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114-535: Plummer was an editor of Bede , and also edited numerous Irish and Hiberno-Latin texts, including the two volume Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (1910), a modern companion volume to which is Richard Sharpe 's Medieval Irish saints' lives: an introduction to Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae . Plummer edited John Earle 's Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (1865), producing a Revised Text with notes, appendices, and glossary in 1892. This work presented

228-457: A puer oblatus to the monastery of Monkwearmouth by his family to be educated by Benedict Biscop and later by Ceolfrith . Bede does not say whether it was already intended at that point that he would be a monk. It was fairly common in Ireland at this time for young boys, particularly those of noble birth, to be fostered out as an oblate; the practice was also likely to have been common among

342-523: A penitential , though his authorship of this work is disputed. Bede's best-known work is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , or An Ecclesiastical History of the English People , completed in about 731. Bede was aided in writing this book by Albinus , abbot of St Augustine's Abbey , Canterbury . The first of the five books begins with some geographical background and then sketches

456-562: A "Nature Goddess" pattern, with a stole and decoration in extremely rare Anglian embroidery or opus anglicanum , which had been deposited in his tomb by King Æthelstan (r. 927–939) on a pilgrimage while Cuthbert's shrine was at Chester-le-Street. Cuthbert's shrine was destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but, unusually, his relics survived and are still interred at the site, although they were also disinterred in

570-490: A daughter-house of Lindisfarne, today in Scotland. He decided to become a monk after seeing a vision on the night in 651 that Aidan , the founder of Lindisfarne, died, but he seems to have experienced some period of military service beforehand. He was made guest-master at the new monastery at Ripon , soon after 655, but had to return with Eata of Hexham to Melrose when Wilfrid was given the monastery instead. About 662 he

684-408: 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:

798-537: A good example of how St Cuthbert was regarded as a protector of his people. A modern interpretation of the Banner, designed by Northumbria University academic Fiona Raeside-Elliott and embroidered by local textile artist Ruth O'Leary, is now on display at the saint's shrine in Durham Cathedral. Cuthbert's cult also appealed to the converted Danes, who now made up much of the population of Kingdom of York , and

912-641: A milkman Sean Connery , who later played James Bond . The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle holds St Cuthbert as its patron saint, with the consecration of bishops in the diocese always taking place on 20 March, Cuthbert's feast day in the Catholic Church. Many churches are named after Cuthbert. An Orthodox Community in Chesterfield , England, has taken St Cuthbert as their patron. Fossilised crinoid columnals extracted from limestone quarried on Lindisfarne, or found washed up along

1026-679: 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 medieval 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 ,

1140-442: A new monastery at Ripon , Cuthbert became its praepositus hospitum or guest master under Eata. When Wilfrid was made abbot of the monastery, Eata and Cuthbert returned to Melrose. Illness struck the monastery in 664 and while Cuthbert recovered, the prior died and Cuthbert was made prior in his place. He spent much time among the people, ministering to their spiritual needs, carrying out missionary journeys, and preaching. After

1254-624: A powerful symbol of the autonomy the region enjoyed. The inhabitants of the Palatinate became known as the haliwerfolc , which roughly translates as "people of the saint", and Cuthbert gained a reputation as fiercely protective of his domain. For example, there is a story that at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, the Prior of the Abbey at Durham received a vision of Cuthbert, ordering him to take

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1368-535: A resting place at the still existing St Cuthbert's church in Chester-le-Street until 995, when another Danish invasion led to its removal to Ripon. Then the saint intimated, as it was believed, that he wished to remain in Durham. A new stone church—the so-called "White Church"—was built, the predecessor of the present grand Cathedral. In 999, his relics were enshrined in the new church on 4 September, which

1482-595: A rhetorical device. 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. 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

1596-522: A scribe, however, and despite spending the night awake in prayer he dictated again the following day. 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. The account of Cuthbert does not make entirely clear whether Bede died before midnight or after. However, by

