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

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)

Another educational work is De schematibus et tropis sacrae scripturae, which discusses the Bible's use of rhetoric. Bede was familiar with pagan authors, such as Virgil, but it was not considered appropriate to teach Biblical Grammar from such texts, and in De schematibus . . . Bede argues for the superiority of Christian texts in understanding Christian Literature. Similarly, his text on poetic metre uses only Christian poetry for examples.

Death of Saint Bede.

(From the Original Picture at Saint Cuthbert's College,

Ushaw, Durham, England).

Death of Saint Bede. Project Gutenberg eText 16785.

From The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Catholic Heritage

in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days, by Emily Hickey.

Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16785.

(Wikimedia Commons)

According to his disciple, Cuthbert, Bede was also doctus in nostris carminibus ("learned in our songs"). Cuthbert's Letter on Bede's death, the Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae, moreover, commonly is understood to indicate that Bede also composed a five-line vernacular poem known to modern scholars as Bede’s Death Song:

And he used to repeat that sentence from Saint Paul: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” and many other verses of Scripture, urging us thereby to awake from the slumber of the Soul by thinking in good time of our Last Hour. And, in our own language — for he was familiar with English poetry — speaking of the Soul’s dread departure from the body:

Facing that enforced journey, no man can be

More prudent than he has good call to be,

If he consider, before his going hence,

What for his spirit of good hap or of evil

After his day of death shall be determined.

Fore ðæm nedfere nænig wiorðe

ðonc snottora ðon him ðearf siæ

to ymbhycgenne ær his hinionge

hwæt his gastæ godes oððe yfles

æfter deað dæge doemed wiorðe.

Tomb of The Venerable Bede,

The Galilee Chapel,

Durham Cathedral.

Photo: 4 May 2008.

Source: http://flickr.com/photos/

robert_scarth/2468987080/.

Author: robert scarth.

(Wikimedia Commons)

As Opland notes, however, it is not entirely clear that Cuthbert is attributing this text to Bede: Most manuscripts of the Letter do not use a finite verb to describe Bede's presentation of the song, and the theme was relatively common in Old English and Anglo-Latin literature. The fact that Cuthbert's description places the performance of the Old English poem in the context of a series of quoted passages from Sacred Scripture, indeed, might be taken as evidence simply that Bede also cited analogous vernacular texts.

On the other hand, the inclusion of the Old English text of the poem in Cuthbert’s Latin Letter, the observation that Bede "was learned in our song," and the fact that Bede composed a Latin poem on the same subject, all point to the possibility of his having written it.

By citing the poem, directly, Cuthbert seems to imply that its particular wording was somehow important, either since it was a vernacular poem endorsed by a scholar, who evidently frowned upon secular entertainment, or because it is a direct quotation of Bede’s last original composition.

The Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral,

where Saint Bede's Tomb is located.

Photo taken by James Valentine, circa 1890.

This File dated 17 July 2005.

Source: en-WP.

Author: en:User:Bhoeble.

(Wikimedia Commons)

There is no evidence for cult being paid to Bede in England in the 8th-Century. One reason for this may be that he died on the Feast Day of Augustine of Canterbury. Later, when he was Venerated in England, he was either Commemorated after Augustine, on 26 May, or his Feast was moved to 27 May. However, he was Venerated outside England, mainly through the efforts of Saint Boniface and Alcuin, both of whom promoted the cult on the Continent. Boniface wrote repeatedly back to England during his missionary efforts, requesting copies of Bede's theological works. Alcuin, who was taught at the school set up in York by Bede's pupil, Egbert, praised Bede as an example for Monks to follow and was instrumental in disseminating Bede's works to all of Alcuin's friends.

Bede's cult became prominent in England during the 10th-Century Revival of Monasticism, and, by the 14th-Century, had spread to many of the Cathedrals of England. Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (circa 1008 – 1095) was a particular devotee of Bede's, Dedicating a Church to him in 1062, which was Wulfstan's first undertaking after his Consecration as Bishop.

His body was 'translated' (the Ecclesiastical term for relocation of Relics) from Jarrow to Durham Cathedral around 1020, where it was placed in the same tomb as Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. Later, Bede's remains were moved to a Shrine in the Galilee Chapel, at Durham Cathedral, in 1370. The Shrine was destroyed during the English Reformation, but the bones were re-buried in the Chapel. In 1831, the bones were dug up and then re-buried in a new tomb, which is still there. Other Relics were claimed by York, Glastonbury and Fulda.

