by Bede
Cure of souls.
§ 15. But those also, who still live abroad in the world, demand a portion of your most anxious care, as we forewarned you in the beginning of this epistle; you should furnish them with competent teachers of the word of everlasting life, and among other things instruct them by what works they may render themselves most pleasing to God; from what sins those, who wish to please God, ought to abstain; with what sincerity of heart they ought to believe in God; with what devotion to supplicate the Divine mercy; with what frequent diligence to use the sign of the Lord’s cross, and so to fortify themselves and all they have against the continual snares of unclean spirits; and how salutary it is for all classes of Christians to participate daily in the body and blood of our Lord, as you well know is done by Christ’s Church throughout Italy, Gaul, Africa, Greece, and all the countries of the East. Now, this kind of religion and heavenly devotion, through the neglect of our teachers, has been so long discontinued among almost all the laity of our province, that those who seem to be the most religious among them, communicate in the holy mysteries only on the day of our Lord’s birth, the Epiphany and Easter, whilst there are innumerable boys and girls, of innocent and chaste life, as well as young men and women, old men and old women, who without any scruple or debate are able to communicate in the holy mysteries on every Lord’s day, nay, on all the birth-days of the holy Apostles or Martyrs, as you yourself have seen done in the Holy Roman and Apostolic Church. Moreover, if married, let any one point out to them the measure of continence, and hint to them the virtue of chastity; and that in this both may have power to act, and be ready to submit.
§ 16. Thus much, most Holy prelate, have I attempted briefly to express, both for the love of you, and for the sake of general utility, with many wishes and exhortations that you endeavour to rescue our nation from its old errors, and bring it back to a more certain and direct path; and that, mindful of a heavenly reward, you persist in bringing to perfection this holy and excellent work, whatever be the rank or condition of those who attempt to impede or hinder your good exertions. For I know that there will be some who will oppose these my exhortations, and especially those who feel that they are themselves involved in those crimes against which I warn you: but you must remember the apostolic answer, “We must obey God rather than man.” For it is a command of God, “Sell what ye have and give to the poor; and unless a man shall renounce all things which he possesses, he cannot be my disciple.” But there is in these days a tradition among some men, who profess themselves to be servants of God, not only not to sell what they possess, but also to procure what they have not. How, them, can a man dare, if he would enter God’s service, either to retain those things, which he possessed whilst he was in the secular life, or under the cloak of a more holy life, heap together riches which before he had not? Since, also, the rebuke of the Apostle is well known, whereby Ananias and Sapphira, attempting so to act, were not corrected by any measure of penance or retribution, but were punished by sentence of death! and yet they sought not to gain what belonged to others, but unmeetly to retain their own. Wherefore it is manifest, how far the thoughts of the Apostles were from making acquisition of money, whose rule in God’s service was this, “Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” And, on the other hand, they were alike instructed by a warning of the opposite tendency; “Woe to you rich, for you have your consolation.” Or, must we suppose that the Apostle erred, and wrote a falsehood, when he admonished us, saying, “Brethren, be not deceived,” and immediately after added, “Neither the covetous, drunkards, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.” And, again, “But know ye this, that every one who is a fornicator, or unclean, or covetous, or rapacious, which is the service of idols, has no inheritance in the kingdom of God or Christ.” Since, therefore, the Apostle expressly names covetousness and rapacity to be idolatry, how can those be wrong, who either have kept back their hands from signing a deed of wicked trafficking, even in defiance of the king’s command, or who have also offered their hands to cancel former unjust writings and subscriptions?