1710-524: A singer and as a reciter of poetry in the vernacular. It is possible that he suffered a speech impediment, but this depends on a phrase in the introduction to his verse life of St Cuthbert. Translations of this phrase differ, and it is uncertain whether Bede intended to say that he was cured of a speech problem, or merely that he was inspired by the saint's works. In 708, some monks at Hexham accused Bede of having committed heresy in his work De Temporibus . The standard theological view of world history at

1824-520: A source for Germanus 's visits to Britain. Bede's account of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is drawn largely from Gildas 's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae . Bede would also have been familiar with more recent accounts such as Stephen of Ripon 's Life of Wilfrid , and anonymous Life of Gregory the Great and Life of Cuthbert . He also drew on Josephus 's Antiquities , and

1938-519: A tradition of Christian faith that continues. 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

2052-750: A translation of the Greek Passion of St Anastasius . He also created a listing of saints, the Martyrology . In his own time, Bede was as well known for his biblical commentaries, and for his exegetical and 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

2166-477: A verse and a prose life of St. Cuthbert around 720. He has been described as "perhaps the most popular saint in Britain prior to the death of Thomas Becket in 1170." In 698, Cuthbert was reburied at Lindisfarne in the decorated oak coffin now usually meant by St Cuthbert's coffin, though he was to have many more coffins. In 995, the "community of Cuthbert" founded and settled at Durham, guided by what they thought

2280-684: A version of the Liber Pontificalis current at least to the papacy of Pope Sergius I (687–701), 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 . His other historical works included lives of the abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, as well as verse and prose lives of St Cuthbert , an adaptation of Paulinus of Nola 's Life of St Felix , and

2394-664: Is St Cuthbert's RC High School in Rochdale . Founded in 1968 as Bishop Henshaw School it was renamed to its current name in the late 1980s. The school's badge includes the St Cuthbert Cross and the motto "In Christ We Serve". St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society (now Scotmid ) opened its first shop in Edinburgh in 1859, and expanded to become one of the largest co-ops in Scotland. Its dairy used horse-drawn delivery floats until 1985, and between 1944 and 1959 employed as

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2508-546: Is also the namesake of St Cuthbert's College in Epsom, New Zealand ; St Cuthbert's Day on 21 March is a day of school celebration. The school's houses are named after important locations in the life of the saint: Dunblane (yellow), Elgin (green), Iona (purple), Kelso (blue), Lindisfarne (white), Melrose (red), York (orange) and Durham (pink). St Cuthbert's High School , a Roman Catholic school in Newcastle upon Tyne ,

2622-794: Is believed to have been used by Bede survives and is now in the Bodleian Library at University of Oxford . It is known as the Codex Laudianus . Bede may have worked on some of the Latin Bibles that were copied at Jarrow, one of which, the Codex Amiatinus , is now held by the Laurentian Library in Florence . Bede was a teacher as well as a writer; he enjoyed music and was said to be accomplished as

2736-560: 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

2850-593: Is kept as the feast of his translation at Durham Cathedral and as an optional memorial in the Catholic Church in England. In 1069 Bishop Æthelwine attempted to transport Cuthbert's body to Lindisfarne to escape from King William at the start of the Harrying of the North . In 1104 Cuthbert's tomb was opened again and his relics translated to a new shrine behind the altar of the recently completed Cathedral. When

2964-408: Is known of Bede's life is contained in the last chapter of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People , a history of the church in England. It was completed in about 731, and Bede implies that he was then in his fifty-ninth year, which would give a birth date in 672 or 673. A minor source of information is the letter by his disciple Cuthbert (not to be confused with the saint, Cuthbert , who

3078-589: Is known to have visited Bede, though the date cannot be determined beyond the fact that it was after Nothhelm's visit to Rome. Except for a few visits to other monasteries, his life was spent in a round of prayer, observance of the monastic discipline and study of the Sacred Scriptures. He was considered the most learned man of his time. Bede died on the Feast of the Ascension , Thursday, 26 May 735, on

