Originally written in 731 and published in English in 1903 in a translation by LIONEL CECIL JANE (1879-1932), The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation was the first book of its kind. In it, British Benedictine monk SAINT BEDE (672-735) details the history of England from the time of Caesar until the year of its writing. Assembled using a variety of Roman sources, including Prosper of Acquitaine and Pope Gregory I, this astonishing work resounds of true scholarly diligence: Bede cited his references throughout his work, and used personal accounts only with skepticism. Bede's history covers the wars between the Britons, Scots, and Picts; the conquest of England by the Romans; and the conversion of the Britons, the Scots, and the Saxons. Bede also details the rise and fall of tribal kings and the lives of influential bishops. Historians will find this an interesting historical document both as a record of history and as a specimen of history itself.

Originally written in 731 and published in English in 1903 in a translation by LIONEL CECIL JANE (1879-1932), The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation was the first book of its kind. In it, British Benedictine monk SAINT BEDE (672-735) details the history of England from the time of Caesar until the year of its writing. Assembled using a variety of Roman sources, including Prosper of Acquitaine and Pope Gregory I, this astonishing work resounds of true scholarly diligence: Bede cited his references throughout his work, and used personal accounts only with skepticism. Bede's history covers the wars between the Britons, Scots, and Picts; the conquest of England by the Romans; and the conversion of the Britons, the Scots, and the Saxons. Bede also details the rise and fall of tribal kings and the lives of influential bishops. Historians will find this an interesting historical document both as a record of history and as a specimen of history itself.

Bede's commentary on the Book of Acts is one of his earliest exegetical works (usually dated between 709 and 710) and one of his most popular and influential. None of the Latin Fathers of the Church had written a commentary on this book, and those which existed in Greek were unlikely to have been known in the West. Bede became the authority on Acts for countless subsequent students of Scripture. The breadth of Bede's mind, the diversity of his interests, and the thoroughness of his research are all mirrored in this work. Allegory is freely interspersed with practical commentary, textual analysis with mystical interpretation. Far from being a quaint relic of outdated exegesis, the commentary can be of practical use to modern Christians who read it in the spirit in which it was written: meditation on the workings of God.

In about 679, Bede, a boy of seven, was presented by his family as an oblate to the monastery of Wearmouth, Northumbria. He spent the rest of his life as a monk, first at Wearmouth, and later at Jarrow, five miles away. Using the monastic library he became 'the most learned man in Western Europe', and one of the most influential on future generations. He read, and wrote, in a wide variety of fields--natural science, mathematics, and astronomy, grammar, rhetoric, geography, history, hagiography, theology, and above all interpretation of Holy Scripture. Bede combined his great learning with sanctity and a personal charm which still shines through his writings. His command of the Fathers of the Church and profane knowledge belie the name commonly given his age; despite invasions, privations, and limitations, Bede demonstrates that one corner of the European north was far from dark.