VI. Miscellaneous. Under this head come thirteen brief Letters^1037 and minor works of
doubtful genuineness. There are also numerous spurious works which bear his name, among which
are hymns.
§ 156. The Venerable Bede (Baeda).
I. Venerabilis Baeda: Opera omnia, in Migne, Tom. XC.-XCV., substantially a reprint of Dr. J. A.
Giles’ edition. London, 1843–1844, 12 vols. His Ecclesiastical History (Historica ecclesiastica)
has been often edited, e.g. by John Smith, Cambridge, 1722; Joseph Stevenson, London, 1838,
and in the Monumenta historica Britannica I. 1848; George H. Moberley, Oxford, 1869; Alfred
Holder, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1882. Books III.-V. 24 were separately ed. by John E. B. Mayor
and John R. Lumby, Cambridge, 1878. The best known English translation of the History is
Dr. Giles’ in his edition, and since 1844 in Bohn’s Antiquarian Library. His scientific writings
are contained in Thomas Wright: Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages.
London, 1841. Marshall translated his Explanation of the Apocalypse, London, 1878. For further
bibliographical information regarding the editions of Bede’s History, see Giles’ ed. ii. 5–8.
II. Biographies are contained in the above-mentioned editions. Hist. V. 24, and the letter on his
death by Cuthbert (Giles’ trans. in Bohn, pp. xviii.-xxi.) are the best original sources. The old
Vitae given in the complete editions are almost worthless. Modern works are Henrik Gehle:
Disputatio historico-theologica de Bedae venerabilis presbyteri Anglo-Saxonis vita et scriptis.
Leyden, 1838. Carl Schoell: De ecclesiasticae Britonum Scotorumque historiae fontibus. Berlin,
- Karl Werner: Beda der Ehrwürdige und seine Zeit. Wien, 1875. 2d ed. (unchanged),
- Geo. F. Browne: The Venerable Bede. London, 1879. Cf. Du Pin, VI. 89–91. Cave, II.
241–245. Ceillier, XII. 1–19. Clarke, II. 426–429. Bähr, IV. 175–178, 292–298. Ebert, I.
595–611.
The Venerable Bede (properly Baeda) is never spoken of without affectionate interest, and yet
so uneventful was his useful life that very little can be said about him personally. He was born in
673, probably in the village of Jarrow, on the south bank of the Tyne, Northumbria, near the Scottish
border. At the age of seven, being probably an orphan, he was placed in the monastery of St. Peter,
at Wearmouth, on the north bank of the Wear, which had been founded by Benedict Biscop in 674.
In 682 he was transferred to the newly-founded sister monastery of St. Paul, five miles off, at
Jarrow.^1038 He is not known ever to have gone away from it farther than to the sister monastery and
to visit friends in contiguous places, such as York. The stories of his visit to Rome and professorship
at Cambridge scarcely deserve mention. His first teacher was Benedict Biscop, a nobleman who
at twenty-five became a monk and freely put his property and his learning at the public service.
Biscop traveled five times to Rome and each time returned, like Ethelbert and Alcuin subsequently,
laden with rich literary spoils and also with pictures and relics. Thus the library at Wearmouth
became the largest and best appointed in England at the time.^1039 It was Biscop’s enterprise and
(^1037) Epistolae, ibid. col. 893-914.
(^1038) King Egfrid gave the land for these monasteries.
(^1039) Biscop was the first to import masons and glaziers into England, and to introduce the Roman liturgy and the art of
chanting.