English: Galilee Chapel, Durham Cathedral.

(Saint Bede's Tomb can be seen on the right,

with a Prie-Dieu in front of it.)

Norsk: Durhamkatedralen, Galilee-kapellet.

Photo: 19 November 2004.

Source: Own work.

Author: Nina Aldin Thune.

(Wikimedia Commons)

His scholarship and importance to Catholicism were recognised in 1899, when he was declared a Doctor of the Church. He is the only Englishman named a Doctor of the Church. He is also the only Englishman in Dante's Paradise (Paradiso X.130), mentioned among Theologians and Doctors of the Church in the same canto [Editor: a division in a long poem] as Isidore of Seville and the Scot, Richard of Saint Victor.

His Feast Day was included in the General Roman Calendar in 1899, for celebration on 27 May, rather than on his date of death, 26 May, which was then the Feast Day of Pope Saint Gregory VII. He is Venerated in both the Anglican and Roman Catholic Church.

Bede became known as Venerable Bede (Latin.: Beda Venerabilis) by the 9th-Century, but this was not linked to consideration for Sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church. According to a legend, the epithet was miraculously supplied by Angels, thus completing his unfinished epitaph. It is first utilised in connection with Bede in the 9th-Century, where Bede was grouped with others, who were called "Venerable" at two Ecclesiastical Councils held at Aix-le-Chappelle in 816 A.D. and 836 A.D. Paul the Deacon then referred to him as "Venerable", consistently. By the 11th- and 12th-Centuries, it had become commonplace. However, there are no descriptions of Bede, by that term, right after his death.

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON THE VENERABLE BEDE.

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

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)

A full catalogue of the Library available to Bede in the Monastery cannot be reconstructed, but it is possible to tell, for example, that Bede was very familiar with the works of Virgil. There is little evidence that he had access to any other of the pagan Latin writers — he quotes many of these writers, but the quotes are almost all to be found in the Latin Grammars that were common in his day, one or more of which would certainly have been at the Monastery. Another difficulty is that manuscripts of early writers were often incomplete: It is apparent that Bede had access to Pliny's Encyclopedia, for example, but it seems that the version he had was missing Book xviii, as he would almost certainly have quoted from it in his De temporum ratione.

Detail of a Holy Card

depicting the Martyrdom of Saint Anastasius.

Saint Bede wrote a translation of the 

Greek passion of Saint Anastasius.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Image:Anastasius_of_persia.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The works dealing with the Old Testament included Commentary on Samuel, Commentary on Genesis, Commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah, On the Temple, On the Tabernacle, Commentaries on Tobit, Commentaries on Proverbs, Commentaries on the Song of Songs, Commentaries on the Canticle of Habakkuk, The works on Ezra, the Tabernacle and the Temple were especially influenced by Gregory the Great's writings.

Bede's works included Commentary on Revelation, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, Commentary on Acts, Reconsideration on the Books of Acts, On the Gospel of Mark, On the Gospel of Luke, and Homilies on the Gospels. At the time of his death, he was working on a translation, of the Gospel of Saint John, into English.

De temporibus, or "On Time", written in about 703 A.D., provides an introduction to the principles of Easter Computus. This was based on parts of Isidore of Seville's Etymologies, and Bede also included a chronology of the world, which was derived from Eusebius, with some revisions based on Jerome's translation of the Bible. In about 723 A.D., Bede wrote a longer work on the same subject, "On the Reckoning of Time", which was influential throughout the Middle Ages. He also wrote several shorter Letters and Essays, discussing specific aspects of Computus.

Saint Bede's Tomb, Durham Cathedral, England.

Watercolour by the English writer ,Augustus Hare. 

Hare may have created the illustration for his book 

"Handbook for Travellers in Northumberland and Durham," 

published in 1863, which he wrote, as well as illustrated. 

Courtesy of the British Museum, London.

Date: 1834-1903.

Source: British Museum [1].

Author: Augustus John Cuthbert Hare.