§ 17. And, indeed, we must wonder at the rashness of those foolish men, (or rather we should call them blind, and pity their wretchedness,) who, without any regard to the fear of God, are proved to cancel and set at nought what they, the apostles and prophets, have written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but nevertheless are afraid to erase or annul what themselves, or men like themselves, have written from the dictates of covetousness or luxury, as if, forsooth, it were sacred and sanctioned by Heaven itself. In this, unless I am deceived, they imitate the Gentiles, who despise the worship of God, but bow down before the deities which they have conceived in their own minds, and which their own hands have made. These they fear, worship, adore, and pray to, being indeed worthy of that rebuke of our Lord’s whereby he reproved the Pharisees, when they preferred their own secondary precepts to the Law of God: “Why do ye also transgress the word of God through your traditions?” But if they shall even produce writings got up in defence of their covetousness, and sanctioned by the subscription of noblemen, I beseech you never to forget the sentence of our Lord, wherein he says, “Every plantation that my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted out.” And I would fain moreover ask you this question, most Holy Prelate? Our Lord protests that “wide is the gate and broad the way which leadeth to destruction, and multitudes there be that enter in thereat; whilst straight is the gate and narrow the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” What, then, do you believe concerning the life or eternal safety of those, who throughout all their lives are known to be walking through the wide gate and broad way, and do not, even in the trifling things, restrain or resist their passions, whether of the mind or body, for the sake of a heavenly reward? Unless, perhaps, their alms, which amid their daily covetousness and enjoyments they give to the poor, are to be considered as able to exempt them from blame; whereas the hand itself, as well as the conscience which offers a gift to God, ought to be pure and free from offence. Or unless, also, they may be thought to be redeemed, now they are dead, by others, through the mystery of the holy oblation, of which, whilst they were alive, they appeared unworthy? Does the fault of covetousness appear to be trifling in them? I will speak a little more fully on this point. This it was, which rendered Balaam, a man full of the spirit of prophecy, an outcast from the lot of the saints. It was this which polluted Achan with sharing in the cursed thing, and thereby destroyed him. It stripped Saul of the diadem of the kingdom; it deprived Gehazi of the merits of prophecy, and defiled him and his seed with a perpetual leprosy. It cast down Judas Iscariot from the glory of his apostleship: Ananias and Sapphira, of whom we have before made mention, thereby became unworthy of the society of the monks, and were punished by the death of the body: and, to turn to heavenly examples, the angels were thereby cast down from heaven, the first created beings expelled from a paradise of endless enjoyment. And if you must know, this is that three-headed dog of Hell, called Cerberus in the fables, from whose ravening teeth the Apostle John would save us, when he says, “Beloved, love not the world nor those things that be therein: if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For every thing which is in the world, is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Thus much briefly have I said against the poison of covetousness. But if I were to treat in like manner of drunkenness, feasting, luxury, and other contagions of the same king, my letter would be indefinitely lengthened. May the grace of the Chief Shepherd ever keep you safe for the wholesome feeding of his flock, Prelate, most beloved in our Lord: Amen!
The Latin Text
The village of Monkton, two miles from the monastery at Jarrow — also traditionally ascribed as Bede’s birthplace
CONTENTS OF THE LATIN TEXT
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CONTENTS
PRAEFATIO
LIBER PRIMUS.
LIBER SECUNDUS.
LIBER TERTIUS
LIBER QUARTUS
LIBER QUINTUS
BAEDAE CONTINUATIO
PRAEFATIO
GLORIOSISSIMO REGI CEOLUULFO BAEDA FAMULUS CHRISTI ET PRESBYTER
Historiam gentis Anglorum ecclesiasticam, quam nuper edideram, libentissime tibi desideranti, rex, et prius ad legendum ac probandum transmisi, et nunc ad transscribendum ac plenius ex tempore meditandum retransmitto; satisque studium tuae sinceritatis amplector, quo non solum audiendis scripturae sanctae uerbis aurem sedulus accommodas, uerum etiam noscendis priorum gestis siue dictis, et maxime nostrae gentis uirorum inlustrium, curam uigilanter impendis. Siue enim historia de bonis bona referat, ad imitandum bonum auditor sollicitus instigatur; seu mala commemoret de prauis, nihilominus religiosus ac pius auditor siue lector deuitando quod noxium est ac peruersum, ipse sollertius ad exsequenda ea, quae bona ac Deo digna esse cognouerit, accenditur. Quod ipsum tu quoque uigilantissime deprehendens, historiam memoratam in notitiam tibi simul et eis, quibus te regendis diuina praefecit auctoritas, ob generalis curam salutis latius propalari desideras. Ut autem in his, quae scripsi, uel tibi, uel ceteris auditoribus siue lectoribus huius historiae occasionem dubitandi subtraham, quibus haec maxime auctoribus didicerim, breuiter intimare curabo.
