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The Venerable,” one of the most eminent fathers of the English Church, was born in the county of Durham about 673 (between 672 and 677). His early years were spent in the monastery of St. Paul at Jarrow, and his later education was received in that of St. Peter at Wearmouth. In these two monasteries, which were not above five miles apart, he spent his life, under the rule of Benedict and Ceolfride, who was the first abbot of Jarrow, and who, after the death of Benedict, presided over both houses. At nineteen years of age he was made deacon, and was ordained to the priesthood, as he himself tells us, at thirty years of age, by John of Beverley, Bishop of Hagustald (Hexham). Pope Sergius I invited him to Rome to assist him with his advice; but Bede, it appears, excused himself, and spent the whole of his tranquil life in his monastery, improving himself in all the learning of his age, but directing his more particular attention to the compilation of an Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (Historia Ecclesiastica, etc.), the materials for which he obtained partly from chronicles, partly from annals preserved in contemporary convents, and partly from the information of prelates with whom he was acquainted. Making allowance for the introduction of legendary matter, which was the fault of the age, few works have supported their credit so long, or been so .generally consulted as authentic sources. Bede published this history about the year 734, when, as he informs us, he was in his fifty-ninth year, but before this he had written many other books on various subjects, a catalogue of which he subjoined to his history.
So great was his reputation, that it was said of him, “hominem, in extreme orbis angulo natum, universum orbem suo ingenio perstrinxisse.” He had a multitude of scholars, and passed his life in study, in teaching others, and in prayer, thinking, like his master, John of Beverley, that the chief business of a monk was to make himself of use to others. In the year 735, shortly before Easter, he was seized by a slight attack of inflammation of the lungs, which continued to grow worse until the 26th of May (Ascension-day). He was continually active to the last, and particularly anxious about two works: one his translation of John's Gospel into the Saxon language, the other some passages which he was extracting from the works of St. Isidore. The day before his death he grew much worse, and his feet began to swell, yet he passed the night as usual, and continued dictating to the person who acted as his amanuensis, who, observing his weakness, said, “There remains now only one chapter, but it seems difficult to you to speak.” To which he answered, “It is easy: take your pen, mend it, and write quickly.” About nine o'clock he sent for some of his brethren, priests of the monastery, to divide among them some incense and other things of little value which he had preserved in a chest. While he was speaking, the young man, Wilberch, who wrote for him, said, “Master, there is but one sentence wanting;” upon which he bid him write quick, and soon after the scribe said, “Now it is finished.” To which he replied, “Thou hast said the truth-consummatum est. Take up my head; I wish to sit opposite to the place where I have been accustomed to pray, and where now sitting. I may yet invoke my Father.” Being thus seated, according to his desire, upon the floor of his cell, he said, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;” and as he pronounced the last word he expired (Neander, Light in Dark Places, 162). He died, according to the best opinion, May 26th, 735, though the exact date has been contested.
The first catalogue of Bede's works, as we have before observed, we have from himself, at the end of his Ecclesiastical History, which contains all he had written before the year 731. This we find copied by Leland, who also mentions some other pieces he had met with of Bede's, and points out likewise several that passed under Bede's name, though, in Leland's judgment, spurious (Leland, De Script. Brit. ed. Hall, Oxford; 1709, 1:115). Bale, in the first edition of his work on British writers (4to, Gippesw. 1548, fol. 50), mentions ninety-six treatises written by Bede, and in his last edition (fol. 1559, p. 94) swells these to one hundred and forty- five tracts; and declares at the close of both catalogues that there were numberless pieces besides of Bede's which he had not seen. The following is the catalogue of his writings given by Cave:
1. De Rerum Natura liber: —
2. De Temporum Ratione: —
3. De Sex AEtatibus Mundi (separately, at Paris, 1507; Cologne, 1537): —
4. De temporibus ad intelligendam supputationem temporum S. Scripturae: —
5. Setnteniae ex Cicerone et Aristotele: —
6. De Proverbiis:—
7. De substantia elementorum: —
8. Philosophiae lib. IV: —
9. De Paschate sive AEquinoctio liber: —
10. Epistola de divinatione mortis et vitae: —
11. De Arca Noe: —
12. De linguis gentium: —
13. Oracula Sibyllina: —
14. Historiae Ecclesiasticae Gentis Anglorum libri V, a primo Julu Caesaris in Britanniam adventu ad ann. 731 pertingentes (Antwerp, 1550; Heidelberg, 1587; Cologne, 1601, 8vo; Cambridge, 1644; Paris, with the notes of Chifflet, 1681, 4to): —
