Table Of ContentOXFORD 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
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Published in the United States
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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
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First published as a World’s Classics paperback 1994
Reissued as an Oxford World’s Classics paperback 1999
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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