3192-576: 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. As Chapter 66 of his On the Reckoning of Time , in 725 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

3306-556: Is mentioned in Bede's work) which relates Bede's death. Bede, in the Historia , gives his birthplace as "on the lands of this monastery". He is referring to the twin monasteries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, in modern-day Wearside and Tyneside respectively. There is also a tradition that he was born at Monkton , two miles from the site where the monastery at Jarrow was later built. Bede says nothing of his origins, but his connections with men of noble ancestry suggest that his own family

3420-416: Is named after the saint. St Cuthbert's Day is celebrated with Mass, and the school prayers include reference to their patron saint (always ending with the invocation "St Cuthbert, pray for us"). The school badge features a bishop's crook in reference to St Cuthbert's time as a bishop, as well as ducks, reflecting his love of the animals. Another Roman Catholic secondary school to bear the name of St Cuthbert

3534-629: Is taken from these letters. Bede acknowledged his correspondents in the preface to the Historia Ecclesiastica ; he was in contact with Bishop Daniel 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

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3648-535: 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 it is now so widely used. Bede's Easter table, contained in De Temporum Ratione , was developed from Dionysius Exiguus' Easter table . The Historia Ecclesiastica was copied often in

3762-566: 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 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

3876-631: 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 . 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

3990-518: The Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles . Born on lands belonging to the twin monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow in present-day Tyne and Wear , England, Bede was sent to Monkwearmouth at the age of seven and later joined Abbot Ceolfrith at Jarrow . Both of them survived a plague that struck in 686 and killed the majority of the population there. While Bede spent most of his life in the monastery, he travelled to several abbeys and monasteries across

4104-592: The Kingdom of Northumbria , today in northern England and southern Scotland. Both during his life and after his death, he became a popular medieval saint of Northern England , with a cult centred on his tomb at Durham Cathedral . Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northumbria. His feast days are 20 March ( Catholic Church , Church of England , Eastern Orthodox Church , Episcopal Church ) and 4 September ( Church in Wales , Catholic Church). Cuthbert grew up in or around Lauderdale , near Old Melrose Abbey ,

4218-474: The Synod of Whitby in 664. 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. N. J. Higham argues that Bede designed his work to promote his reform agenda to Ceolwulf,

4332-467: The Synod of Whitby , Cuthbert seems to have accepted the Roman customs, and his old abbot Eata called on him to introduce them at Lindisfarne as prior there. His asceticism was complemented by his charm and generosity to the poor, and his reputation for gifts of healing and insight led many people to consult him, gaining him the name of "Wonder Worker of Britain". He continued his missionary work, travelling

4446-518: The corporal cloth of the saint and raise it on a spear point near the battlefield as a banner. Doing this, the Prior and his monks found themselves protected "by the mediation of holy St Cuthbert and the presence of the said holy Relic". Whether the story of the vision is true or not, the banner of St Cuthbert was regularly carried in battle against the Scots until the Reformation , and it serves as

4560-443: The 19th century, when his wooden coffin and various relics were removed. St Cuthbert's coffin (actually one of a series of several coffins), as reconstructed by Ernst Kitzinger and others, remains at the cathedral and is an important rare survival of Northumbrian carving on wood. When the coffin was last inspected on 17 May 1827, a 'Saxon' square cross of gold, embellished with garnets, in the characteristic splayed shape, used later as

4674-531: The A and E texts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Plummer delivered the Ford Lectures at Oxford University in 1901. This article about a British historian or genealogist is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bede Bede ( / b iː d / ; Old English : Bēda [ˈbeːdɑ] ; 672/3 – 26 May 735), also known as Saint Bede ,

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4788-533: The Anglo-Saxon period". His 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