(Wikimedia Commons)

On the "Reckoning of Time" (De temporum ratione), Bede included an introduction to the traditional ancient and Mediaeval view of the cosmos, including an explanation of how the spherical Earth influenced the changing length of daylight, of how the Seasonal motion of the Sun and Moon influenced the changing appearance of the New Moon at evening twilight, and a quantitative relation between the changes of the Tides at a given place and the daily motion of the Moon.

Since the focus of his book was calculation, Bede gave instructions for computing the date of Easter and the related time of the Easter Full Moon, for calculating the motion of the Sun and Moon through the zodiac, and for many other calculations related to the Calendar. He gives some information about the months of the Anglo-Saxon Calendar in Chapter XV. Any Codex of Bede's Easter Cycle is normally found together with a Codex of his "De Temporum Ratione".

For Calendric purposes, Bede made a new calculation of the age of the world since the Creation, which he dated as 3952 B.C. Due to his innovations in computing the age of the world, he was accused of Heresy at the table of Bishop Wilfrid, his chronology being contrary to accepted calculations. Once informed of the accusations of these "lewd rustics," Bede refuted them in his Letter to Plegwin.

Church of Saint John Lee, 

Hexham, Northumberland, England.

Stained-Glass Window showing, in the centre panel, 

Saint John of Beverley (to whom the Church is dedicated); 

on the left is Saint Benedict; and, on the right, 

The Venerable Bede, 
author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People 

- see http://www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/bede.htm.

Photo: 26 March 2009.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Mike Quinn.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In addition to these works on astronomical timekeeping, he also wrote De natura rerum, or "On the Nature of Things", modelled, in part, after the work of the same title by Isidore of Seville. His works were so influential that, late in the 9th-Century, Notker the Stammerer, a Monk of the Monastery of Saint Gall, in Switzerland, wrote that "God, the orderer of natures, who raised the Sun from the East on the fourth day of Creation, on the sixth day of the world has made Bede rise from the West as a new Sun to illuminate the whole Earth".

Bede wrote some works designed to help teach Grammar in the Abbey School. One of these was his De arte metrica, a discussion of the composition of Latin Verse, drawing on previous Grammarians' work. It was based on Donatus' De pedibus and Servius' De finalibus, and used examples from Christian poets, as well as Virgil. It became a standard Text for the teaching of Latin Verse during the next few Centuries. Bede dedicated this work to Cuthbert, apparently a student, for he is named "beloved son" in the dedication, and Bede says "I have laboured to educate you in Divine Letters and Ecclesiastical Statutes". Another textbook of Bede's is the De orthographia, a work on orthography, designed to help a Mediaeval reader of Latin with unfamiliar abbreviations and words from classical Latin works. Although it could serve as a textbook, it appears to have been mainly intended as a Reference work. The exact date of composition for both of these works is unknown.

PART NINE FOLLOWS

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

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)

As Chapter 66 of Bede's "On the Reckoning of Time", in 725 A.D., Bede wrote the Greater Chronicle (chronica maiora), which sometimes circulated as a separate work. For recent events, the Chronicle, like his Ecclesiastical History, relied upon Gildas, upon a version of the Liber pontificalis, current at least to the Papacy of Pope Sergius I (687 A.D. – 701 A.D.), and other sources. For earlier events, he drew on Eusebius's Chronikoi Kanones. The dating of events in the Chronicle is inconsistent with his other works, using the era of creation, the anno mundi.

The Ruins of Saint Paul's Monastery.

Once the home of The Venerable Bede.

Photo: 12 November 2005.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Mark Smiles.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Monastery of Saint Paul, in Jarrow, part of the twin foundation Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory, was once the home of the Venerable Bede, whose most notable works include The Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the translation of the Gospel of John into Old English. 

At the time of its foundation, it was reputed to have been the only Centre of Learning in Europe, North of Rome. In 794 A.D., Jarrow became the second target in England of the Vikings, who had plundered Lindisfarne in 793 A.D. The Monastery was later dissolved by King Henry VIII. The ruins of the Monastery are now associated with, and partly built into, the present-day Church of Saint Paul, which stands on the site. One wall of the Church contains the oldest Stained-Glass Window in the world, dating from about 600 A.D. Just beside the Monastery, is "Bede's World", a working museum, dedicated to the life and times of Bede. Bede's World also incorporates Jarrow Hall, a Grade II Listed Building and a significant local landmark.

