Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731)

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People is a Latin history of Christianity in Britain written by the monk Bede at Jarrow in Northumbria and completed in 731. It is the most important source for the early history of England and one of the finest historical works of the early Middle Ages. Its consistent use of AD dating also helped spread the Anno Domini system across Europe.

Who was Bede?

Bede was born around 673 on land belonging to the monastery of Wearmouth, in what is now Sunderland. At the age of seven his family placed him in the care of Abbot Benedict Biscop, and he moved soon afterwards to the new sister house at Jarrow under Ceolfrith. He spent the rest of his life in the twin monastery, becoming a deacon at 19 and a priest at 30.

Wearmouth-Jarrow had one of the finest libraries in western Europe, built from books Biscop and Ceolfrith brought from Rome, and it produced the great Bible known as the Codex Amiatinus. Bede wrote more than 60 works, including commentaries on the Bible, saints’ lives, poetry and textbooks on grammar, science and time-reckoning. He died at Jarrow on 26 May 735.

Writing the history

Bede’s Latin title is Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. He completed it in 731 and dedicated it to Ceolwulf, king of Northumbria, who had asked to see it. In the preface he names his informants, which was unusual for his time.

His chief helper was Albinus, abbot of St Augustine’s monastery in Canterbury. Albinus sent information about Kent and neighbouring kingdoms through a London priest, Nothhelm, who also searched the papal archives in Rome and copied letters of Pope Gregory the Great. Bishops and monks in Wessex, East Anglia, Lindsey and Mercia sent further material, and Bede drew on earlier writers such as Gildas, Orosius and the lives of saints. For Northumbria he relied on his own knowledge and the memories of the monks around him.

What the History contains

The work is in five books. Book 1 begins with a description of Britain and covers the Roman period, the arrival of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, which Bede dates to around 449, and the mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great. Books 2 to 5 follow the conversion of the kingdoms of Kent, Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex up to Bede’s own day.

Many famous stories from early English history come from Bede. He tells of Gregory seeing English boys for sale in Rome and making a pun on Angles and angels, of Augustine’s mission to Kent in 597, and of King Edwin’s councillor who compared human life to a sparrow flying briefly through a lit hall in winter. He also records the Synod of Whitby of 664 and the story of Cædmon, a cowherd at Whitby who received the gift of song in a dream. The short Hymn of Cædmon, preserved in early copies of the History, is among the oldest recorded poems in English.

Bede as historian

Bede’s method was careful for his age. He tried to name sources, quoted documents, distinguished what he had read from what he had been told, and arranged events in a clear chronology. Modern historians value him as a cautious and well-informed writer.

His purpose, though, was religious and moral. He wanted to show how God’s grace had worked among the English and to offer good examples to his readers. He favoured Northumbria and the Roman church, wrote little about the Britons except to criticise their refusal to help convert the English, and included many miracles. Historians read him with these aims in mind.

Bede and AD dating

Before Bede, historians in the West dated events in many ways: by the years of kings, by consuls, by indictions (15-year tax cycles) or from the creation of the world. The Anno Domini system, counting years from the incarnation of Christ, had been devised by Dionysius Exiguus in Rome in 525 for calculating the date of Easter.

Bede had studied this calculation in his treatise On the Reckoning of Time (725). In the Ecclesiastical History he used AD years throughout, and he also dated some events before the incarnation, an early form of what is now called BC dating. Because his History was copied and read so widely, it did much to make AD dating the normal system in England and, through English missionaries and scholars, in the Carolingian world.

Bede’s last days

A moving account of Bede’s death survives in a letter by Cuthbert, one of his pupils, who later became abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow. He describes Bede, ill and short of breath in the weeks before Ascension Day 735, still teaching and dictating. According to Cuthbert, Bede was translating part of the Gospel of John into English and finished the last sentence shortly before he died on the floor of his cell, singing praise to God.

The letter also preserves a five-line poem in Old English known as Bede’s Death Song, on how a person should reflect before death on the good and evil they have done. Whether Bede composed it or only recited it is uncertain. Bede’s English translation of John, sadly, does not survive.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Bede invented the AD calendar. He did not; Dionysius Exiguus devised it two centuries earlier. Bede’s role was to use it consistently and make it popular.
• Myth: Bede travelled widely to gather his material. As far as is known he spent almost his whole life at Wearmouth-Jarrow, with brief visits to Lindisfarne and York; information came to him through letters and visitors.
• Fact: Bede wrote in Latin. The History was written in Latin, the language of the Church and learning; English versions came later.
• Fact: the History is not only about religion. Its many kings, battles and marriages make it the main source for the political history of 6th- and 7th-century England.

Manuscripts and later influence

The History spread quickly. Two manuscripts survive from within a few years of Bede’s death: the Moore Bede, probably copied around 737 and now in Cambridge University Library, and the St Petersburg Bede, from around 746, in the National Library of Russia. Over 150 medieval manuscripts survive in all, a sign of its popularity across Europe.

In the late 9th century the History was translated into Old English, probably as part of the educational programme associated with King Alfred. It shaped later works such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and every later history of early England. Bede was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1899, a rare honour for a writer of the early Middle Ages.

Timeline

• c. 673: Bede is born near Wearmouth.
• c. 680: Bede enters the monastery at the age of seven.
• c. 681-682: The sister house at Jarrow is founded.
• c. 703: Bede is ordained priest.
• 725: Bede completes On the Reckoning of Time.
• 731: Bede completes the Ecclesiastical History and dedicates it to King Ceolwulf.
• 735, 26 May: Bede dies at Jarrow.
• c. 737: The Moore manuscript of the History is copied.
• 1899: Pope Leo XIII declares Bede a Doctor of the Church.

Why it matters

Without Bede, much of the history of the English kingdoms before 731 would be lost. His History gave the English a shared story as one people under God, set a high standard of evidence for medieval historians, and through its dating helped give the world the AD calendar still in use today.