At last, wearied out,
he fell asleep over his task.
Then, as he slept, an angel bent down, and taking the pen from
the monk's tired fingers, wrote the words, "the Venerable," so
that the line ran, "In this grave lie the bones of the Venerable
Bede." And thus, for all time, our first great historian is
known as The Venerable Bede.
BOOK TO READ
The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, by Bede,
translated by Dr. Giles.
Chapter XV HOW ALFRED THE GREAT FOUGHT WITH HIS PEN
WHILE Caedmon sang his English lays and Bede wrote his Latin
books, Northumbria had grown into a center, not only of English
learning, but of learning for western Europe. The abbots of
Jarrow and Wearmouth made journeys to Rome and brought back with
them precious MSS. for the monastery libraries. Scholars from
all parts of Europe came to visit the Northumbrian monasteries,
or sent thither for teachers.
But before many years had passed all that was changed. Times of
war and trouble were not yet over for England.
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