How Cuthbert, a man of God, was made bishop; and how he lived and taught whilst still in the monastic life [685 A.D.] | Book 4 | Chapter 27
IN the same year in which King Egfrid departed this life,he, as has been said, caused the holy and venerable Cuthbertto be ordained bishop of the church of Lindisfarne. He had for many years led a solitary life, in great continence of body and mind, in a very small...
How the same St. Cuthbert, living the life of an Anchorite, by his prayers obtained a spring in a dry soil, and had a crop from seed sown by the labour of his hands out of season [676 A.D.] | Book 4 | Chapter 28
AFTER this, Cuthbert, as he grew in goodness and intensity of devotion, attained also to a hermit’s life of contemplation in silence and solitude, as we have mentioned. But forasmuch as many years ago we wrote enough concerning his life and virtues, both in heroic...
How this bishop foretold that his own death was at hand to the anchorite Herebert [687 A.D.] | Book 4 | Chapter 29
HAVING spent two years in his bishopric, he returned to his island and hermitage,being warned of God that the day of his death, or rather of his entrance into that life which alone can be called life, was drawing near; as he, at that time, with his wonted candour,...
How his body was found altogether uncorrupted after it had been buried eleven years, and how his successor in the bishopric departed this world not long after [698 A.D.] | Book 4 | Chapter 30
IN order to show forth the great glory of the life after death of the man of God, Cuthbert, whereas the loftiness of his life before his death had been revealed by the testimony of many miracles, when he had been buried eleven years, Divine Providence put it into the...
Of one that was cured of a palsy at his tomb | Book 4 | Chapter 31
THERE was in that same monastery a brother whose name was Badudegn, who had for no small time ministered to the guests of the house, and is still living, having the testimony of all the brothers and strangers resorting thither, of being a man of much piety and...
Of one who was lately cured of a disease in his eye at the relics of St. Cuthbert | Book 4 | Chapter 32
NOR is that cure to be passed over in silence, which was performed by his relics three years ago, and was told me lately by the brother himself, on whom it was wrought. It happened in the monastery, which, being built near the river Dacore,has taken its name from the...
Title Page
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England ed. by A.M. Sellar [1907] Start Reading Title Page Preface Introduction Life of Bede Book I I. Of the Situation of Britain and Ireland, and of their ancient inhabitants II. How Caius Julius Caesar was the first Roman that...
How Ethelwald, successor to Cuthbert, leading a hermit’s life, calmed a tempest by his prayers when the brethren were in danger at sea [687-699 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 1
THE venerable Ethewald succeeded the man of God, Cuthbert, in the exercise of a solitary life, which he spent in the isle of Fame before he became a bishop. After he had received the priesthood, he consecrated his office by deeds worthy of that degree for many years...
How Bishop John cured a dumb man by his blessing [687 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 2
IN the beginning of Aldfrid’s reign, Bishop Eata died, and was succeeded in the bishopric of the church of Hagustald by the holy man John, of whom those that knew him well are wont to tell many miracles, and more particularly Berthun, a man worthy of all reverence and...
How he healed a sick maiden by his prayers [705 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 3
THE same Berthun told another miracle concerning the said bishop. When the most reverend Wilfrid, after a long banishment, was admitted to the bishopric of the church of Hagustald, and the aforesaid John, upon the death of Bosa, a man of great sanctity and humility,...
How he healed a thegn’s wife that was sick, with holy water | Book 5 | Chapter 4
THE same abbot related another miracle, not unlike the former, of the aforesaid bishop. "Not very far from our monastery," he said, "to wit, about two miles off, was the township of one Puch, a thegn, whose wife had lain sick of a very grievous disease for nearly...
How he likewise recalled by his prayers a thegn’s servant from death | Book 5 | Chapter 5
AT another time also, being called to consecrate the church of a thegn named Addi, when he had performed the required duty, he was entreated by the thegn to go in to one of his servants, who lay dangerously ill, insomuch that having lost all use of his limbs, he...
How Caedwalla, king of the West Saxons, went to Rome to be baptised; and his successor Ini, also devoutly journeyed to the same threshold of the holy Apostles [688 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 6
In the third year of the reign of Aldfrid, Caedwalla, king of the West Saxons, having most vigorously governed his nation for two years, quitted his crown for the sake of the Lord and an everlasting kingdom, and went to Rome, being desirous to obtain the peculiar...
How, when Archbishop Theodore died, Bertwald succeeded him as archbishop, and, among many others whom he ordained, he made the learned Tobias bishop of the church of Rochester [690 A. D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 7
THE year after that in which Caedwalla died at Rome, that is, 690 after the Incarnation of our Lord, Archbishop Theodore, of blessed memory, departed this life, being old and full of days, for he was eighty-eight years of age; which number of years he had been wont...
How the holy man, Egbert, would have gone into Germany to preach, but could not; and how Wictbert went, but because he availed nothing, returned into Ireland, whence he came [Circ. 688 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 8
AT that time the venerable servant of Christ, and priest, Egbert, who is to be named with all honour, and who, as was said before, lived as a stranger and pilgrim in Ireland to obtain hereafter a country in heaven, purposed in his mind to profit many, taking upon him...