15. Vita S. Cuthberti: —
16. Vitae SS. Felicis, Vedasti, Columbani, Attalae, Patricii, Eustasii, Bertofi, Arnolphi (or Arnoldi), Burgundoforae. Of these, however, three are wrongly attributed to Bede: the life of St. Patrick is by Probus; that of St. Columbanus by Jonas; and that of St. Arnolphus, of Metz, by Paul the Deacon: —
17. Carmen de Justini martyrio (St. Justin beheaded at Paris under Diocletian): —
18. Martyrologium. Composed, as he states, by himself, but altered and interpolated in subsequent times. See the Preface of the Bollandists, ad Januar. cap. 4, and Prolog. ad Mensem Mart. tom. 2, sec. 5. The corrupted Martyrology was given separately at Antwerp in 1564, 12mo: —
19. De situ Hierusalemn et locorum sanctorum: —
20. Interpretatio nominum Hebraicorum et Graecorum in S. Script. occurrentium: —
21. Excerpta et Collectanea. Unworthy altogether, in the opinion of Cave and Dupin, of Bede: —
22. In Hexaemeron, taken from Sts. Basil, Ambrose, and Augustine: —
23. In Pentateuchum et libros Regium: —
24. In Samuelem: —
25. In Esdram, Tobiam, Job (not by Bede, but by Philip of Syda, the presbyter), Proverbia, et Cantica: —
26. De Tabernaculo, ac vasis et vestibus ejus: —
27. Commentaria in IV Evangella et Acta Apost.: —
28. De nominibus locorum qui in Actis Apost. leguntur: —
29. Commentaria in Epp. Catholicas et ‘Apocalypsin: —
30. Retractationes et Quaestiones in Acta Apost.: —
31. Commentaria in omnes Epist. S. Pauli; a work almost entirely compiled from St. Augustine. (The most probable opinion is that this is a work of Florus, a deacon of Lyons, whose name it bears in three or four MSS. It is, however, certain [from himself] that Bede wrote such a commentary as the present, and Mabillon states that he found in two MSS., each eight hundred years old, A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, taken from St. Augustine, and attributed to Bede, but quite different from this which goes under his name. There can, therefore, be little doubt that the latter is the genuine work of Bede, and this of Florus): —
32. Homiliae de Tempore, viz., 33 for the summer, 32 for the summer festivals, 15 for the winter, 22 for Lent, 16 for the winter festivals, and various sermons to the people (Cologne, 1534): —
33. Liber de muliere forti. i.e. the Church: —32. Homiliae de Tempore, viz., 33 for the summer, 32 for the summer festivals, 15 for the winter, 22 for Lent, 16 for the winter festivals, and various sermons to the people (Cologne, 1534): —
34. De Officiis liber: —
35. Scintillae sive Loci Communes: —
36. Fragmenta in libros Sopientiales et Psalterii versus: —
37. De Templo Solomonis: —
38. Quaestiones in Octateuchum et IV libros Regum: —
39. Quaestiones Variae: —
40. Commentaria in Psalmos: —
41. Vocabulorum Psalterii Expositio: —
42. De Diapsalmate collectio: —
43. Sermo in id, “Dominus de caelo prospexit:” —
44. Commentarii in Boethii Libros de Trinitate: —
45. De septem verbis Christi: —
46. Meditationes Passionis Christi, per septem horas diei: —
47. De Remediis Peccatorum (his Penitential): —
48. Cunabula grammaticae artis Donati: —
49. De octo partibus Orationis: —
50. De Arte Metrica: —
51. De Orthographia: —
52. De schematibus S. Scripture: —
53. De trogis S. Scripturae; and various works relating to arithmetic, astronomy, etc. etc. All these works were collected and published at Paris, in 3 vols. fol., 1545, and again in 1554, in 8 vols.; also at Basle in 1563; at Cologne in 1612; and again in 1688, in 4 vols. fol. The Cologne edition of 1612 is very faulty. There is also a pretty complete edition in Migne, Patrologiae Cursus, vols. 90-96 (Paris, 1850, 6 vols. 8vo). An edition of the historical and theological works (edited by J. A. Giles, LL.D.) was published at London in 1842-3, in 12 vols. 8vo. The best edition of the Latin text of the Historia Ecclesiastica is that of Stevenson (London, 1838, 8vo), which gives also a Life of Bede (English version by Giles, London, 1840 and 1847, 8vo). Besides the above, we have —
54. Acta S. Cuthberti, attributed to Bede, and published by Canisius, Ant. Lect. 5, 692 (or 2:4, nov. ed.): —
55. Aristotelis Axiomata exposita (London, 1592, 8vo; Paris, 1604): —
56. Hymns. Edited by Cassander, with Scholia, among the works of that writer, 1616: —
57. Epistola apologetica ad Plegwinum Monachum —
58. Epistola ad Egbertum, Ebor. Antistitem
59. Vitae V. Abbatum Priorum Weremuthensium et Gervicensium, mentioned by William of Malmesbury, lib. 1, cap. 3. The last three works were published by Sir James Ware at Dublin, 1664, 8vo: —
60. Epistola ad Albinum (abbot of St. Peter's at Canterbury), given by Mabillon in the first volume of his Analecta: —61. Martyrologium, in heroic verse, given by D'Achery, Spicil. 2, 23. Many works of Bede still remain in MS.; a list is given by Cave. See Cave, Hist. Lit. anno 701; Dupin, Hist. Eccl. Writers, 2, 28; Landon, Eccl. Dict. 2, 118; Gehle, De Bedae vita et Scriptis (1838); Allibone, Dict. of Authors, 1, 154; North American Rev. July, 1861, art. 3; Biog. Univ. 4, 38; Engl. Cyclopaedia, s.v.