and de- fended the ( onneil of Basle as valid and authoritative. See Linsenmann, Tub. Theol. Quarterlschrift. 1865, p. 195 sq. ; Gieseler, Ch. Hist. per. iii, div. v, eh. iv, § 143.
Bier (n2"2, mit/ah', a bed, as elsewhere, 2 Sam. iii, 31 ; aopag, a funereal urn, hence an open coffin or burial-coucn, Luke vii, 11). See Burial.
Bigamist or Digamist (Bigamus or Digamus). A man who hail married two wives in succession was so styled at one period of the Church. It was forbidden by the canons to admit such a one to holy orders (can. lxix, Carthage, 398). The orLin of this law was the interpretation of the words of Paul to Titus, i, 6. Chry- BOStom and Theodoret explain the passage as meaning those who had only one wife at a time, and therefore as directed against the polygamy of the Jews and heathen. It appears, moreover, from the epistles of Siricins (ep. i, cap. 8) and Innocentius(ep. xxii, adepts. i/aced. c. 1) that the bishops of Spain and Greece did not scruple to ordain men who had been twice mar- ried. See Theodoret, op. 110, ad Domnum; Bingham, Orig. Err',;, lib. iv, cap 5, sec. 1, 2, 3 ; Landon, ii, 2G2.
Bigamy. Sec Marriage.
Bigelow, Noah, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was boni in Max. 1783, eon verted 1803, entered the New 5fork Conference in 1810, was transferred to the New England Conference in 1813, readmitted to the New fork Conference in 1823, superannuated 1827, effective from 1828 to 1836, superannuated till his death in Aug. L850. In the outset of his career he en- dured great opposition from his father and relatives, but God rewarded his constancy with a Ion- and use- ful life. As minister and presiding elder | into which office Bishop M'Kendree put him to relieve Elijah aft- erward Bishop Heddinz), he was abundant in labors and fruit.— Minutes of Conferences, iv, -115.
Bigelow, Russel, one of the most distinguished and useful ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in ohi,,. lie was born in Chesterfield, N. II., in 1793