Auctor ante omnes atque adiutor opusculi huius Albinus abba reuerentissimus, uir per omnia doctissimus, extitit; qui in ecclesia Cantuariorum a beatae memoriae Theodoro archiepiscopo et Hadriano abbate, uiris uenerabilibus atque eruditissimis, institutus, diligenter omnia, quae in ipsa Cantuariorum prouincia, uel etiam in contiguis eidem regionibus a discipulis beati papae Gregorii gesta fuere, uel monimentis litterarum, uel seniorum traditione cognouerat; et ea mihi de his, quae memoria digna uidebantur, per religiosum Lundoniensis ecclesiae presbyterum Nothelmum, siue litteris mandata, siue ipsius Nothelmi uiua uoce referenda, transmisit. Qui uidelicet Nothelmus postea Romam ueniens, nonnullas ibi beati Gregorii papae simul et aliorum pontificum epistulas, perscrutato eiusdem sanctae ecclesiae Romanae scrinio, permissu eius, qui nunc ipsi ecclesiae praeest Gregorii pontificis, inuenit, reuersusque nobis nostrae historiae inserendas cum consilio praefati Albini reuerentissimi patris adtulit. A principio itaque uoluminis huius usque ad tempus, quo gens Anglorum fidem Christi percepit, ex priorum maxime scriptis hinc inde collectis ea, quae promeremus, didicimus. Exinde autem usque ad tempora praesentia, quae in ecclesia Cantuariorum per discipulos beati papae Gregorii, siue successores eorum, uel sub quibus regibus gesta sint, memorati abbatis Albini industria, Nothelmo, ut diximus, perferente, cognouimus. Qui etiam prouinciae Orientalium simul et Occidentalium Saxonum, nec non et Orientalium Anglorum atque Nordanhymbrorum, a quibus praesulibus, uel quorum tempore regum gratiam euangelii perceperint, nonnulla mihi ex parte prodiderunt. Denique hortatu praecipue ipsius Albini, ut hoc opus adgredi auderem, prouocatus sum. Sed et Danihel reuerentissimus Occidentalium Saxonum episcopus, qui nunc usque superest, nonnulla mihi de historia ecclesiastica prouinciae ipsius, simul et proxima illi Australium Saxonum, nec non et Uectae insulae litteris mandata declarauit. Qualiter uero per ministerium Ceddi et Ceadda religiosorum Christi sacerdotum, uel prouincia Merciorum ad fidem Christi, quam non nouerat, peruenerit, uel prouincia Orientalium Saxonum fidem, quam olim exsufflauerat, recuperauerit, qualis etiam ipsorum patrum uita uel obitus extiterit, diligenter a fratribus monasterii, quod ab ipsis conditum Læstingaeu cognominatur, agnouimus. Porro in prouincia Orientalium Anglorum, quae fuerint gesta ecclesiastica, partim ex scriptis uel traditione priorum, partim reuerentissimi abbatis Esi relatione conperimus. At uero in prouincia Lindissi, quae sint gesta erga fidem Christi, quaeue successio sacerdotalis extiterit, uel litteris reuerentissimi antistitis Cynibercti uel aliorum fidelium uirorum uiua uoce didicimus. Quae autem in Nordanhymbrorum prouincia, ex quo tempore fidem Christi perceperunt, usque ad praesens per diuersas regiones in ecclesia sint acta, non uno quolibet auctore, sed fideli innumerorum testium, qui haec scire uel meminisse poterant, adsertione cognoui, exceptis his, quae per me ipsum nosse poteram. Inter quae notandum, quod ea, quae de sanctissimo patre et antistite Cudbercto, uel in hoc uolumine, uel in libello gestorum ipsius conscripsi, partim ex eis, quae de illo prius a fratribus ecclesiae Lindisfarnensis scripta repperi, adsumsi, simpliciter fidem historiae, quam legebam, accommodans, partim uero ea, quae certissima fidelium uirorum adtestatione per me ipse cognoscere potui, sollerter adicere curaui. Lectoremque suppliciter obsecro, ut, siqua in his, quae scripsimus, aliter quam se ueritas habet, posita reppererit, non hoc nobis imputet, qui, quod uera lex historiae est, simpliciter ea, quae fama uulgante collegimus, ad instructionem posteritatis litteris mandare studuimus.
Praeterea omnes, ad quos haec eadem historia peruenire potuerit nostrae nationis, legentes siue audientes, suppliciter precor, ut pro meis infirmitatibus et mentis et corporis apud supernam clementiam saepius interuenire meminerint; et in suis quique prouinciis hanc mihi suae remunerationis uicem rependant, ut, qui de singulis prouinciis siue locis sublimioribus, quae memoratu digna atque incolis grata credideram, diligenter adnotare curaui, apud omnes fructum piae intercessionis inueniam.
LIBER PRIMUS.