4902-637: The Anglo-Saxons whom he regards as having held imperium , or overlordship; only one king of Wessex, Ceawlin , is listed as Bretwalda , 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

5016-465: The British Isles, even visiting the archbishop of York and King Ceolwulf of Northumbria . His theological writings were extensive and included a number of Biblical commentaries and other works of exegetical erudition. Another important area of study for Bede was the academic discipline of computus , otherwise known to his contemporaries as the science of calculating calendar dates. One of

5130-475: The Danes his remains chose, as was thought, to settle at Durham , causing the foundation of the city and Durham Cathedral. The St Cuthbert Gospel is among the objects later recovered from St Cuthbert's coffin , which is also an important artefact. After Cuthbert's death, numerous miracles were attributed to his intercession and to intercessory prayer near his remains. The 8th-century historian Bede wrote both

5244-673: 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 . 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

5358-564: The Germanic peoples in England. Monkwearmouth's sister monastery at Jarrow was founded by Ceolfrith in 682, and Bede probably transferred to Jarrow with Ceolfrith that year. The dedication stone for the church has survived as of 1969 ; it is dated 23 April 685, and as Bede would have been required to assist with menial tasks in his day-to-day life it is possible that he helped in building the original church. In 686, plague broke out at Jarrow. The Life of Ceolfrith , written in about 710, records that only two surviving monks were capable of singing

5472-461: The Gregorian mission, Goffart feels was modelled on 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. Bede's stylistic models included some of the same authors from whom he drew the material for

5586-527: The Middle Ages, and about 160 manuscripts containing it survive. About half of those are located on the European continent, rather than in 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

5700-585: The Northumbrian king. Bede painted a highly optimistic picture of the current situation in the Church, as opposed to the more pessimistic picture found in his private letters. Bede's extensive use of miracles can prove difficult for readers who consider him a more or less reliable historian but do not accept the possibility of miracles. Yet both reflect an inseparable integrity and regard for accuracy and truth, expressed in terms both of historical events and of

5814-621: 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. Cuthbert Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( c.  634 – 20 March 687) was a saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition . He was a monk , bishop and hermit , associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in

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5928-477: The Roman forms, apparently without difficulty, after the Synod of Whitby in 664. The earliest biographies concentrate on the many miracles that accompanied even his early life, but he was evidently indefatigable as a travelling priest spreading the Christian message to remote villages, and also well able to impress royalty and nobility. Unlike Wilfrid, his style of life was austere, and when he could, he lived

6042-478: The University of Durham, also features St Cuthbert's Cross on its arms, granted in 1937. The Newcastle University arms are blazoned Azure, a Cross of St Cuthbert Argent, and on a chief of the last a lion passant guardant Gules. ('A silver Cross of St Cuthbert on a blue shield, with a red lion walking and looking towards you on the silver top third portion of the shield.') The cross of St Cuthbert also features on

6156-604: The Venerable Bede , and Bede the Venerable ( Latin : Beda Venerabilis ), was an English monk , author and scholar. He was one of the greatest teachers and writers during the Early Middle Ages , and his most famous work, Ecclesiastical History of the English People , gained him the title "The Father of English History ". He served at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in

6270-416: The abbess of Ely. Wilfrid had been present at the exhumation of her body in 695, and Bede questioned the bishop about the exact circumstances of the body and asked for more details of her life, as Wilfrid had been her advisor. In 733, Bede travelled to York to visit Ecgbert, who was then bishop of York . The See of York was elevated to an archbishopric in 735, and it is likely that Bede and Ecgbert discussed

6384-466: The abbot during this visit, and it may be that Adomnán sparked Bede's interest in the Easter dating controversy . In about 692, in Bede's nineteenth year, Bede was ordained a deacon by his diocesan bishop, John , who was bishop of Hexham . The canonical age for the ordination of a deacon was 25; Bede's early ordination may mean that his abilities were considered exceptional, but it is also possible that

6498-429: 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. 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

