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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Venerable Bede</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02384a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Benedictine monk, priest, historian, Doctor of the Church, d. 735"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="02384a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/b.htm">B</a> > The Venerable Bede</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>The Venerable Bede</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>Historian and <a href="../cathen/05075a.htm">Doctor of the Church</a>, born 672 or 673; died 735. In the last chapter of his great work on the "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" Bede has told us something of his own life, and it is, practically speaking, all that we <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a>. His words, written in 731, when death was not far off, not only show a simplicity and <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">piety</a> characteristic of the man, but they throw a light on the composition of the work through which he is best remembered by the world at large. He writes:</p> <blockquote><p>Thus much concerning the <a href="../cathen/07365a.htm">ecclesiastical history</a> of Britain, and especially of the race of the English, I, Baeda, a servant of Christ and a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> of the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of the blessed apostles St. Peter and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>, which is at <a href="../cathen/15572a.htm">Wearmouth</a> and at Jarrow (in Northumberland), have with the Lord's help composed so far as I could gather it either from ancient documents or from the traditions of the elders, or from my own <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a>. I was born in the territory of the said <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, and at the age of seven I was, by the care of my relations, given to the most reverend Abbot Benedict [<a href="../cathen/02441b.htm">St. Benedict Biscop</a>], and afterwards to Ceolfrid, to be <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educated</a>. From that time I have spent the whole of my life within that <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a>, devoting all my pains to the study of the Scriptures, and amid the observance of monastic discipline and the daily charge of singing in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, it has been ever my delight to learn or teach or write. In my nineteenth year I was admitted to the <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">diaconate</a>, in my thirtieth to the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a>, both by the hands of the most reverend Bishop John [<a href="../cathen/08469b.htm">St. John of Beverley</a>], and at the bidding of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my admission to the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a> to my present fifty-ninth year, I have endeavored for my own use and that of my brethren, to make brief notes upon the holy Scripture, either out of the works of the venerable Fathers or in conformity with their meaning and interpretation. </p></blockquote> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>After this Bede inserts a list or <em>Indiculus</em>, of his previous writings and finally concludes his great work with the following words:</p> <blockquote><p>And I <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">pray</a> thee, loving <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus</a>, that as Thou hast graciously given me to drink in with delight the words of Thy <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a>, so Thou wouldst mercifully grant me to attain one day to Thee, the fountain of all wisdom and to appear forever before Thy face.</p></blockquote> <p>It is plain from Bede's letter to Bishop Egbert that the historian occasionally visited his friends for a few days, away from his own <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of Jarrow, but with such rare exceptions his life seems to have been one peaceful round of study and <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> passed in the midst of his own community. How much he was beloved by them is made manifest by the touching account of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint's</a> last sickness and death left us by Cuthbert, one of his disciples. Their studious pursuits were not given up on account of his illness and they read aloud by his bedside, but constantly the reading was interrupted by their tears. "I can with truth declare", writes Cuthbert of his beloved master, "that I never saw with my eyes or heard with my ears anyone return thanks so unceasingly to the <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">living God</a>." Even on the day of his death (the vigil of the <a href="../cathen/01767b.htm">Ascension</a>, 735) the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint</a> was still busy dictating a translation of the Gospel of St. John. In the evening the boy Wilbert, who was writing it, said to him: "There is still one sentence, dear master, which is not written down." And when this had been supplied, and the boy had told him it was finished, "Thou hast spoken <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>", Bede answered, "it is finished. Take my head in thy hands for it much delights me to sit opposite any holy place where I used to <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">pray</a>, that so sitting I may call upon my Father." And thus upon the floor of his cell singing, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost" and the rest, he peacefully breathed his last breath.