His other historical works included Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, as well as Verse and Prose Lives of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, an adaptation of Paulinus of Nola's Life of Saint Felix, and a translation of the Greek Passion of Saint Anastasius. He also created a listing of Saints, the Martyrology.

In his own time, Bede was as well known for his Biblical commentaries and exegetical, as well as other theological, works. The majority of his writings were of this type, and covered the Old Testament and the New Testament. Most survived the Middle Ages, but a few were lost. It was for his theological writings that he earned the title of Doctor Anglorum, and why he was made a Saint.

Bede synthesised and transmitted the learning from his predecessors, as well as made careful, judicious innovation in knowledge (such as recalculating the age of the Earth – for which he was censured before surviving the Heresy accusations and eventually having his views championed by Archbishop Ussher, in the 16th-Century – see below), that had theological implications.

English: Ruins of Saint Paul's Monastery, Jarrow, England.

Once the home of The Venerable Bede.

Nederland: Ruïne van het nl:klooster te nl:Jarrow, 

met de nog bestaande kerk op de achtergrond.

Date: 2004-12-15 (original upload date).

Source: Originally from nl.wikipedia; description page is/was here.

Author: Original uploader was Xaphire at nl.wikipedia.

Permission: Licensed under the GFDL by the Author.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In order to do this, he learned Greek, and attempted to learn Hebrew. He spent time reading and re-reading both the Old and the New Testaments. He mentions that he studied from a text of Jerome's Vulgate, which itself was from the Hebrew text. He also studied both the Latin and the Greek Fathers of the Church. In the Monastic Library at Jarrow were a number of books by theologians, including works by Basil, Cassian, John Chrysostom, Isidore of Seville, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Pope Gregory I, Ambrose of Milan, Cassiodorus, and Cyprian. 

He used these, in conjunction with the Biblical texts themselves, to write his Commentaries and other theological works. He had a Latin translation by Evagrius of Athanasius's Life of Antony, and a Copy of Sulpicius Severus' Life of Saint Martin. He also used lesser-known writers, such as Fulgentius, Julian of Eclanum, Tyconius, and Prosperius. Bede was the first to refer to Jerome, Augustine, Pope Gregory and Ambrose as the four Latin Fathers of the Church. It is clear from Bede's own comments that he felt his job was to explain to his students and readers the theology and thoughts of the Church Fathers.

Bede also wrote Homilies, works written to explain theology used in worship services. Bede wrote Homilies not only on the major Christian seasons, such as Advent, Lent, or Easter, but on other subjects, such as anniversaries of significant events.

Saint Boniface by Cornelis Bloemaert, circa 1630.

Used Bede's Homilies in his 

missionary efforts on the Continent.

Photo: 26 April 2013.

Source: Het Utrechts Archief.

Author: Cornelis Bloemaert (1603-1684).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Both types of Bede's theological works circulated widely in the Middle Ages. A number of his Biblical Commentaries were incorporated into the Glossa Ordinaria, an 11th-Century collection of Biblical Commentaries. Some of Bede's Homilies were collected by Paul the Deacon, and they were used in that form in the Monastic Office. Saint Boniface used Bede's Homilies in his missionary efforts on the Continent.

Bede sometimes included in his theological books an acknowledgement of the predecessors on whose works he drew. In two cases, he left instructions that his marginal notes, which gave the details of his sources, should be preserved by the Copyist, and he may have originally added marginal comments about his sources to others of his works. Where he does not specify, it is still possible to identify books to which he must have had access by quotations that he uses.


PART EIGHT FOLLOWS

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

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)

He is also parsimonious in his praise for Aldhelm, a West Saxon who had done much to convert the native Britons to the Roman form of Christianity. He lists seven Kings of the Anglo-Saxons, whom he regards as having held imperium, or overlordship; only one King of Wessex, Ceawlin, is listed, and none from Mercia, though elsewhere he acknowledges the secular power several of the Mercians held. Historian Robin Fleming states that he was so hostile to Mercia, because Northumbria had been diminished by Mercian power, that he consulted no Mercian informants and included no stories about its Saints.

Bede relates the story of Augustine's mission from Rome, and tells how the British Clergy refused to assist Augustine in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. This, combined with Gildas's negative assessment of the British Church at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions, led Bede to a very critical view of the native Church. However, Bede ignores the fact that at the time of Augustine's mission, the history between the two was one of warfare and conquest, which, in the words of Barbara Yorke, would have naturally "curbed any missionary impulses towards the Anglo-Saxons from the British Clergy."

