Just as a constable can be a PC plod or the Chief Constable or highest-ranking copper in the force (ditto for Sheriff), it is reasonable for a word like beadle to have multiple connotations. It generally seems to apply to a minor officer cum enforcer of the rules, mainly but not exclusively in a Church context. In French, as "bedeau", it seems to be exclusively a Church appointment (or was, now they haven't even got priests in a lot of parishes!).

There's a Yiddish word "Schammes", which seems to have started off meaning something broadly similar, mainly amounting to a synagogue caretaker but also cropping up in US detective stories as a reference to the guy who does the legwork. In that context, it's often spelt Shamus which gives it a misleadingly Irish appearance.