Bede: Historical Works, Vol. 2 — Lives of Cuthbert and of the Abbots

The reader is here presented for the first time with an English version of the Minor Historical Productions of the Venerable Bede. In his larger and more important work, " The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation,'' the Author has taken a general view of English History during his own time. In the minor pieces, contained in the present volume, he has contracted his range to a narrower compass, introducing us, as it were, within the walls of those most interesting societies, the Monasteries of the Saxon period. In the " Lives of St, Cuthbert, and of the Abbots of We7^emouth and J arrow the simplicity of the narrative, the almost daily account of the occupations of the Monks, and the minute details of the introduction of many of the useful arts into England, form altogether an attraction, which we shall seek for in vain in any other writer, who has left us any memorials of the ways of life, which existed among our Anglo-Saxon progenitors.

" The Life of St. Vedast " was written by Alcuin, though published on the Continent among a Series of Biographies under the name of Bede. It was originally intended to have formed part of the Appendix to the present volume; but the arrangement of the various pieces having been confided to a friend, during the translator's absence on the Continent, it was placed immediately after "The Life of St. Felix." It remains, therefore, only for the reader to enjoy this very interesting narrative, but by no means to look upon it as a genuine production of the Venerable Bede. " The Life of St, FelLvwas transferred from the metrical legend of Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, by Bede, into a prose narrative; and the compiler is therefore not responsible for the miraculous facts recorded, his office having been merely that of a faithful translator.

" The Letter to Abbot Albinus" relates to our Author's Ecclesiastical History, whilst the important *' Epistle to Bishop Egbert'' has left us a deplorable picture of the demoralized state of Monachism in the eighth century. It will be read with much interest at the present moment, having always been considered a most important document on Church Discipline, — a subject which in our day has at length

rivetted the attention of all thinking and zealous members of the Anglican Church.

The Account of the Seven Wonders of the World,'' and " The Book of the Holy Places ,' were compiled by Bede, for the…