ecclesiastical history of the english people

Bede, in the Historia, gives his birthplace as 'on the lands of this monastery'. A minor source of information is the letter by his disciple Cuthbert (not to be confused with the saint, Cuthbert, who is mentioned in Bede's work) which relates Bede's death. 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. Bede's monastery had access to an impressive library which included works by Eusebius, Orosius, and many others.Īlmost everything that 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. 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. He is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church. 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 the coronation of Charlemagne in 800. 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. One of the more important dates Bede tried to compute was Easter, an effort that was mired in controversy. 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. His ecumenical writings were extensive and included a number of Biblical commentaries and other theological works of exegetical erudition.

While Bede spent most of his life in the monastery, he travelled to several abbeys and monasteries across the British Isles, even visiting the archbishop of York and King Ceolwulf of Northumbria.

Both of them survived a plague that struck in 686 and killed a majority of the population there. He is also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( Latin: Beda Venerabilis other pronunciations: Old English: Bǣda, Bēda ).īorn 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. He served at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles.

He was one of the greatest teachers and writers of the Early Middle Ages, and his most famous work, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, gained him the title 'The Father of English History'. Bede ( / b iː d/ BEED) 672/3 – 26 May 735) was an English monk and an author and scholar.

Ecclesiastical history of the english people