</p> <p>The title <em>Venerabilis</em> seems to have been associated with the name of Bede within two generations after his death. There is of course no early authority for the legend repeated by Fuller of the "dunce-monk" who in composing an epitaph on Bede was at a loss to complete the line: <em>Hac sunt in fossa Bedae . . . . ossa</em> and who next morning found that the <a href="../cathen/01476d.htm">angels</a> had filled the gap with the word <em>venerabilis.</em> The title is used by <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a>, Amalarius and seemingly <a href="../cathen/11591b.htm">Paul the Deacon</a>, and the important Council of <a href="../cathen/01001a.htm">Aachen</a> in 835 describes him as <em>venerabilis et modernis temporibus doctor admirabilis Beda.</em> This <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> was specially referred to in the petition which <a href="../cathen/15670a.htm">Cardinal Wiseman</a> and the <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">English</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> addressed to the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> in 1859 <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">praying</a> that Bede might be declared a <a href="../cathen/05075a.htm">Doctor of the Church</a>. The question had already been debated even before the time of <a href="../cathen/02432a.htm">Benedict XIV</a>, but it was only on 13 November, 1899, that <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a> decreed that the feast of Venerable Bede with the title of <em>Doctor Ecclesiae</em> should be celebrated throughout the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> each year on 27 May. A local cultus of St. Bede had been maintained at York and in the North of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> throughout the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>, but his feast was not so generally observed in the South, where the <a href="../cathen/13479a.htm">Sarum Rite</a> was followed.</p> <p>Bede's influence both upon English and foreign scholarship was very great, and it would probably have been greater still but for the devastation inflicted upon the Northern <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> by the inroads of the Danes less than a century after his death. In numberless ways, but especially in his moderation, gentleness, and breadth of view, Bede stands out from his contemporaries. In point of scholarship he was undoubtedly the most learned man of his time. A very remarkable trait, noticed by Plummer (I, p. xxiii), is his sense of literary <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>, an extraordinary thing in that age. He himself scrupulously noted in his writings the passages he had borrowed from others and he even begs the copyists of his works to preserve the references, a recommendation to which they, alas, have paid but little attention. High, however, as was the general level of Bede's culture, he repeatedly makes it clear that all his studies were subordinated to the interpretation of Scripture. In his "De Schematibus" he says in so many words: "<a href="../bible">Holy Scripture</a> is above all other books not only by its authority because it is Divine, or by its utility because it leads to eternal life, but also by its antiquity and its literary form" (<em>positione dicendi</em>). It is perhaps the highest tribute to Bede's genius that with so uncompromising and evidently sincere a conviction of the inferiority of human learning, he should have acquired so much real culture. Though Latin was to him a still living tongue, and though he does not seem to have consciously looked back to the Augustan Age of Roman Literature as preserving purer models of literary style than the time of <a href="../cathen/06149a.htm">Fortunatus</a> or <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a>, still whether through native genius or through contact with the classics, he is remarkable for the relative purity of his language, as also for his lucidity and sobriety, more especially in matters of historical criticism. In all these respects he presents a marked contrast to <a href="../cathen/01280b.htm">St. Aldhelm</a> who approaches more nearly to the Celtic type.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>Writings and editions</h2> <p>No adequate edition founded upon a careful collation of <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> has ever been published of Bede's works as a whole. The text printed by Giles in 1884 and reproduced in <a href="../cathen/10290a.htm">Migne</a> (XC-XCIV) shows little if any advance on the basic edition of 1563 or the Cologne edition of 1688. It is of course as an historian that Bede is chiefly remembered. His great work, the "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum", giving an account of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> from the beginning until his own day, is the foundation of all our <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of British history and a masterpiece eulogized by the scholars of every age. Of this work, together with the "Historia Abbatum", and the "Letter to Egbert", Plummer has produced an edition which may fairly be called final (2 vols., Oxford, 1896). Bede's remarkable industry in collecting materials and his critical use of them have been admirably illustrated in Plummer's Introduction (pp. xliii-xlvii). The "History of the Abbots" (of the twin <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/15572a.htm">Wearmouth</a> and Jarrow), the Letter to Egbert", the metrical and prose lives of <a href="../cathen/04578a.htm">St. Cuthbert</a>, and the other smaller pieces are also of great value for the light they shed upon the state of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> in Northumbria in Bede's own day. The "Ecclesiastical History" was translated into Anglo-Saxon at the instance of <a href="../cathen/01309d.htm">King Alfred</a>. It has often been translated since, notably by <a href="../cathen/14249b.htm">T. Stapleton</a> who printed it (1565) at <a href="../cathen/01588e.htm">Antwerp</a> as a controversial weapon against the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a> divines in the reign of Elizabeth. The Latin text first appeared in <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> in 1475; it is noteworthy that no edition even of the Latin was printed in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> before 1643. Smith's more accurate text saw the light in 1742.