OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE B ede was probably born in Bernicia, the northern component of the Kingdom of the Northumbrians, around the year 673. Nothing is known of his parents. At the age of 7 he entered the recently founded monastery of St Peter at Wearmouth, and was ordained a priest c. 703. By about 710 he had begun writing a series of commentaries on various books of the Old and New Testaments, and he undertook his first hagiographical commissions in the same period. His work as historian began with his compilation of chronicle sections to form part of works that he wrote on the divisions of time. He completed writing his best-known book, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, in 731. His last known work was the letter that he sent to Bishop Egbert of York in 734. He died on 25 May 735. After his death his fame in Britain was matched by the interest in him shown by the Anglo-Saxon missionaries on the Continent, for or by whom many of the sur­ viving early manuscripts of his works were written. The Viking attacks on Northumbria in the ninth century cut short a growing cult of Bede, which was revived in a more limited way after the Norman Conquest. J udith M cC lure is Head of St George’s School for Girls in Edinburgh and is the author of articles on Bede and on the Latin Bible in the Early Middle Ages. She is married to her co-editor. R oger C o llins has taught at the University of Liverpool and is currently Research Fellow in the Department of History in the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of several books on early medieval European history. He and Judith McClure are currently writing the first volume of the Oxford History of Medieval Europe. 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OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS BEDE The Ecclesiastical History o f the English People The Greater Chronicle Bede’s Letter to Egbert Edited with an Introduction and Notes by JUDITH McCLURE and ROGER COLLINS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXPORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sào Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Text of The Ecclesiastical History © Oxford University Press 1969 Editorial matter and Translation of The Greater Chronicle and Letter to Egbert © Judith McClure and Roger Collins The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a World’s Classics paperback 1994 Reissued as an Oxford World’s Classics paperback 1999 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bede, the Venerable, Saint, 673-735. [Historica ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, English] The ecclesiastical history of the English people; The greater chronicle; Bede’s letter to Egbert / Bede; edited with an introduction by Judith McClure and Roger Collins. (Oxford world’s classics) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. England—Church history—449-1066. 2. Civilization, Anglo- Saxon I. McClure, Judith. II. Collins, Roger, 1949— III. Title: Ecclesiastical history of the English people. IV. Title: Greater chronicle. V. Title: Bede’s letter to Egbert. VI. Series. BR746.B5 1994 274.2'02—dc20 96-3926 ISBN 0-19-283866-0 6 Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic CONTENTS Abbreviations vii Introduction ix Note on the Translations xxxiii Select Bibliography xxxiv Map xxxvi TH E E C C L E SIA ST IC A L H ISTO R Y OF TH E EN G LISH PEO PLE i CUTHBERT’S LETTER ON THE DEATH OF BEDE 299 TH E G R EA T ER C H RO N IC LE 305 B E D E ’S L E T T E R TO E G B E R T 341 Explanatory Notes 358 Index 431 v ABBREVIATIONS A L C Anonymous prose Life of Cuthbert, tr. B. Colgrave, in id. (ed.), Two Lives of St Cuthbert (Cambridge, 1940) A S C Anglo-Saxon Chronicle A S E Anglo-Saxon England A S S A H Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History A U Annals of Ulster, eds. S. MacAirt and G. MacNiocaill (Dublin, 1983) C C SL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina C LA Codices Latinae Antiquiores, ed. E. A. Lowe, 11 vols. + supplement (Oxford, 1934-71) C&M B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (eds.), Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the English People (rev. edn.; Oxford, 1991) D TR De Temporum Ratione E E Bede’s Epistle to Egbert; text in P i. 405-23 E H Bede’s Ecclesiastical History EH D English Historical Documents, i. 500-1042, tr. D. Whitelock (London, 1968) EH R English Historical Review H A History of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow (Bede) text in P i. 364-87 H B Historia Brittonum, ed. J. Morris [under the title of Nennius] (Chichester, 1980), 50-84 H E Historia Ecclesiastica (Bede): the Latin text H R Historia Regum, attributed to Symeon of Dur­ ham, ed. T. Arnold, Rolls series, lxxv, pt. 2 (London, 1885) L C Life of Ceolfrid; text in P i. 388-404; tr. in EH D 697-708 L W Stephanus’ Life of Wilfrid, tr. B. Colgrave, in id. (ed.), The Life of Bishop Wilfrid (Cambridge, 1927) MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica M G H A A Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores vii Abbreviations Antiquissimi M G H SR G Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum M G H SR M Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum P Plummer’s edition of H E: Venerabilis Baedae Historiam Ecclesiasticam Gentis Anglorum, ed. C. Plummer, 2 vols. (Oxford 1896) P L Patrologia Latina P LC Bede’s prose Life ofCuthbert, tr. B. Colgrave, in id. (ed.), Two Lives of St Cuthbert (Cambridge, 1940) S P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters (London, 1968) S LH Scriptores Latini Hiberniae TRH S Transactions of the Royal Historical Society V LC Bede’s verse Life of Cuthbert, in W. Jaager (ed.), Bedas metrische Vita sancti Cuthberti (Leipzig, 1935)j never translated WH J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Bedels Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical C o m ­ mentary (Oxford, 1988) Vlll