“ In my 19th year I was made deacon; in my 30th, a priest; CHAP. both by the ministry of the most reverend bishop John, by the VI. direction of the abbot Ceolfrid.

“ From the time of my receiving the order of priesthood, to the 59th year of my life, I have employed myself in briefly noting from the works of the venerable fathers these things on the Holy Scriptures for the necessities of me and mine, and in adding something to the form of their sense and interpretation.

The works which he then enumerates are,
“ Commentaries on most of the books of the Old and New

Testament, and the Apocrypha.
Two books of Homilies.
A book of Letters to different Persons; one on the Six Ages

on the Tabernacles of the Children of Israel – on a passage in Isaiah

on the Bissextile on the Equinox according to Anatolius. The Life and Passion of St. Felix the Confessor, translated

into prose from the metrical work of Paulinus. The Life and Passion of St. Anastasius, corrected from a bad

translation of the Greek.
The Life of St. Cuthbert in verse and prose.
The History of the Abbots, Benedict, Ceolfrid, and Huaet-

berct.
The Ecclesiastical History of England.
A Martyrology.
A book of Hymns in various metre or rhythm.
A book of Epigrams in heroic or elegiac metre.
Book on the Nature of Things and Times.
Another book on Times.
A book on Orthography,
A book on the Metrical Art;
And a book on the Tropes and Figures use d in Scripture.";

BESIDES these works, Bede wrote others, on
Grammar, Arithmetic, Music, Astronomy, and
Astrology.

His theological works occupy nearly six folio volumes out of eight. He has commented on

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every book of the Scriptures, from Genesis to the Revelations; and he introduces on each as much learning and knowledge as any one individual could then, by the most patient research, accumulate.

His treatise on the Trinity is a commentary on the tract of Boethius on that subject. His homilies and sermons occupy the seventh volume. His meditations on the last words of our Saviour display great devotional sensibility.

All his remarks show a calm and clear good sense, a straight-forward mind, occasionally misled to imitate or adopt many of the allegorical interpretations of the Greek fathers, but usually judging soundly. They evince a most extensive reading, and presented his age with the best selections from the best authors on the passages which he expounds.

His moral taste and wisdom appears in his excellent selection of moral sentences from the works of the ancients. He has collected all that was known of the theory and practice of chronology, of natural philosophy, of the popular part of astronomy, and of the theory and practice of music; the laws of Latin prosody; the chief topics of grammar, rhetoric, and arithmetic3); and the main facts and dates of general history. His calculations for the calendar are very elaborate; his treatise on blood-letting displays some of the universal super

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31 In his tract on Arithmetic, p. 104., he gives the mensa Pythagorica, which is, in fact, the multiplication table, invested with so proud a title. His notation is the Roman. He says, that what the Latins called numerus, and the Hebrews nonna, the Macedonians named calculus, from the little stones which they held in their hands when they reckoned, p. 113. Hence our calculation.

32 Bede also teaches the indigitatio, or the manner of telling and computing with the fingers, p. 167.

CHAP.

VI.

stitions of his countrymen, as to proper days and times 33; and in another work, he tells us that trees ought to be cut in the third week of the moon, or they will be corroded by worms 34; but it is St. Ambrose, not himself, who is responsible for this fancy. He states of the tides, that they followed the moon; and that, as the moon rises and sets every day four-fourths or four-fifths of an hour later than the preceding, so do the tides ebb and flow with a similar retardation. 35

The style of Bede in all his works is plain and unaffected. Attentive only to his matter, he had little solicitude for the phrase in which he dressed it. But though seldom eloquent, and often homely, it is clear, precise, and useful. His treatise on the Six Ages gives a regular series of Jewish chronology, and then of general chronology, carried down to the year 729. His History of England is the only contemporary document we have of the transactions of the Anglo-Saxon octarchy, and it furnishes us with many particulars not to be found elsewhere. His Lives of Religious Persons are disfigured with those legends which degrade his history; but as they were the object of general admiration and belief in his day, his credulity was the credulity of his age. His works poured an useful flood of matter for the exercise and improvement of the Anglo-Saxon mind, and collected into one focus all that was known to the ancient world, excepting the Greek mathematicians, and some of their literature and philosophy which he had not much studied. To have written them in such a

IX.

