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Bede, translating the Gospel
of Saint John on his deathbed.
of Saint John on his deathbed.
Date: 1902.
Author: James Doyle Penrose.
(Wikimedia Commons)
At three o'clock, according to Cuthbert, he asked for a box of his to be brought, and distributed among the Priests of the Monastery "a few treasures" of his: "Some pepper, and napkins, and some incense". That night he dictated a final sentence to the scribe, a boy named Wilberht, and died soon afterwards. Cuthbert's Letter also relates a five-line poem, in the vernacular, that Bede composed on his death-bed, known as "Bede's Death Song". It is the most-widely copied Old English poem, and appears in forty-five manuscripts, but its attribution to Bede is not absolutely certain — not all manuscripts name Bede as the author, and the ones that do are of later origin than those that do not. Bede's remains may have been transferred to Durham Cathedral in the 11th-Century; his tomb there was looted in 1541, but the contents were probably re-interred in the Galilee Chapel at the Cathedral.
One further oddity, in his writings, is that in one of his works, the "Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles", he writes in a manner that gives the impression he was married. The section in question is the only one in that work that is written in first-person view. Bede says: "Prayers are hindered by the conjugal duty because as often as I perform what is due to my wife I am not able to pray." Another passage, in the "Commentary on Luke", also mentions a wife in the first person: "Formerly, I possessed a wife in the lustful passion of desire and now I possess her in honourable sanctification and true love of Christ." The historian, Benedicta Ward, argues that these passages are Bede employing a rhetorical device.
Whitby Abbey at Sunset.
Photo: 12 April 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Ackers72.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Synod of Whitby was a 7th-Century Northumbrian Synod, where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter, and observe the Monastic Tonsure, according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions. The Synod was summoned in 664 A.D., at Saint Hilda's Double Monastery of Streonshalh (Streanæshalch), later called Whitby Abbey. The Venerable Bede comments upon
this Synod in the third book of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, or,
"An Ecclesiastical History of the English People", completed in about 731 A.D.
Bede wrote scientific, historical and theological works, reflecting the range of his writings from music and metrics to exegetical Scripture commentaries. He knew Patristic literature, as well as Pliny the Elder, Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Horace and other classical writers. He knew some Greek. His Latin is generally clear, but his Biblical commentaries are more technical.
Bede's scriptural commentaries employed the allegorical method of interpretation and his history includes accounts of miracles, which, to modern historians, has seemed at odds with his critical approach to the materials in his history. Modern studies have shown the important role such concepts played in the world-view of Early-Medieval scholars. He dedicated his work on the Apocalypse and the De Temporum Ratione to the successor of Ceolfrid, as Abbot, Hwaetbert.
Modern historians have completed many studies of Bede's works. His life and work have been celebrated by a series of annual scholarly lectures at Saint Paul's Church, Jarrow, from 1958 to the present. The historian, Walter Goffart, says of Bede that he "holds a privileged and unrivalled place among first historians of Christian Europe".
The Saint Petersburg Bede (Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, lat. Q. v. I. 18), formerly known as the Leningrad Bede, is an early surviving illuminated manuscript of Bede's 8th century history, the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People). It was taken to the Russian National Library of Saint Petersburg at the time of the French Revolution.
Although not heavily illuminated, it is famous for containing the earliest historiated initial (one containing a picture) in European illumination. The opening three letters of Book 2 of Bede are decorated, to a height of 8 lines of the text, and the opening h contains a bust portrait of a haloed figure carrying a cross and a book. This is probably intended to be St. Gregory the Great, although a much later hand has identified the figure as St. Augustine of Canterbury.
Date: Circa 731 A.D. - 746 A.D.
Author: Unknown Anglo-Saxon artist.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Although Bede is mainly studied as a historian, now, in his time, his works on grammar, chronology, and biblical studies were as important as his historical and hagiographical works. The non-historical works contributed greatly to the Carolingian Renaissance.
Bede's best-known work is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, or, "An Ecclesiastical History of the English People", completed in about 731 A.D. Bede was aided in writing this book by Albinus, Abbot of Saint Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. The first of the five books begins with some geographical background, and then sketches the history of England, beginning with Caesar's invasion in 55 B.C.
A brief account of Christianity in Roman Britain, including the Martyrdom of Saint Alban, is followed by the story of Augustine's mission to England in 597 A.D., which brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons. The second book begins with the death of Gregory the Great in 604 A.D., and follows the further progress of Christianity in Kent and the first attempts to evangelise Northumbria. These ended in disaster, when Penda, the pagan King of Mercia, killed the newly-Christian, Edwin of Northumbria, at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, in about 632 A.D.
A page from a copy of Bede's Life of Saint Cuthbert,
showing King Athelstan presenting the work to the Saint.
This manuscript was given to Saint Cuthbert's Shrine in 934 A.D.
Originally from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Source: Scanned from the book
"The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England"
by David Williamson, ISBN 1855142287.
Author: See description.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The setback was temporary, and the third book recounts the growth of Christianity in Northumbria, under Kings Oswald of Northumbria and Oswy. The climax of the third book is the account of the Council of Whitby, traditionally seen as a major turning point in English history. The fourth book begins with the consecration of Theodore, as Archbishop of Canterbury, and recounts Wilfrid's efforts to bring Christianity to the Kingdom of Sussex.
PART FOUR FOLLOWS
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