ge is set forth with wonderful clearness, in the numerous
questions propounded by Augustine to Gregory I., the Bishop of Rome, and
in the judicious answers of that prelate; in which may also be found the
true relation which the Church of Rome bore to her English mission.

We have also the statement of the establishment of the archbishoprics of
Canterbury and York, the bishopric of London, and others.

The last chapter but one, the twenty-third, gives an important account "of
the present state of the English nation, or of all Britain;" and the
twenty-fourth contains a chronological recapitulation, from the beginning
of the year 731, and a list of the author's works. Bede produced, besides
his history, translations of many books in the Bible, several histories of
abbots and saints, books of hymns and epigrams, a treatise on orthography,
and one on poetry.

To point the student to Bede's works, and to indicate their historic
teachings, is all that can be here accomplished. A careful study of his
Latin History, as the great literary monument of the Anglo-Saxon period,
will disclose many important truths which lie beneath the surface, and
thus escape the cursory reader. Wars and politics, of which the
Anglo-Saxon chronicle is full, find comparatively little place in his
pages. The Church was then peaceful, and not polemic; the monasteries were
sanctuaries in which quiet, devotion, and order reigned. Another phase of
the literature shows us how the Gentiles raged and the people were
imagining a vain thing; but Bede, from his undisturbed cell, scarcely
heard the howlings of the storm, as he wrote of that kingdom which
promised peace and good-will.

BEDE'S LATIN.--To the classical student, the language of Bede offers an
interesting study. The Latin had already been corrupted, and a nice
discrimination will show the causes of this corruption--the effects of the
other living languages, the ignorance of the clergy, and the new subjects
and ideas to which it was applied.

Bede was in the main more correct than his age, and his vocabulary has few
words of barbarian origin. He arose like a luminary, and when the light of
his learning disappeared, but one other star appeared to irradiate the
gloom which followed his setting; and that was in the person and the reign
of Alfred.

OTHER WRITERS OF THIS AGE.--Among names which must pass with the mere
mention, the following are, after Bede, the most illustrious in this time.
_Aldh