BOOK period of ignorance, with means so imperfect, dis

plays an ardent intellect, unwearied in its exertions; and by their popularity among the clergy, contributed to diffuse a taste for literature, which other causes in due time matured. His life was of great

. importance to his age, in his scholars; for he educated four men, who greatly promoted literature in France in the following age: Alcuin, Claudius, Rabanus, and Erigena.

He died in the year 735, and his death is thus described by his pupil Cuthbert :

His death.

“ He was attacked with a severe infirmity of frequent short breathing, yet without pain, about two weeks before Easter day; and so he continued, joyful and glad, and giving thanks to Almighty God day and night, indeed hourly, till the day of Ascension. He gave lessons to us his disciples every day, and he employed what remained of the day in singing of psalms. The nights he passed without sleep, yet rejoicing and giving thanks, unless when a little slumber intervened. When he waked, he resumed his accustomed devotions, and with expanded hands never ceased returning thanks to God. Indeed I never saw with my eyes, nor heard with my ears, any one so diligent in his grateful devotions. O truly blessed man! He sang the passage in St. Paul, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;' and many other things from the Scripture, in which he admonished us to arouse ourselves from the sleep of the mind. He also recited something in our English language; for he was very learned in our songs; and, putting his thoughts into English verse, he spoke it with compunction. For this

· necessary journey no one can be more prudent than he ought to be, to think before his going hence what of good or evil his spirit after death will be judged worthy of.' He sang the Antiphonæ according to our custom and his own, of which one is, O King of Glory, Lord of virtues, leave us not orphans, but send the promise of the Father, the Spirit of Truth, upon

Alleluia.' When he came to the words Spirit of Truth, he burst into tears, and wept much ; and we with him. We read and wept again; indeed always read in tears.” After mentioning that he was occupied in translating St. John's Gos

VI.

a

pel into Saxon, his pupil adds :-“ When he came to the third

CHAP. festival before the Ascension Day, his breathing began to be very strongly affected, and a little swelling appeared in his feet. All that day he dictated cheerfully, and sometimes said, among other things, • Make haste-I know not how long I shall last. My Maker may take me away very soon.' It seemed to us that he knew well he was near his end. He passed the night watching and giving thanks. When the morning dawned he commanded us to write diligently what we had begun. This being done, we walked till the third hour with the relics of the saints, as the custom of the day required. One of us was with him, who said, “There is yet, beloved master, one chapter wanting ; will it not be unpleasant to you to be asked any more questions ?' He answered, “ Not at all; take your pen, prepare it, and write with speed.' He did so. At the ninth hour he said to me, • I have some valuables in my little chest. But run quickly and bring the presbyters of our monastery to me, that I may distribute my small presents.'— He addressed each, and exhorted them to attend to their masses and prayers. They wept when he told them they would see him no more; but he said it was time that he should return to the Being who had formed him out of nothing. He conversed in this manner cheerfully till the evening, when the boy said, “Dear master, one sentence is still wanting.' • Write it quick,' exclaimed Bede. When it was finished, he said, • Take my head in your hands, for I shall delight to sit opposite the holy place where I have been accustomed to pray, and where I can invoke my Father. When he was placed on the pavement, he repeated the Gloria Patri, and expired in the effort." 36

BEDE was very highly respected in his day. Boniface, whose life we shall next detail, asks for his works, and speaks of him as a man enriched by the divine grace with a spiritual intellect, and as irradiating his country. Pope Sergius wished his presence in Rome, for the benefit of his counsel.

Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, whose Boniface. Latin poems have been before alluded to, and who, in the eighth century, founded the principal bishop

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