6612-464: The aim of all his scholarship, was a belief common among historians in the past but is no longer accepted by most scholars. Modern historians and editors of Bede have been lavish in their praise of his achievement in the Historia Ecclesiastica . Stenton regards it as one of the "small class of books which transcend all but the most fundamental conditions of time and place", and regards its quality as dependent on Bede's "astonishing power of co-ordinating

6726-517: The annual college day, is celebrated in the Easter term with music, entertainment, festivities and drinking. Cuddy's Corse is a waymarked walking route between Chester-Le-Street and Durham Cathedral; it marks the journey between two of the last resting places of the coffin. Worksop College , founded as St Cuthbert's in 1895, was the last of the Woodard Schools to be opened. St Cuthbert

6840-453: The badges of the two Anglican secondary schools in Tyne and Wear , namely Dame Allan's Schools and Sunderland High School. St Cuthbert's Society , a college of Durham University established in 1888, is named after him and is located only a short walk from the coffin of the saint at Durham Cathedral. The Society celebrates St Cuthbert's Day on or around each 20 March with a feast. "Cuth's Day",

6954-545: The breadth of the country from Berwick to Galloway to carry out pastoral work and founding an oratory at Dull, Scotland , complete with a large stone cross, and a little cell for himself. He is also said to have founded St Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh . Cuthbert retired in 676, moved by the desire for a more contemplative life. With his abbot's leave, he moved to a spot which Archbishop Eyre identifies with St Cuthbert's Island near Lindisfarne, but which Raine thinks

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7068-451: The casket was opened, a small book of the Gospel of John , measuring 138 by 92 millimetres (5.4 × 3.6 inches), now known as the Saint Cuthbert Gospel (now British Library Additional MS 89000, formerly known as the Stonyhurst Gospel), was found. This is the oldest Western book to have retained its original bookbinding , in finely decorated leather. Also recovered much later were a set of vestments of 909–916, made of Byzantine silk with

7182-406: The classroom. He continued to write for the rest of his life, eventually completing over 60 books, most of which have survived. Not all his output can be easily dated, and Bede may have worked on some texts over a period of many years. His last surviving work is a letter to Ecgbert of York , a former student, written in 734. A 6th-century Greek and Latin manuscript of Acts of the Apostles that

7296-400: 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 argued that these passages are Bede employing

7410-562: The coronation of Charlemagne in 800. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church . He is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation. Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work made the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers much more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons , which contributed significantly to English Christianity . Bede's monastery had access to an impressive library which included works by Eusebius , Orosius , and many others. Almost everything that

7524-444: 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

7638-439: The daughter of Oswiu of Northumbria , who succeeded St Hilda as abbess of Whitby in 680. The meeting was held on Coquet Island , further south. In 684, Cuthbert was elected Bishop of Hexham at a synod at Twyford (believed to be present-day Alnmouth ), but was reluctant to leave his retirement and take up his charge; it was only after a visit from a large group, including King Ecgfrith , that he agreed to return and take up

7752-406: The departure of the Romans, earn Bede's ire for refusing to help convert the Anglo-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

7866-420: The duties of bishop, but instead as Bishop of Lindisfarne , swapping with Eata, who went to Hexham in Cuthbert's place. Cuthbert was consecrated at York by Archbishop Theodore and six bishops, on 26 March 685. But after Christmas 686, he returned to his cell on Inner Farne Island, where he died on 20 March 687, after a painful illness. He was buried at Lindisfarne the same day, and after long journeys escaping

7980-606: The earlier parts of his history. 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. 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

8094-402: 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. 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

8208-411: The first time between 1474 and 1482, probably at Strasbourg . Modern historians have studied the Historia extensively, and several 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,