</p> <p>Bede's chronological treatises "De temporibus liber" and "De temporum ratione" also contain summaries of the general history of the world from the Creation to 725 and 703, respectively. These historical portions have been satisfactorily edited by Mommsen in the "Monumenta Germaniae historica" (4to series, 1898). They may be counted among the earliest specimens of this type of general chronical and were largely copied and imitated. The topographical work "De locis sanctis" is a description of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and the holy places based upon <a href="../cathen/01135c.htm">Adamnan</a> and <a href="../cathen/01699b.htm">Arculfus</a>. Bede's work was edited in 1898 by Geyer in the "Itinera Hierosolymitana" for the <a href="../cathen/15417a.htm">Vienna</a> "Corpus Scriptorum". That Bede compiled a Martyrologium we <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> from his own statement. But the work attributed to him in extant <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> has been so much interpolated and supplemented that his share in it is quite uncertain.</p> <p>Bede's <a href="../cathen/05692b.htm">exegetical</a> writings both in his own <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> and in that of his contemporaries stood supreme in importance among his works, but the list is long and cannot fully be given here. They included a commentary upon the <a href="../cathen/11646c.htm">Pentateuch</a> as a whole as well as on selected portions, and there are also commentaries on the Books of Kings, Esdras, Tobias, the Canticles, etc. In the <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testament</a> he has certainly interpreted <a href="../cathen/09674b.htm">St. Mark</a>, <a href="../cathen/09420a.htm">St. Luke</a>, the <a href="../cathen/01117a.htm">Acts</a>, the <a href="../cathen/05509a.htm">Canonical Epistles</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/01594b.htm">Apocalypse</a>. But the authenticity of the commentary on St. Matthew printed under his name is more than <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a>. (Plaine in "Revue Anglo-Romaine", 1896, III, 61.) The <a href="../cathen/07448a.htm">homilies</a> of Bede take the form of commentaries upon the Gospel. The collection of fifty, divided into two books, which are attributed to him by Giles (and in <a href="../cathen/10290a.htm">Migne</a>) are for the most part authentic, but the genuineness of a few is open to suspicion. (Morin in "Revue Bénédictine", IX, 1892, 316.)</p> <p>Various didactic works are mentioned by Bede in the list which he has left us of his own writings. Most of these are still preserved and there is no reason to <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> that the texts we possess are authentic. The grammatical treatises "De arte metricâ" and "De orthographiâ" have been adequately edited in modern times by Keil in his "Grammatici Latini" (Leipzig, 1863). But the larger works "De naturâ rerum", "De temporibus", "De temporium ratione", dealing with <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a> as it was then understood and especially with <a href="../cathen/03738a.htm">chronology</a>, are only accessible in the unsatisfactory texts of the earlier editors and Giles. Beyond the metrical life of <a href="../cathen/04578a.htm">St. Cuthbert</a> and some verses incorporated in the Ecclesiastical History" we do not possess much poetry that can be assigned to Bede with confidence, but, like other scholars of his age, he certainly wrote a good deal of verse. He himself mentions his "book of <a href="../cathen/07595a.htm">hymns</a>" composed in different meters or rhythms. So <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a> says of him: <em>Plurima versifico cecinit quoque carmina plectro.</em> It is possible that the shorter of the two metrical <a href="../cathen/03158a.htm">calendars</a> printed among his works is genuine. The Penitential ascribed to Bede, though accepted as genuine by Haddan and Stubbs and Wasserschleben, is probably not his (Plummer, I, 157).</p> <p>Venerable Bede is the earliest witness of pure <a href="../cathen/06779a.htm">Gregorian tradition</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>. His works "Musica theoretica" and "De arte Metricâ" (<a href="../cathen/10290a.htm">Migne</a>, XC) are found especially valuable by present-day scholars engaged in the study of the primitive form of the chant.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Thurston, H.</span> <span id="apayear">(1907).</span> <span id="apaarticle">The Venerable Bede.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02384a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Thurston, Herbert.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"The Venerable Bede."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 2.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1907.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02384a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Paul Knutsen.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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