Download The Venerable Bede

The Venerable
Bede
c.672-735
The Venerable Bede
• Monk at Wearmouth and Jarrow
• “The Father of English History”; also wrote on
music, metrics, scripture, grammar, natural
phenomena, chronologies
• Made new calculation of the earth’s age,
began dividing Christian era into BC and AD
The Venerable Bede
• Wrote Earth was round “like a playground
ball” contrasting it with being “round like a
shield”
• Became known as “Venerable” just after his
death but not considered for sainthood
• Importance to Roman Catholicism recognized
in 1899 and declared St. Bede the Venerable
The Ecclesiastical
History
The Ecclesiastical History
• 5 books, about 400 pages
• Contains ecclesiastical and political history of
England from time of Caesar to its completion in
731
• First 21 chapters compiled from earlier writers
with legends and traditions inserted
• Has 596 documented sources, including oral
testimony
• Bede is credited with inventing footnoting