8322-713: The floor of his cell, singing "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit" and was buried at Jarrow. Cuthbert, a disciple of Bede's, wrote a letter to a Cuthwin (of whom nothing else is known), describing Bede's last days and his death. According to Cuthbert, Bede fell ill, "with frequent attacks of breathlessness but almost without pain", before Easter. On the Tuesday, two days before Bede died, his breathing became worse and his feet swelled. He continued to dictate to

8436-526: The foreshore, which were threaded into necklaces or rosaries, became known as St. Cuthbert's beads . In Northumberland, the eider duck is known as the cuddy duck. While on the Farne Islands, Cuthbert instituted special laws to protect the ducks and other seabirds nesting on the islands. They still breed in their thousands off the present day Northumberland coast. In Cumbria, the civil parish and hamlet of Holme St Cuthbert are named after him, as

8550-434: 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 describes 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

8664-427: The full offices; one was Ceolfrith and the other a young boy, who according to the anonymous writer had been taught by Ceolfrith. The two managed to do the entire service of the liturgy until others could be trained. The young boy was almost certainly Bede, who would have been about 14. When Bede was about 17 years old, Adomnán , the abbot of Iona Abbey , visited Monkwearmouth and Jarrow. Bede would probably have met

8778-465: The heraldic emblem of St Cuthbert in the arms of Durham and Newcastle universities, was found. The flag of County Durham since 2013 features the Cross of St Cuthbert, counterchanged in the county colours of blue and gold. The flag of Kirkcudbrightshire in Scotland since 2016 likewise features the Cross of St Cuthbert, whose name is the origin of the county's name. The Cross of St Cuthbert features as

8892-521: The hills near that monastery. He appears to have undergone military service, but at some point he joined the very new monastery at Melrose, under the prior Boisil . Upon Boisil's death in 661, Cuthbert succeeded him as prior. Cuthbert was possibly a second cousin of King Aldfrith of Northumbria (according to Irish genealogies), which may explain his later proposal that Aldfrith should be crowned as monarch. Cuthbert's fame for piety, diligence, and obedience grew. When Alchfrith , king of Deira , founded

9006-533: The history of England, beginning with Caesar's invasion in 55 BC. A brief account of Christianity in Roman Britain, including the martyrdom of St Alban , is followed by the story of Augustine 's mission to England in 597, which brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons . The second book begins with the death of Gregory the Great in 604 and follows the further progress of Christianity in Kent and

9120-578: The king indicates that Bede's monastery had 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. For the period prior to Augustine's arrival in 597, Bede drew on earlier writers, including Solinus . He had access to two works of Eusebius:

9234-470: The letters imply that Bede had met his correspondents, it is likely that Bede travelled to some other places, although nothing further about timing or locations can be guessed. It seems certain that he did not visit Rome, however, as he did not mention it in the autobiographical chapter of his Historia Ecclesiastica . Nothhelm , a correspondent of Bede's who assisted him by finding documents for him in Rome,

9348-700: The life of a hermit, though still receiving many visitors. In Cuthbert's time the Kingdom of Northumbria included, in modern terms, northern England and southern Scotland on an intermittent and fluid basis as far north as the Firth of Forth . Cuthbert may have been from the neighbourhood of Dunbar at the mouth of the Firth of Forth in modern-day Scotland, though The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints ("Butler's Lives"), by Alban Butler records that he

9462-512: The materials in his history. Modern studies have shown the important role such concepts played in the world-view of Early Medieval scholars. 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 . He has been credited with writing

9576-480: The minimum age requirement was often disregarded. There might have been minor orders ranking below a deacon; but there is no record of whether Bede held any of these offices. In Bede's thirtieth year (about 702), he became a priest, with the ordination again performed by Bishop John. In about 701 Bede wrote his first works, the De Arte Metrica and De Schematibus et Tropis ; both were intended for use in

9690-507: The monastery at Lindisfarne where Cuthbert was to spend much of his life. This was around 635, about the time Cuthbert was born. The tension between the Roman and Celtic Christianity, often exacerbated by Cuthbert's near-contemporary Wilfrid , an intransigent and quarrelsome supporter of Roman ways, was to be a major feature of Cuthbert's lifetime. Cuthbert himself, though educated in the Celtic tradition, followed his mentor Eata in accepting