[1] Brittania Oceani insula, cui quondam Albion nomen fuit, inter septentrionem et occidentem locata est, Germaniae, Galliae, Hispaniae, maximis Europae partibus, multo interuallo aduersa. Quae per miliapassuum DCCC in Boream longa, latitudinis habet milia CC, exceptis dumtaxat prolixioribus diuersorum promontoriorum tractibus, quibus efficitur, ut circuitus eius quadragies octies LXXV milia conpleat. Habet a meridie Galliam Belgicam, cuius proximum litus transmeantibus aperit ciuitas, quae dicitur Rutubi portus, a gente Anglorum nunc corrupte Reptacastir uocata, interposito mari a Gessoriaco Morynorum gentis litore proximo, traiectu milium L, siue, ut quidam scripsere, stadiorum CCCCL. A tergo autem, unde Oceano infinito patet, Orcadas insulas habet.
Opima frugibus atque arboribus insula, et alendis apta pecoribus ac iumentis; uineas etiam quibusdam in locis germinans; sed et auium ferax terra marique generis diuersi; fluuiis quoque multum piscosis ac fontibus praeclara copiosis, et quidem praecipue issicio abundat, et anguilla. Capiuntur autem saepissime et uituli marini, et delphines, nec non et balenae; exceptis uariorum generibus concyliorum; in quibus sunt et musculae, quibus inclusam saepe margaritam omnis quidem coloris optimam inueniunt, id est et rubicundi, et purpurei, et iacintini, et prasini, sed maxime candidi. Sunt et cocleae satis superque abundantes, quibus tinctura coccinei coloris conficitur, cuius rubor pulcherrimus nullo umquam solis ardore, nulla ualet pluuiarum iniuria pallescere; sed quo uetustior, eo solet esse uenustior. Habet fontes salinarum, habet et fontes calidos, et ex eis fluuios balnearum calidarum omni aetati et sexui per distincta loca iuxta suum cuique modum accommodos. Aqua enim, ut sanctus Basilius dicit, feruidam qualitatem recipit, cum per certa quaedam metalla transcurrit, et fit non solum calida, sed et ardens. Quae etiam uenis metallorum, aeris, ferri, et plumbi, et argenti, fecunda, gignit et lapidem gagatem plurimum optimumque; est autem nigrogemmeus, et ardens igni admotus, incensus serpentes fugat, adtritu calefactus adplicita detinet, aeque ut sucinum. Erat et ciuitatibus quondam XX et VIII nobilissimis insignita, praeter castella innumera, quae et ipsa muris turribus, portis, ac seris erant instructa firmissimis.
Et quia prope sub ipso septentrionali uertice mundi iacet, lucidas aestate noctes habet; ita ut medio saepe tempore noctis in quaestionem ueniat intuentibus, utrum crepusculum adhuc permaneat uespertinum, an iam aduenerit matutinum, utpote nocturno sole non longe sub terris ad orientem boreales per plagas redeunte; unde etiam plurimae longitudinis habet dies aestate, sicut et noctes contra in bruma, sole nimirum tunc Lybicas in partes secedente, id est horarum X et VIII; plurimae item breuitatis noctes aestate, et dies habet in bruma, hoc est sex solummodo aequinoctialium horarum;
cum in Armenia, Macedonia, Italia, ceterisque eiusdem lineae regionibus longissima dies siue n
ox XV, breuissima VIIII conpleat horas.
Haec in praesenti, iuxta numerum librorum, quibus lex diuina scripta est, quinque gentium linguis, unam eandemque summae ueritatis et uerae sublimitatis scientiam scrutatur, et confitetur, Anglorum uidelicet, Brettonum, Scottorum, Pictorum et Latinorum, quae meditatione scripturarum ceteris omnibus est facta communis.
In primis autem haec insula Brettones solum, a quibus nomen accepit, incolas habuit; qui de tractu Armoricano, ut fertur, Brittaniam aduecti, australes sibi partes illius uindicarunt.
Et cum plurimam insulae partem, incipientes ab Austro, possedissent, contigit gentem Pictorum de Scythia, ut perhibent, longis nauibus non multis Oceanum ingressam, circumagente flatu uentorum, extra fines omnes Brittaniae Hiberniam peruenisse, eiusque septentrionales oras intrasse, atque inuenta ibi gente Scottorum, sibi quoque in partibus illius sedes petisse, nec inpetrare potuisse. Est autem Hibernia insula omnium post Brittaniam maxima, ad occidentem quidem Brittaniae sita; sed sicut contra Aquilonem ea breuior, ita in meridiem se trans illius fines plurimum protendens, usque contra Hispaniae septentrionalia, quamuis magno aequore interiacente peruenit. Ad hanc ergo usque peruenientes nauigio Picti, ut diximus, petierunt in ea sibi quoque sedes et habitationem donari.