English: The Venerable Bede's "De naturis rerum". 

Bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg, France. 

Conservateur : Louis Schlaefli.

Français: Bède le Vénérable, De naturis rerum (Ms 31/3), page de titre (IXe-Xe s.), 

à la bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg. 

Conservateur : Louis Schlaefli.

Photo: 18 June 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Photo Claude TRUONG-NGOC.

(Wikimedia Commons)

At the time Bede wrote the Historia Ecclesiastica, there were two common ways of referring to dates. One was to use indictions, which were fifteen-year cycles, counting from 312 A.D. There were three different varieties of indiction, each starting on a different day of the year. The other approach was to use regnal years—the reigning Roman Emperor, for example, or the ruler of whichever kingdom was under discussion. This meant that, in discussing conflicts between kingdoms, the date would have to be given in the regnal years of all the kings involved. Bede used both these approaches on occasion, but adopted a third method as his main approach to dating: the anno domini method, invented by Dionysius Exiguus. Although Bede did not invent this method, his adoption of it, and his promulgation of it in De Temporum Ratione, his work on chronology, is the main reason why it is now so widely used.

The Historia Ecclesiastica was copied often in the Middle Ages, and about 160 manuscripts, containing it, survive. About half of those are located on the European Continent, rather than on the British Isles. Most of the 8th- and 9th-Century texts of Bede's Historia come from the Northern parts of the Carolingian Empire. This total does not include manuscripts with only a part of the work, of which another 100 or so survive.

It was printed for the first time between 1474 and 1482, probably at Strasbourg, France. Modern historians have studied the Historia, extensively, and a number of editions have been produced. For many years, Early-Anglo-Saxon history was essentially a retelling of the Historia, but recent scholarship has focused as much on what Bede did not write as what he did. The belief that the Historia was the culmination of Bede's works, the aim of all his scholarship, a belief common among historians in the past, is no longer accepted by most scholars.

English: The Venerable Bede's "De naturis rerum". 

Bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg, France. 

Conservateur : Louis Schlaefli.

Français: Bède le Vénérable, De naturis rerum (Ms 31/3), page de titre (IXe-Xe s.), 

à la bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg. 

Conservateur : Louis Schlaefli.

Photo: 18 June 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Photo Claude TRUONG-NGOC.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Modern historians and editors of Bede have been lavish in their praise of his achievement in the Historia Ecclesiastica. Stenton regarded it as one of the "small class of books which transcend all but the most fundamental conditions of time and place", and regarded its quality as dependent on Bede's "astonishing power of co-ordinating the fragments of information which came to him through tradition, the relation of friends, or documentary evidence ... In an age where little was attempted beyond the registration of fact, he had reached the conception of history." Patrick Wormald described him as "the first and greatest of England's historians".

The Historia Ecclesiastica has given Bede a high reputation, but his concerns were different from those of a modern writer of history. His focus on the history of the organisation of the English Church, and on Heresies and the efforts made to root them out, led him to exclude the Secular history of Kings and Kingdoms, except where a moral lesson could be drawn or where they illuminated events in the Church. 

Besides the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Mediaeval writers, William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, used his works as sources and inspirations. Early-Modern writers, such as Polydore Vergil and Matthew Parker, the Elizabethan Archbishop of Canterbury, also utilised the Historia, and his works were used by both Protestant and Catholic sides in the Wars of Religion.

English: Figure published 1727 in ""Theatrum arithmetico geometricum" 

by Jacob Leupold (1674–1727). Representing counting with fingers, 

described by The Venerable Bede.

Suomi: Kuva julkaistu 1727 kirjassa ""Theatrum arithmetico geometricum" teikijä Jacob Leupold (1674–1727). Esittää sormilla laskemista, jota Bede Venerabilis (kuoli 735) kuvaili jo 700 luvulla.

Date: Circa 1727.

Source: John D. Barrow: "Pi in the Sky", 1992, Oxford University Press, figure.

Author: original figure by Jacob Leupold (1674–1727).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Some historians have questioned the reliability of some of Bede's accounts. One historian, Charlotte Behr, thinks that the Historia's account of the arrival of the Germanic invaders in Kent should not be considered to relate what actually happened, but rather relates myths that were current in Kent during Bede's time.