9804-437: The more important dates Bede tried to compute was Easter, an effort that was mired in controversy. He also helped popularize the practice of dating forward from the birth of Christ ( Anno Domini — in the year of our Lord), a practice which eventually became commonplace in medieval Europe. He is considered by many historians to be the most important scholar of antiquity for the period between the death of Pope Gregory I in 604 and

9918-562: The principal charge on the coat of arms of the University of Durham , granted in 1843, blazoned Argent, a Cross of St Cuthbert Gules, on a canton Azure, a chevron Or, between three lions rampant of the first ('A red Cross of St Cuthbert on a silver shield, with three silver fighting lions around a gold chevron on a blue square in the top left-hand corner'). The Cross also features in the arms of many of its constituent colleges. The University of Newcastle upon Tyne , formerly King's College in

10032-420: The proposal for the elevation during his visit. Bede hoped to visit Ecgbert again in 734 but was too ill to make the journey. Bede also travelled to the monastery of Lindisfarne and at some point visited the otherwise unknown monastery of a monk named Wicthed, a visit that is mentioned in a letter to that monk. Because of his widespread correspondence with others throughout the British Isles, and because many of

10146-401: The reckoning of Bede's time, passage from the old day to the new occurred at sunset, not midnight, and Cuthbert is clear that he died after sunset. Thus, while his box was brought at three o'clock Wednesday afternoon of 25 May, by the time of the final dictation it was considered 26 May, although it might still have been 25 May in modern usage. Cuthbert's letter also relates a five-line poem in

10260-680: The river Tweed', who waged an unsuccessful campaign against the Scots at the Battle of Carham in 1018. By the later 11th century the Bishops of Durham had established a semi-autonomous region known as the Liberty of Durham , later the Palatinate of Durham , between the Tyne and Tees. Within this area the Bishop of Durham had almost as much power as the king of England himself, and the saint became

10374-562: The sons of the Saxon founder of Portsmouth . The Liber Vitae of Durham Cathedral names two priests with this name, one of whom is presumably Bede himself. Some manuscripts of the Life of Cuthbert , one of Bede's works, mention that Cuthbert 's own priest was named Bede; it is possible that this priest is the other name listed in the Liber Vitae . At the age of seven, Bede was sent as

10488-492: The steady growth of Cuthbert's posthumous cultus , to the point where he became the most popular saint of Northern England and Southern Scotland. Numerous miracles were attributed to his intercession and to intercessory prayer near his remains. In 875 the Danes took the monastery of Lindisfarne and the monks fled, carrying St Cuthbert's body with them around various places including Melrose . After seven years' wandering it found

10602-458: 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

10716-489: 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 Gregorian mission , Goffart feels that Bede used De excidio . The second section, detailing the Gregorian mission of Augustine of Canterbury was framed on Life of Gregory the Great written at Whitby. The last section, detailing events after

10830-403: 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 church over the correct method of obtaining the Easter date. Bede is described by Michael Lapidge as "without question the most accomplished Latinist produced in these islands in

10944-553: 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 adds 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

11058-539: The time was known as the Six Ages of the World ; in his book, Bede calculated the age of the world for himself, rather than accepting the authority of Isidore of Seville , and came to the conclusion that Christ had been born 3,952 years after the creation of the world, rather than the figure of over 5,000 years that was commonly accepted by theologians. The accusation occurred in front of the bishop of Hexham, Wilfrid , who

11172-601: The title of Doctor Anglorum and why he was declared 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 sixteenth century—see below) that had theological implications. In order to do this, he learned Greek and attempted to learn Hebrew. He spent time reading and rereading both

