This boy we
know as Bede, and when he was seven years old his friends gave
him into the keeping of the Abbot of Wearmouth. Under this Abbot
there were two monasteries, the one at Jarrow and the other at
Wearmouth, a few miles distant. And in these two monasteries
Bede spent all the rest of his life.
When Bede was eight years old Caedmon died. And although the
little boy had never met the great, but humble poet, he must have
heard of him, and it is from Bede's history that we learn all
that we know of Caedmon.
There is almost as little to tell of Bede's life as of Caedmon's.
He passed it peacefully, reading, writing, and teaching within
the walls of his beloved monastery. But without the walls wars
often raged, for England was at this time still divided into
several kingdoms, whose kings often fought against each other.
Bede loved to learn even when he was a boy. We know this, for
long afterward another learned man told his pupils to take Bede
for an example, and not spend their time "digging out foxes and
coursing hares.
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