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§ 93. The text being settled upon these authorities, a few remarks upon the translation here given become necessary. It is based upon the publication of which the following is the title :"The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, from the coming of Julius Cæsar into this Island, in the sixtieth year before the Incarnation of Christ, till the year of our Lord 731; written in Latin by Venerable Bede, and now translated into English from Dr. Smith's Edition." This translation is usually attributed to Stevens, better known by his English version of Dugdale's Monasticon; but upon what authority it is so ascribed to him is uncertain. It is painful to be compelled to state that the title-page asserts what is not the truth, as to the original text from which the translation is made; for it varies in so many and such important respects from Sinith's text, as to prove that it was not derived from that edition. The fact would seem to be this,—that the translator, whoever he was, having completed his task shortly before the publication of Smith's edition (which was issued in 1722), took advantage of the interest occasioned by that work, and unscrupulously introduced the name of its most respectable editor upon his own title-page. Stevens's rendering is far from satisfactory sometimes it is too lax; sometimes it is close even to obscurity; sometimes it fails altogether in representing the meaning of the author; and many of these imperfections have been suffered to remain uncorrected in the subsequent reprints of it which have appeared. It became necessary, therefore, that the whole work should undergo a strict revision; and this having been done, it is now presented to the reader in the belief that it lays before the English public the most accurate, and, at the same time, the most readable translation of "The Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Beda" which has yet appeared in our language.

§ 94. Of the notes, the editor must speak with diffidence. They embody all that appeared to him to be really valuable in the excellent annotations of Smith, together with such additional information as had escaped the notice of that accomplished scholar, or had been brought to light by the researches of inquirers during the last century. In a publication like the present, discussion or lengthened inquiry are inadmissible: the reader is requested, therefore, to bear in mind that the remarks of the present editor are in most cases suggestive rather than illustrative, and that in not a few among the copies here described, it would appear that there have been two editions or recensions of the Historia Ecclesiastica, not, indeed, varying from each other in any very important respects, yet marked by a line of separation sufficiently distinct to warrant the conclusion which the editor has ventured to express. There is also a third class or family of eclectic copies, which fluctuate between the two, the scribes of which attempted to blend together the peculiarities of each separate recension; these of course must be excluded from any classification of the texts.

1 8vo. Lond. 1723.

2 Several of these notes are transcribed from archbishop Ussher's "Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates," (fol. Lond. 1687,) and many of the others were written by Gale, who had made extensive preparations for a new edition of the "Historia Ecclesiastica" (which are preserved, among his other manuscripts, in Trinity College, Cambridge, O. ii. 63, 64); but enough remain to show the learning, judgment, and industry of the two Smiths.

instances he has been constrained to satisfy himself with indicating the sources from which additional information may be gained.

§ 95. We now pass to the consideration of Beda's minor historical works; and the first which claims our notice is the LIFE OF ST. CUTHBERT.

Beda himself informs us, in the list of his writings appended to his Ecclesiastical History, that he had twice employed his pen in recording the biography of this individual; once in verse, and once in prose. We do not print the former of these narratives, because it is entirely superseded by the latter, which not only embodies in an extended form all the incidents which are to be found in the Metrical Life, but introduces much supplemental information. The short preface to the metrical life, which has all the characteristics of a private letter, will be found, along with Beda's correspondence, in another volume.

§ 96. The prose life of Cuthbert, the later and more important of the two legends, is dedicated to Eadfrid, bishop of Holy Island, and the monks there resident; a fact which of itself would have been a sufficient security for the general accuracy of the narrative. The historian, anxious apparently to bear no further responsibility than that which fairly devolved upon him as the exponent of information which he had received upon credible testimony, takes care to record the authorities upon which his work is founded, and the successive examinations to which it had been subjected. Having formed his narrative upon the information of those who had the best means of knowing the truth of what they stated, the unpublished work was submitted as well to the inspection of one who had attended Cuthbert during his last illness, as of others equally well informed respecting the incidents of his life; and corrections and additions were made in accordance with their suggestions. A fair copy of the legend was then sent to Lindisfarne, and during two days it underwent a rigid scrutiny by the oldest and most judicious brethren of that monastery. When it had obtained their final sanction, and had been augmented by the addition of certain supplemental insertions, for which they were the vouchers, the work was declared to be worthy of circulation, and was accordingly handed over to the transcribers.

§ 97. After so much precaution employed by men who had such favourable opportunities of knowing the truth, we may feel assured that we are here put in possession of an authentic account of the principal facts in the life of this early bishop of Lindisfarne. Our faith in its historical veracity is increased by observing a fact of which Beda himself has not informed us, namely, that it is founded upon, and in many parts transcribed from, an earlier life of Cuthbert, a translation of which will be given in its proper course.

§ 98. We are not able to decide with any accuracy as to the precise time when this legend was composed; but as it is dedicated to Eadfrid, it cannot be referred to a later date than A.D. 721, which year that individual died.

in

The text from which the translation is given is founded upon Smith's text collated with the following manuscripts :

The Harleian MS. 1117, a volume written at latest in the tenth century, in a rough and bold hand. At the end are four Latin lines,' stating that the volume had been written by the command of a certain abbot, named Wigbeorht, and probably presented by him to the church over which he presided.

§ 99. The Cottonian MS. Vitell. A. xix., a manuscript of the tenth century, elegantly and correctly written.

The Digby MS. 59, in the Bodleian Library, of the twelfth century.

The Bodley MS. 109, (formerly NE. B. i. 20, and 1692,) of the eleventh century; a valuable copy, but imperfect, the scribe having ceased his labours in the middle of a page, with the words "memento, frater Herebercte, ut modo," (ch. xxviii. p. 105, ed. E. H.S.) and more than one copyist has been employed upon the portion previously transcribed.

