ledge and help.

The history of England was in St Bede's time inseparable from the
history of her Church, as we pray that one day it may again come to be.

The book begins with a short account of Britain before the coming of St
Augustine. St Bede used old writers for this, and he was much helped by
two of his friends, Albinus and Northelm. Northelm used to make
researches for him at Rome, and brought him copies of letters written by
St Gregory the Great, and other Popes, bearing on the Church history of
Britain. From other sources also he took the information which has come
down through him to us, a heritage for which we cannot be too grateful.
Our two great early histories are the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," and
Bede's "Church History of the English Race." Without these, what could
our historians have done?

This great book of St Bede's was, like almost all his work, written in
Latin; the grand old tongue in which our priests say their daily Office
and minister at God's altar. It was King Alfred who gave us a free
translation of it in English. But although it was written in Latin, it
belongs absolutely to our Catholic Heritage in English Literature.

Bede was the first historian to date from the Incarnation of Our Lord,
the form which we have always used. The History comes down to A.D. 731,
a short time before its author went to his rest. We can never think of
St Bede as a mere bookman, a purely "literary man." His own character,
truth-loving, wise, devoted, cheerful, has been felt through his work; a
character that has made people love him and stretch out hands of
affection to him across the heaping-up of the years. How glad are we to
say, we, students, workers, all of us, "St Bede, pray for us."

There is a lovely account of St Bede's last days handed down to us in a
letter written by his pupil Cuthbert, to another of his pupils, Cuthwin.
Cuthwin had written, telling Cuthbert how he was diligently saying
Masses, and praying for their "father and master, Bede, whom God loved,"
and Cuthbert is glad to answer his fellow-student's enquiries as to the
departure of that "dear father and master."

His death-illness began "a fortnight before the day of Our Lord's
Resurrection," and lasted till Holy Thursday. All the time he was full
of joy and thanksgiving. Cuthbert says he has never seen any man "so
earnest in giving thanks to the living God."

He made a little poem in English about the absolute importance of
everybody