The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Four).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Bede, translating the Gospel

of Saint John on his deathbed.

Date: 1902.

Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg.

Author: James Doyle Penrose.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The fifth book brings the story up to Bede's day, and includes an account of missionary work in Frisia, and of the conflict with the British Church over the correct dating of Easter. Bede wrote a Preface for the work, in which he dedicates it to Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria. The Preface mentions that Ceolwulf received an earlier draft of the book; presumably, Ceolwulf knew enough Latin to understand it, and he may even have been able to read it. The Preface makes it clear that Ceolwulf had requested the earlier copy, and Bede had asked for Ceolwulf's approval; this correspondence with the King indicates that Bede's Monastery had excellent connections among the Northumbrian nobility.

The Monastery at Wearmouth - Jarrow had an excellent Library. Both Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith had acquired books from the Continent, and in Bede's day the Monastery was a renowned centre of learning. It has been estimated that there were about 200 books in the Monastic Library.

The Altar in the Crypt of Lastingham Church, Yorkshire,

probably the site of the Early-Anglo-Saxon Monastery.

Bede wrote to Lastingham Monastery 

to enquire about Cedd and his brother, Chad.

This File: 14 June 2007.

User: Sjwells53.

(Wikipedia)

Lastingham is a village and Civil Parish, which lies in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Southern fringe of the North York Moors. It was home to the early Missionaries to the Angles, Saint Cedd and his brother, Saint Chad. 
At the 2001 Census, the Parish had a population of ninety-six.

Not much is known of this Monastery, though all who spoke of it spoke well. Perhaps the best indication of its standards is that, in 687 A.D., one of its graduates, Trumbert, transferred to Wearmouth-Jarrow Monastery and became Scriptural Tutor to a youthful Bede.

For the period prior to Augustine's arrival in 597 A.D., Bede drew on earlier writers, including Solinus. He had access to two works of Eusebius: the Historia Ecclesiastica, and also the Chronicon, though he had neither in the original Greek; instead, he had a Latin translation of the Historia, by Rufinus, and Saint Jerome's translation of the Chronicon. He also knew Orosius's Adversus Paganus, and Gregory of Tours' Historia Francorum, both Christian histories, as well as the work of Eutropius, a pagan historian. 

He used Constantius's "Life of Germanus" as a source for Germanus's visits to Britain. Bede's account of the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons is drawn largely from Gildas's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. Bede would also have been familiar with more recent accounts such as Eddius Stephanus's "Life of Wilfrid", and anonymous Lives of Gregory the Great and Cuthbert. He also drew on Josephus's "Antiquities", and the works of Cassiodorus, and there was a copy of the Liber Pontificalis in Bede's Monastery. 

Bede quotes from several classical authors, including Cicero, Plautus, and Terence, but he may have had access to their work via a Latin Grammar, rather than directly. However, it is clear he was familiar with the works of Virgil and with Pliny the Elder's "Natural History", and his Monastery also owned copies of the works of Dionysius Exiguus. He probably drew his account of Saint Alban from a Life of that Saint, which has not survived. He acknowledges two other Lives of Saints, directly; one is a Life of Fursa, and the other of Saint Æthelburh; The latter no longer survives. He also had access to a Life of Ceolfrith. Some of Bede's material came from oral traditions, including a description of the physical appearance of Paulinus of York, who had died nearly 90 years before Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica was written.

Saint Bede Catholic Church,

La Canada, California, America.

Photo: April 2008.

Source: Self-made.

Transferred from en.wikipedia.

Author: Cbl62 (talk).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede also had correspondents, who supplied him with material. Albinus, the Abbot of the Monastery in Canterbury, provided much information about the Church in Kent, and with the assistance of Nothhelm, at that time a Priest, in London, obtained copies of Gregory the Great's correspondence from Rome relating to Augustine's mission. Almost all of Bede's information, regarding Augustine, is taken from these Letters. Bede acknowledged his correspondents in the Preface to the Historia Ecclesiastica; he was in contact with Daniel, the Bishop of Winchester, for information about the history of the Church in Wessex, and also wrote to the Monastery at Lastingham for information about Cedd and Chad. Bede also mentions an Abbot Esi, as a source for the affairs of the East Anglian Church, and Bishop Cynibert, for information about Lindsey.

The historian, Walter Goffart, argues that Bede based the structure of the Historia on three works, using them as the framework around which the three main sections of the work were structured. For the early part of the work, up until the the Gregorian mission, Goffart feels that Bede used Gildas's De excidio. The second section, detailing the Gregorian mission of Augustine of Canterbury, was framed on the anonymous "Life of Gregory the Great", written at Whitby. The last section, detailing events after the Gregorian mission, Goffart feels were modelled on Stephen of Ripon's "Life of Wilfrid".

Most of Bede's informants, for information after Augustine's mission, came from the Eastern part of Britain, leaving significant gaps in the knowledge of the Western areas, which were those areas likely to have a native Briton presence.

Saint Bede's Roman Catholic Church,

Appin, New South Wales, Australia.

Photo: 14 June 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Bluedawe.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede's stylistic models included some of the same authors from whom he drew the material for the earlier parts of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. His introduction imitates the work of Orosius, and his title is an echo of Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica. Bede also followed Eusebius in taking the Acts of the Apostles as the model for the overall work: Where Eusebius used the Acts as the theme for his description of the development of the Church, Bede made it the model for his history of the Anglo-Saxon Church.

PART FIVE FOLLOWS