11286-436: 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." At the time Bede wrote the Historia Ecclesiastica , there were two common ways of referring to dates. One was to use indictions , which were 15-year cycles, counting from 312 AD. There were three different varieties of indiction, each starting on

11400-412: The vernacular that Bede composed on his deathbed, known as " Bede's Death Song ". It is the most-widely copied Old English poem and appears in 45 manuscripts, but its attribution to Bede is not 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

11514-428: 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

11628-501: The works of Dionysius Exiguus . He probably drew his account of 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 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

11742-564: Was also adopted by the Normans when they took over England. Cuthbert's shrine at Durham Cathedral was a major pilgrimage site throughout the Middle Ages, until stripped by Henry VIII's commissioners in the Dissolution of the Monasteries . According to Bede 's life of the saint, when Cuthbert's sarcophagus was opened eleven years after his death, his body was found to have been perfectly preserved or incorrupt . This apparent miracle led to

11856-459: Was fostered as a child near Melrose. Fostering is possibly a sign of noble birth, as are references to his riding a horse when young. One night while still a boy, employed as a shepherd, he had a vision of the soul of Aidan being carried to heaven by angels , and later found out that Aidan had died that night. Edwin Burton finds it a suggestion of lowly parentage that as a boy he used to tend sheep on

11970-599: 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

12084-647: Was made prior at Melrose, and around 665 went as prior to Lindisfarne. In 684 he was made bishop of Lindisfarne, but by late 686 he resigned and returned to his hermitage as he felt he was about to die. He was probably in his early 50s. Cuthbert was born (perhaps into a noble family) in Dunbar , then in Northumbria, and now in East Lothian, Scotland , in the mid-630s, some ten years after the conversion of King Edwin of Northumbria to Christianity in 627, which

12198-466: Was near Holburn , at a place now known as St Cuthbert's Cave . Shortly afterwards, Cuthbert moved to Inner Farne island, two miles from Bamburgh , where he gave himself up to a life of great austerity. At first he received visitors, but later he confined himself to his cell and opened his window only to give his blessing. He could not refuse an interview with the holy abbess and royal virgin Elfleda ,

12312-436: Was present at a feast when some drunken monks made the accusation. Wilfrid did not respond to the accusation, but a monk present relayed the episode to Bede, who replied within a few days to the monk, writing a letter setting forth his defence and asking that the letter also be read to Wilfrid. Bede had another brush with Wilfrid, for the historian says that he met Wilfrid sometime between 706 and 709 and discussed Æthelthryth ,

12426-443: Was slowly followed by that of the rest of his people. The politics of the kingdom were violent, and there were later episodes of pagan rule, while spreading understanding of Christianity through the kingdom was a task that lasted throughout Cuthbert's lifetime. Edwin had been baptised by Paulinus of York , a Roman who had come with the Gregorian mission from Rome, but his successor Oswald also invited Irish monks from Iona to found

12540-404: Was the will of the saint, as the wagon carrying his coffin back to Chester-le-Street after a temporary flight from a Danish invasion became stuck hard on the road. During the medieval period, Cuthbert became important in defining the identity of the people living in Northumbria north of Tees. Symeon noted that it was the 'people of St Cuthbert', that is, 'the whole people between the river Tees and

12654-553: 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 English Channel from Britain to Brittany described by Procopius , who

12768-447: Was well-to-do. Bede's first abbot was Benedict Biscop , and the names "Biscop" and "Beda" both appear in a list of the kings of Lindsey from around 800, further suggesting that Bede came from a noble family. Bede's name reflects West Saxon Bīeda (Anglian Bēda ). It is an Old English short name formed on the root of bēodan "to bid, command". The name also occurs in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , s.a. 501, as Bieda , one of

12882-439: Was writing in the sixth century. 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. Bede was a Northumbrian, and this tinged his work with a local bias. The sources to which he had access gave him less information about the west of England than for other areas. He says relatively little about

12996-515: Was written. Bede 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

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