How Wilbrord, preaching in Frisand, converted many to Christ; and how his two companions, the Hewalds, suffered martyrdom [690 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 9
WHEN the man of God, Egbert, perceived that neither he himself was permitted to go and preach to the nations, being withheld for the sake of some other advantage to the holy Church, whereof he had been forewarned by a revelation; nor that Wictbert, when he went into...
How the venerable Suidbert in Britain, and Wilbrord at Rome, were ordained bishops for Frisland [692 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 10
AT their first coming into Frisland, as soon as Wilbrord found that he had leave given him by the prince to preach there, he made haste to go to Rome, where Pope Sergius then presided over the Apostolic see, that he might undertake the desired work of preaching the...
How one in the province of the Northumbrians, rose from the dead, and related many things which he had seen, some to be greatly dreaded and some to be desired [Circ. 696 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 11
AT this time a memorable miracle, and like to those of former days, was wrought in Britain; for, to the end that the living might be roused from the death of the soul, a certain man, who had been some time dead, rose again to the life of the body, and related many...
How another contrarywise before his death saw a book containing his sins, which was shown him by devils [704-709 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 12
BUT contrarywise there was a man in the province of the Mercians, whose visions and words, but not his manner of life, were of profit to others, though not to himself. In the reign of Coenred, who succeeded Ethelred, there was a layman who was a king’s thegn, no less...
How another in like manner, being at the point of death, saw the place of punishment appointed for him in Hell | Book 5 | Chapter 13
I MYSELF knew a brother, would to God I had not known him, whose name I could mention if it were of any avail, dwelling in a famous monastery, but himself living infamously. He was oftentimes rebuked by the brethren and elders of the place, and admonished to be...
How divers churches of the Scots, at the instance of Adamnan, adopted the Catholic Easter; and how the same wrote a book about the holy places [703 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 14
AT this time a great part of the Scots in Ireland, and some also of the Britons in Britain, by the grace of God, adopted the reasonable and ecclesiastical time of keeping Easter. For when Adamnan, priest and abbot of the monks that were in the island of Hii, was sent...
The account given in the aforesaid book of the place of our Lord’s Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection | Book 5 | Chapter 15
HE wrote concerning the place of the Nativity of our Lord, after this manner: "Bethlehem, the city of David, is situated on a narrow ridge, encompassed on all sides with valleys, being a mile in length from west to east, and having a low wall without towers, built...
What he likewise wrote of the place of our Lord’s Ascension, and the tombs of the patriarchs | Book 5 | Chapter 16
CONCERNING the place of our Lord’s Ascension, the aforesaid author writes thus. "The Mount of Olives is equal in height to Mount Sion, but exceeds it in breadth and length; it bears few trees besides vines and olives, and is fruitful in wheat and barley, for the...
How the South Saxons received Eadbert and Eolla, and the West Saxons, Daniel and Aldhelm, for their bishops; and of the writings of the same Aldhelm [705 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 17
IN the year of our Lord 705, Aldfrid, king of the Northumbrians, died before the end of the twentieth year of his reign. His son Osred, a boy about eight years of age, succeeding him in the throne, reigned eleven years. In the beginning of his reign, Haedde, bishop of...
How Coinred, king of the Mercians, and Offa, king of the East Saxons, ended their days at Rome, in the monastic habit; and of the life and death of Bishop Wilfrid [709 A. D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 18
IN the fourth year of the reign of Osred, Coenred, who had for some time nobly governed the kingdom of the Mercians, much more nobly quitted the sceptre of his kingdom. For he went to Rome, and there receiving the tonsure and becoming a monk, when Constantine was...
How Albinus succeeded to the godly Abbot Hadrian, and Acca to Bishop Wilfrid [709 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 19
THE next year after the death of the aforesaid father, which was the fifth year of King 0sred, the most reverend father, Abbot Hadrian, fellow labourer in the Word of God with Bishop Theodore of blessed memory, died, and was buried in the church of the Blessed Mother...
How the Abbot Ceolfrid sent master-builders to the King of the Picts to build a church, and with them an epistle concerning the catholic Easter and the Tonsure [710 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 20
AT that time, Naiton, King of the Picts, who inhabit the northern parts of Britain, taught by frequent meditation on the ecclesiastical writings, renounced the error whereby he and his nation had been holden till then, touching the observance of Easter, and brought...
How the monks of Hii, and the monasteries subject to them, began to celebrate the canonical Easter at the preaching of Egbert [716 A. D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 21
NOT long after, those monks also of the Scottish nation, who lived in the isle of Hii, with the other monasteries that were subject to them, were by the Lord’s doing brought to the canonical observance with regard to Easter, and the tonsure. For in the year of our...
Of the present state of the English nation, or of all Britain [725-731 A.D.] | Book 5 | Chapter 22
IN the year of our Lord 725, being the seventh year of Osric, king of the Northumbrians, who had succeeded Coenred, Wictred, the son of Egbert, king of Kent, died on the 23rd of April, and left his three sons, Ethelbert, Eadbert, and Alric, heirs of that kingdom,...
Chronological recapitulation of the whole work: also concerning the author himself | Book 5 | Chapter 23
I HAVE thought fit briefly to sum up those things which have been related at length under their particular dates, that they may be the better kept in memory. In the sixtieth year before the Incarnation of our Lord, Caius Julius Caesar, first of the Romans invaded...