to all who seek to know them," and he has generally been supposed to be Bede.In the "Ecclesiastical History" (IV, 3) there is an allusion to Bede's teachers, one of whom, Trumbert, educated at Lastingham under Ceadda, is mentioned by name. The monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow must have offered exceptional facilities for study. Benedict had enriched it with many treasures which he brought with him from his travels. Chief among these was the famous library which he founded and which was enlarged by Abbot Ceolfrid. Here Bede acquired that wide and varied learning revealed in his historical, sci-entific, and theological works. He studied with particular care and reverence the patristic writings; his theological treatises were, as he says, "compiled out of the works of the venerable Fathers." He must have had a considerable [pg xxxvi] knowledge of Greek, probably he knew some Hebrew. Though he is not wholly free from the mediaeval churchman's distrust of pagan authors, he constantly betrays his acquaintance with them, and the sense of form which must unconsciously influence the student of classical literature has passed into his own writings and preserved him from the barbarism of monkish Latin. His style is singularly clear, simple, and fluent,
10
as free from obscurity as from affectation and bombast.
Thus was the foundation laid of that sound learning upon which his widespread influence both as a teacher and writer was reared. "I
always took delight," he tells us, "in learning, or teaching, or writing." Probably his writing was, as is so often the case, the outcome of his teaching; his object in both is to meet "the needs of the brethren." One of his pupils was Archbishop Egbert, the founder
of the school of York, which gave a fresh impulse to learning, not only in England, but through Alcuin in France, at a time when a revival was most to be desired.
It was to Egbert that he paid one of the only two visits which he records. In the "Epistola ad Ecgbertum" he alludes to a short stay he had made with him the year before, and declines, on account of the illness which proved to be his last, an invitation to visit him again. He visited Lindisfarne in connection with his task of writing the life of Cuthbert. Otherwise we have no authentic record of any absence from the monastery. The story that he went to Rome at the request of Pope Sergius, founded on a statement of William of Malmesbury, is now regarded as highly improbable. The oldest MS. of the letter of Sergius, requesting Ceolfrid to send one of
his monks to Rome, has no mention of the name of Bede. If such an event had ever disturbed his accustomed course of life, it is
inconceivable that he should nowhere allude to it. Still less is the assertion that he lived and taught at Cambridge one which need be
seriously debated by the present generation.
We may fairly assume that, except for a few short absences such as the visits to York and Lindisfarne, his [pg xxxvii] whole life was spent in the monastery. It must have been a life of unremitting toil. His writings, numerous as they are, covering a wide range of subjects and involving the severest study, can only have been a part of his work; he had, besides, his duties as priest, teacher, and member of a religious community to fulfil. Even the manual labour of his literary work must have been considerable. He did not employ an amanuensis, and he had not the advantages with regard to copyists which a member of one of the larger monaster-
ies might have had. "Ipse mihi dictator simul notarius (= shorthand writer) et librarius (= copyist)," he writes. Yet he never flags. Through all the outward monotony of his days his own interest remains fresh. He "takes delight" ("dulce habui") in it all. It is a life full of eager activity in intellectual things, of a keen and patriotic interest in the wider life beyond the monastery walls, which shows itself sadly enough in his reflections on the evils of the times, of the ardent charity which spends itself in labour for the brethren, and, pervading the whole, that spirit of quiet obedience and devotion which his own simple words describe as "the observance of monastic rule and the daily charge of singing in the Church." We can picture him, at the appointed hours, breaking off his absorbing occupations to take his place at the daily offices, lest, as he believed, he should fail to meet the angels there. Alcuin records a saying
of his, "I know that angels visit the canonical hours and the congregations of the brethren. What if they do not find me among the brethren? May they not say, 'Where is Bede?' "
It is probably here, in this harmony of work and devotion, that we may find the secret of the fascination in the record of his un-eventful days. It reconciles the sharp antithesis between the active and the contemplative life. It seems to attain to that ideal of "toil unsever'd from tranquillity" which haunts us all, but which we have almost ceased to associate with the life of man under present conditions. Balance, moderation, or rather, that rare quality which has been well called "the sanity of [pg xxxviii] saintliness,"2 these give a unity to the life of Bede and preserve him from the exaggerations of the conventual ideal. With all his admiration for the ascetic life, he recognizes human limitations. It is cheering to find that even he felt the need of a holiday. "Having completed," he writes, "the third book of the Commentary on Samuel, I thought I would rest awhile, and, after recovering in that way my delight
in study and writing, proceed to take in hand the fourth." Intellectual power commands his homage, but his mind is open to the appreciation of all forms of excellence. It is the unlearned brother, unfit for study and occupied in manual labour, to whom, in his story, it is vouchsafed to hear the singing of the angels who came to summon Ceadda to his rest. The life of devotion ranks highest in his estimation, but he records with approval how St. Cuthbert thought "that to afford the weak brethren the help of his exhortation stood in the stead of prayer, knowing that He Who said 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,' said likewise, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' " He tells us how St. Gregory bewailed his own loss in being forced by his office to be entangled in worldly affairs. "But," adds the human-hearted biographer, "it behoves us to believe that he lost nothing of his monastic perfection by reason of his pastoral charge, but rather that he gained greater profit through the labour of converting many, than by the former calm of his private life." Yet he holds that this immunity from the evil influence of the world was chiefly due to Gregory's care in organizing
his house like a monastery and safeguarding the opportunities for prayer and devotional study, even while he was immersed in affairs at the court of Constantinople, and afterwards, when he held the most onerous office in the Church.
This quality of sanity shows itself again in an unusual degree of fairness to opponents. The Paschal error, indeed, moves his indigna-tion in a manner which is incomprehensible [pg xxxix] and distasteful to the modern reader, but even in the perverse and erring Celts he can recognize "a zeal of God, though not according to knowledge." Aidan's holiness of life wins from him a warm tribute of admiration. In the monks of Iona, the stronghold of the Celtic system, he can perceive the fruit of good works and find an excuse for their error in their isolated situation. In the British Church it is the lack of missionary zeal, rather than their attitude towards the Easter question, which calls forth his strongest condemnation.
11
A characteristic akin to this is his love of truth. As a historian, it shows itself in his scrupulous care in investigating evidence and
in acknowledging the sources from which he draws. Nowhere is his intellectual honesty more apparent than in dealing with what
he believes to be the miraculous element in his history. In whatever way we may regard these anecdotes, there can be no doubt that Bede took the utmost pains to assure himself of their authenticity. He is careful to acquire, if possible, first-hand evidence; where this cannot be obtained, he scrupulously mentions the lack of it. He admits only the testimony of witnesses of high character and generally quotes them by name.
These are but a few of the glimpses afforded us of the personality of Bede, a personality never obtruded, but everywhere unconsciously