It is likely that Bede's work, because it was so widely copied, discouraged others from writing histories and may even have led to the disappearance of manuscripts containing older historical works.

PART SEVEN FOLLOWS

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

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)

Bede quoted his sources at length in his narrative, as Eusebius had done. Bede also appears to have taken quotes directly from his correspondents at times. For example, he almost always uses the terms "Australes" and "Occidentales" for the South and West Saxons, respectively, but in a passage, in the first book, he uses "Meridiani" and "Occidui", instead, as perhaps his informant had done. At the end of the work, Bede added a brief autobiographical note; this was an idea taken from Gregory of Tours' earlier "History of the Franks".

Bede's work as a hagiographer, and his detailed attention to dating, were both useful preparations for the task of writing the Historia Ecclesiastica. His interest in "Computus", the science of calculating the date of Easter, was also useful in the account he gives of the controversy between the British and Anglo-Saxon Churches over the correct method of obtaining the Easter date.

Saint Bede's Church (founded 1771),

Appleton, Cheshire,

England.

Photo: 27 March 2007.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Sue Adair.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede's Latin has been praised for its clarity, but his style in the Historia Ecclesiastica is not simple. He knew rhetoric, and often used figures of speech and rhetorical forms which cannot easily be reproduced in translation, depending, as they often do, on the connotations of the Latin words. However, unlike contemporaries, such as Aldhelm, whose Latin is full of difficulties, Bede's own text is easy to read.

In the words of Charles Plummer, one of the best-known editors of the Historia Ecclesiastica, Bede's Latin is "clear and limpid ... it is very seldom that we have to pause to think of the meaning of a sentence ... Alcuin rightly praises Bede for his unpretending style."

Bede's primary intention, in writing the Historia Ecclesiastica, was to show the growth of the united Church throughout England. The native Britons, whose Christian Church survived the departure of the Romans, earn Bede's ire for refusing to help convert the Saxons; by the end of the Historia, the English, and their Church, are dominant over the Britons. This goal, of showing the movement towards unity, explains Bede's animosity towards the British method of calculating Easter: Much of the Historia is devoted to a history of the dispute, including the final resolution at the Synod of Whitby in 664 A.D. Bede is also concerned to show the unity of the English, despite the disparate kingdoms that still existed when he was writing. He also wants to instruct the reader by spiritual example, and to entertain, and, to the latter end, he adds stories about many of the places and people about which he wrote.

St. Bede's RC Church in Jarrow,

County Durham (now Tyne & Wear),

England.

Photo: 29 March 2007.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Vin Mullen.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede's extensive use of miracles is disconcerting to the modern reader, who thinks of Bede as a more or less reliable historian, but men of the time accepted miracles as a matter of course. However, Bede, like Gregory the Great, whom Bede quotes on the subject in the Historia, felt that Faith, brought about by miracles, was a stepping stone to a higher, truer Faith, and that, as a result, miracles had their place in a work designed to instruct.

Bede is somewhat reticent about the career of Wilfrid, a contemporary, and one of the most prominent Clerics of his day. This may be because Wilfrid's opulent lifestyle was uncongenial to Bede's Monastic mind; it may also be that the events of Wilfrid's life, divisive and controversial as they were, simply did not fit with Bede's theme of the progression to a unified and harmonious Church.

Bede's account, of the early migrations of the Angles and Saxons to England, omits any mention of a movement of those peoples across the Channel from Britain to Brittany, described by Procopius, who was writing in the 6th-Ccentury. Frank Stenton describes this omission as "a scholar's dislike of the indefinite"; traditional material that could not be dated or used for Bede's didactic purposes had no interest for him.

Saint Bede's Catholic Church,

Clapham Park, London SW12 OLF.

Image: ST. BEDE'S CATHOLIC CHURCH

Bede was a Northumbrian, and this tinged his work with a local bias. The sources he had access to gave him less information about the West of England than for other areas. He says relatively little about the achievements of Mercia and Wessex, omitting, for example, any mention of Boniface, a West Saxon missionary to the Continent of some renown, and of whom Bede had almost certainly heard, though Bede does discuss Northumbrian missionaries to the Continent.


PART SIX FOLLOWS

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

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

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)

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.

Source: HistoryofScience.com and Russian National Library, St Petersberg.

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