prayers are diligently celebrated by you for our father and master, Bede, whom God loved: this was what I principally desired, and therefore it is more pleasing, for the love of him (according to my capacity), in a few words to relate in what manner he departed this world, understanding that you also desire and ask the same. He was much troubled with shortness of breath, yet without pain, before the day of our Lord's resurrection, that is, about a fortnight; and thus he afterwards passed his life, cheerful and rejoicing, giving thanks to Almighty God every day and night, nay, every hour, till the day of our Lord's ascension, that is, the seventh before the kalends of June [twenty-sixth of May], and daily read lessons.to us his disciples, and whatever remained of the day, he spent in singing psalms; he also passed all the night awake, in joy and thanksgiving, unless a short sleep prevented it; in which case he no sooner awoke than he presently repeated his wonted exercises, and ceased not to give thanks to God with uplifted hands. I declare with truth, that I have never seen with my eyes, nor heard with my ears, any man so earnest in giving thanks to the living God.

"O truly happy man! He chanted the sentence of St. Paul the apostle, 'It is dreadful to fall into the hands of the living God,' and much more out of Holy Writ; wherein also he admonished us to think of our last hour, and to shake off the sleep of the soul; and being learned in our poetry, he said some things also in our tongue, for he said, putting the same into English,

"For tham neod-fere

Nenig wyrtheth

Thances snottra

Thonne him thearf sy
To gehiggene

which means this :

Ær his heonen-gange
Hwet his gaste
Godes oththe yveles
Efter deathe heonen
Demed wurthe.'

"No man is wiser than is requisite, before the necessary departure; that is, to consider, before the soul departs hence, what good or evil it hath done, and how it is to be judged after its departure.'

"He also sang antiphons according to our custom and his own, one of which is, 'O glorious King, Lord of all power, who, triumphing this day, didst ascend above all the heavens; do not forsake us orphans; but send down upon us the Spirit

of truth which was promised to us by the Father. Hallelujah!' And when he came to that word, 'do not forsake us,' he burst into tears, and wept much, and an hour after he began to repeat what he had commenced, and we, hearing it, mourned with him. By turns we read, and by turns we wept, nay, we wept always whilst we read. In such joy we passed the days of Lent, till the aforesaid day; and he rejoiced much, and gave God thanks, because he had been thought worthy to be so weakened. He often repeated, "That God scourgeth every son whom he receiveth;' and much more out of Holy Scripture; as also this sentence from St. Ambrose, 'I have not lived so as to be ashamed to live among you; nor do I fear to die, because we have a gracious God.' During these days he laboured to compose two works well worthy to be remembered, besides the lessons we had from him, and singing of Psalms; viz. he translated the Gospel of St. John as far as the words: 'But what are these among so many,' etc. [St. John, vi. 9.] into our own tongue, for the benefit of the church; and some collections out of the Book of Notes of bishop Isidorus, saying: 'I will not have my pupils read a falsehood, nor labour therein without profit after my death.' When the Tuesday before the ascension of our Lord came, he began to suffer still more in his breath, and a small swelling appeared in his feet; but he passed all that day and dictated cheerfully, and now and then among other things, said, 'Go on quickly, I know not how long I shall hold out, and whether my Maker will not soon take me away.' But to us he seemed very well to know the time of his departure; and so he spent the night, awake, in thanksgiving; and when the morning appeared, that is, Wednesday, he ordered us to write with all speed what he had begun; and this done, we walked till the third hour with the relics of saints, according to the custom of that day. There was one of us with him, who said to him, 'Most dear master, there is still one chapter wanting: do you think it troublesome to be asked any more questions?' He answered, 'It is no trouble. Take your pen, and make ready, and write fast.' Which he did, but at the ninth hour he said to me, 'I have some little articles of value in my chest, such as pepper, napkins, and incense: run quickly, and bring the priests of our monastery to me, that I may distribute among them the gifts