The Bodley MS. 596, (formerly NE. F. iii. 9,) of the twelfth century, originally belonging to the monastery of St. Augustine, Canterbury. This copy also is slightly imperfect, ending with the words, "tabulis minus diligenter," (ch. xlvi. p. 135, ed. E. H. S.) The Fell MS. 1, (fol. 57,) in the Bodleian Library, of the twelfth century.

The Fairfax MS. 6, in the Bodleian Library. This, though a late copy, being of the fourteenth century, is of importance as having formerly belonged to the monastery of St. Cuthbert at

Durham.

It may be sufficient to state, in general terms, that the variations afforded by these copies are neither numerous nor important.

§ 100. THE LIVES OF THE ABBOTS OF THE MONASTERIES OF WEARMOUTH AND JARROW next follow. This interesting narrative furnishes us with an account of the foundation of that ecclesiastical establishment in which Beda had been nurtured, and whose history he here traces onwards from that period to his own time. The greater part of the events here recorded must have passed under his own immediate observation, or have been derived from the information of the actors themselves; hence perhaps it is that he is less explicit than elsewhere in pointing out the sources of his information. Yet we find that this treatise is based upon one of an earlier date, a translation of which will be given in its due place.

§ 101. In addition to its historical value, this piece of biography is of importance in another respect; for it places before us, more clearly than any of his other writings, an exemplification of Beda's own mode of dealing with a narrative of events. We here find him unfettered by authority to which he thought it incumbent upon him to defer, as in the case of the Life of St. Cuthbert, where the 1 "Jusserat ecclesiæ Uuigbeorhtus scribere nabla hoc Abbas hujus, cunctos rogitat qui hic psallere captant, Utque sui memores cantus cumulamine constent, Quo Deus omnipotens sibi crimina cuncta relaxet."

The word "nabla," or "nablum," signifies a psaltery or psalter, see Bedæ Opera, viii. 1061, ed. Basil. 1563. It seems probable, therefore, that these lines, written originally in a copy of the Psalms, were transcribed into this manuscript without reference to its subject-matter.

bishop and the elder brethren of Lindisfarne forced upon him statements, which, had he been left to the exercise of his own free judgment, he would possibly have rejected. The same remark applies, in a great measure, to the Ecclesiastical History. In his preparation for that work his numerous correspondents furnished him with materials of various degrees of accuracy; but as he had no means of testing their truth severally, he accepted and inserted all. But in the instance now before us he is under no such disadvantage; and the result is, that he has produced a work which warrants us in forming a higher opinion of his qualifications as an historian than we should be inclined to do were we deprived of the insight which it gives us into the tone and bent of his mind. We may hence infer that had he been more favourably circumstanced, had he, for instance, been less dependent for his facts than he was upon the information furnished by others, men less critical, perhaps less truth-loving than himself,—had he been enabled to write with the same precision upon other matters as upon the history of his own monastery, his great work, the Ecclesiastical History, would have been even more valuable than it is, and would have presented fewer of those narratives which detract so materially from its acknowledged merits and general credibility.

§ 102. This piece of biography was first printed by Sir James Ware, (8vo. Dublin, 1664,) and reprinted by Henry Wharton, (4to. Lond. 1693,) both editors using a single Cottonian manuscript. Smith complained of the great incorrectness of this text, and corrected it by three copies: one at Durham, one at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and one at Merton College, Oxford. From this text, collated with the Harleian MS. 4124, fol. 87 b. of the twelfth century (which, however, ends imperfectly with the words "crucem qua"-Smith, 297, 16,) and the Fairfax MS. vi. fol. 174, (see § 99,) the present translation is made. No important results were gained by this collation.

§ 103. The Sermon upon the nativity of Benedict Biscop, pronounced in the monastery of Wearmouth (or Jarrow) upon the day of his commemoration, is printed from the Harleian MS. 3020, collated with the text, which is to be found in the Basle edition of Beda's works, (vii. 462.) The information which it contains is scanty, and it adds no new facts to what Beda had already written respecting his master Benedict; but it is here inserted in order to complete the series of his historical writings upon the subject of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow.

§ 104. THE CHRONICLE OF BEDA, or his treatise UPON THE SIX AGES OF THIS WORLD, being a general summary of history from the creation to the year 729, necessarily contains a considerable portion of matter in no way connected with English history. It has been thought expedient therefore, in the present instance, to depart from the authority of Smith, who printed the whole of the Six Ages; and, like the edition published by the English Historical Society, to limit our extract to the sixth age, which commences with the Christian era; prefixing, however, the general summary of the

contents of the passages so omitted. The text adopted by Smith was founded upon four manuscripts; one in the Bodleian Library, (N. E. F. iii. 5;) one belonging to Magdalen College, Oxford; a third in the Royal Library, then at Westminster, and now in the British Museum; and a fourth in St. John's College, Cambridge. Petrie has adopted this text, collating it with two copies of the eleventh century, belonging to Sir Thomas Phillipps. An examination of Smith's edition with the Royal MSS. 13 A. xi. fol. 89, 12 D. iv. fol. 79, and 12 F. ii., all of the twelfth century, shows its general accuracy, and warrants its adoption as the basis of the present translation.

$105. THE EPISTLE TO ECGBERCT, abounding with curious notices illustrating the state of monachism in England, as it existed when Beda wrote, is given from Smith's text, the present editor not having had the opportunity of collating it with any manuscript

copy.

J. S.

VICARAGE, LEIGHTON BUZZARD, 20th April, 1853.

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