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The history of the nation had never been written. On the Continent, and
for a time in the island, rough war-songs were the only annals of the
Anglo-Saxons. Now they have Latin chronicles, a Latin which Tacitus
might have smiled at, but which he would have understood. Above all,
they have the work of the Venerable Bede (Baeda), the most important
Latin monument of all the Anglo-Saxon period.

Bede was born in Northumbria, about 673, the time when the final
conversion of England was being accomplished. He early entered the
Benedictine monastery of Jarrow, and remained there till his death. It
was a recently founded convent, established by Benedict Biscop, who had
enriched it with books brought back from his journeys to Rome. In this
retreat, on the threshold of which worldly sounds expired, screened from
sorrows, surrounded by disciples who called him "dear master, beloved
father," Bede allowed the years of his life to glide on, his sole
ambition being to learn and teach.

The peaceful calm of this sheltered existence, which came to an end
before the time of the Danish invasions, is reflected in the writings of
Bede. He left a great number of works: interpretations of the Gospels,
homilies, letters, lives of saints, works on astronomy, a "De Natura
Rerum" where he treats of the elements, of comets, of winds, of the
Nile, of the Red Sea, of Etna; a "De Temporibus," devoted to
bissextiles, to months, to the week, to the solstice; a "De Temporum
Ratione" on the months of the Greeks, Romans, and Angles, the moon and
its power, the epact, Easter, &c. He wrote hymns in Latin verse, and a
life of St. Cuthberht; lastly, and above all, he compiled in Latin
prose, a "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum,"[81] which has
remained the basis of all the histories composed after his. In it Bede
shows himself as he was: honest, sincere, sedate, and conscientious. He
quotes his authorities which are, for the description of the island and
for the most ancient period of his history, Pliny, Solinus, Eutropius,
Orosius, Gildas. From the advent of Augustine his work becomes his own;
he collects documents, memoranda, testimonies, frequently legends, and
publishes the whole without any criticism, but without falsifications.
He lacks art, but not straightforwardness.

Latinist though he was, he did not despise the national literature in
spite of its ruggedness. He realised it was truly a literature; he made
translations in Anglo-Saxon,