THE

Ecclefiaftical Hiftory

OF THE

English Nation,

From the Coming of

JULIUS CÆSAR

Into this Ifland, in the 60th 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.

To which is added, The LIFE of the
Author. Alfo Explanatory Notes.

LONDON:

Printed for J. BATLEY at the Dove in Pater-
nofter-Row, and T. MEIGHAN in Drury-Lane.

M DCC XXIII.

Low Tibrary

2-5-69 752905-291

THE

LIFE

OF.

BEDE

F the Name of Bede were three remarkable Perfons, the firft a Prieft and Monk of Lindisfarn, or Holy land; of y whom our Hiftorian fpeaks with great re fpect in the nth Chapter of his Book of the Life of Cuthbert, the Bishop; another a Monk contemporary with Charles the Great between thefe in Time, and fupe rior to either of them in Character, was the great Luminary of our Nation, of whom wa are going to write/Tho fome have endeavour'd to deprive bur! Country of the Honour of his Birth, it is with fuch an Air of direct Falfity A 2

and

and Affurance, that as no Men of Senfe, or Learning will come into it, fo it is not worth time to difprove it, fince his own Words direct us to the very Place, which was the Kingdom of the Northumbrians, now Northumberland, and

ior Province of it call'd Bernicia, not Dei

J

ra, which extends from Tees to Tweed, in which Province, had he been born, Scotland had as little right to claim the Honour of him, as to claim that Province; which (however) fome of their Hiftorians have attempted. In this obfcure Corner of the World, then (to ufe Malmfbury's Words) this great Man was born, whence he extended his Learning to the whole. The Village which produc'd him, tho' long fince, even long before Turgot's Time, gain'd upon by the Sea, was in the Territories of the Monaftery of St. Peter and St. Paul, which were indeed two, one of them ftanding at Gyrwy, on Lyppum, on the Banks of the River Tine, below the Capra Caput, or Laetrheves of the Saxons, now Gates-head, (oppofite to Newcaftle) and call'd Jarrow, which was dedicated to St. Paul, the other at Weremouth or Wiran mouth, near the Mouth of the River Were therefore by Bede call'd, Ad Oftium Vieris, which River runs through the City of Dur ham, it was call'd by the Saxons, pinamuð, and now Monsks weremouth, the Founder of them was one Benedict, furnam'd Bifcop or Bishop, and the Order they profefs'd, that of the Bene dictines, as appears by the dying Words of their Founder, that they fhould follow the Rules of the once great Abbat Benedict; and Alcuinus in his 49 Ep. to the Monks of Were mouth, mentions the fame; from which Injun