bedel

upright|thumb|1815 engraving (from Rudolf Ackermann's History of the [[University of Cambridge) of an Esquire Bedell (left) and a Yeoman Bedell (right)]]

The bedel (from medieval Latin pedellus or bidellus, occasionally bidellus generalis, from Old High German bital, pital, "the one who invites, calls"; cognate with beadle) was, and is to some extent still, an administrative official at universities in several European countries, and often had a policiary function at the time when universities had their own jurisdiction over students.