which God has bestowed on me. The rich in this world are bent on giving gold and silver and other precious things. But I, in charity, will joyfully give my brothers what God has given unto me.' He spoke to every one of them, admonishing and entreating them that they would carefully say masses and prayers for him, which they readily promised; but they all mourned and wept, especially because he said, 'They should no more see his face in this world.' They rejoiced for that he said, 'It is time that I return to Him who formed me out of nothing: I have lived long; my merciful Judge well foresaw my life for me; the time of my dissolution draws nigh; for I desire to die and to be with Christ.' Having said much more, he passed the day joyfully till the evening; and the boy, above mentioned, said: 'Dear master, there is yet one sentence not written.' He answered, 'Write quickly.' Soon after, the boy said, 'The sentence is now written.' He replied, 'It is well, you have said the truth. It is ended. Receive my head into your hands, for it is a great satisfaction to me to sit facing my holy place, where I was wont to pray, that I may also sitting call upon my Father.' And thus on the pavement of his little cell, singing: 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,' when he had named the Holy Ghost, he breathed his last, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom. All who were present at the death of the blessed father, said they had never seen any other person expire with so much devotion, and in so tranquil a frame of mind. For as you have heard, so long as the soul animated his body, he never ceased to give thanks to the true and living God, with expanded hands exclaiming: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost!' with other spiritual ejaculations. But know this, dearest brother, that I could say much concerning him, if my want of learning did not cut short my discourse. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, I purpose shortly to write more concerning him, particularly of those things which I saw with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears."

As we learn from this letter of Cuthbert that Bede died on St. Ascension-day which he states to have been that year the seventh before the kalends of June, this fact enables us to fix it on the 26th May, in the year of our Lord 735.

The remains of the venerable Bede were placed first under

the south porch of the church. After being removed to a more honourable situation within the church, they were stolen from the monastery by Elfred a priest of Durham, who used for some years previously to offer up his prayers at Bede's tomb, on the anniversary of his death.

"On one of these occasions," says Simeon of Durham, "he went to Jarrow as usual, and having spent some days in the church in solitude, praying and watching, he returned in the early morning alone to Durham, without the knowledge of his companions a thing which he had never done before-as though he wished to have no witness to his secret. Now, although he lived many years afterwards, yet he never again visited Jarrow, and it appeared as if he had achieved the object of his desires. When, also, he was asked by his most intimate friends, 'Where were the bones of venerable Bede?' he would reply, 'No one can answer that question so well as I. You may be assured, my brethren, beyond all doubt, that the same chest which holds the hallowed body of our father Cuthbert, also contains the bones of Bede, our reverend teacher and brother. It is useless to search beyond that little corner for any portion of his relics.'”

By this artifice the cathedral of Durham obtained possession of a valuable source of revenue in the offerings which were sure to be made at the tomb of so venerable a man. The theft was kept secret by the brethren until all who could have reclaimed the body were dead, and so Bede's bones remained until A.D. 1104, when St. Cuthbert's relics "were removed, and those of Bede were placed alone in a linen bag in the same chest. Fifty years afterwards Hugh Pudsey, bishop of Durham, erected a shrine of gold and silver, adorned with jewels, in which he enclosed the relics of venerable Bede, with an inscription placed on it, which may be translated thus:

Within this chest Bede's mortal body lies.

In the reign of Henry VIII this beautiful shrine was demolished, and the saintly relics were treated with every indignity by the insane and ignorant mob. The only memorial now remaining in Durham cathedral of its having once been the resting-place of Bede's remains, is a long

inscription to his memory concluding with the well known monkish rhyme :

'Hac sunt in fossa Eedæ venerabilis ossa."

Here lie beneath these stones-venerable Bede's bones.

CHAP. III.-ANALYSIS OF BEDE'S ECCLESIASTICAL

HISTORY.

THE Ecclesiastical History of venerable Bede was first published on the Continent: numerous editions of it have been printed, which it is here necessary to enumerate.

It was first published in England by Wheloc, fol. Cantab. 1643-4, with an Appendix containing the Anglo-Saxon translation by king Alfred the Great.

To this succeeded the edition of Smith, printed at Cambridge in 1722, which superseded all the preceding. The basis of this edition was a MS. formerly belonging to More, bishop of Ely, and now deposited in the public library at Cambridge. [Kk, 5, 16.] At the end of the MS., which is written in Anglo-Saxon letters, are several notes in a somewhat later handwriting, by which it would appear that the volume was copied in the year 737, i.e. two years after Bede's death, and probably from the author's original manuscript.

The last edition of this celebrated and valuable work is that of Stevenson, published by the English Historical Society, Lond. 8vo. 1838. The editor professes to have used the same MS. of bishop More, and to have occasionally collated four others [Cotton. Tib. C, II, Tib. A, XIV, Harl. 4978, and King's MS. 13 C, V.]. Prefixed to the volume is a copious and valuable notice of the author and his work, from which we take the liberty of making the following long extract, as containing the most judicious account of this our author's greatest work.

"The scope of this valuable and justly esteemed work is sufficiently indicated by its title. After some observations upon the position, inhabitants, and natural productions of Britain, the author gives a rapid sketch of its history from the earliest period until the arrival of Augustine in A.D. 597, at which era, in his opinion, the ecclesiastical history of our