chewing the cud, converted the same into most sing the nocturnal praises of our Lord? They harmonious verse; and sweetly repeating the answered, "It is not far off." Then he said, same, made his masters in their turn his hearers. "Well, let us wait that hour," and signing He sang the creation of the world, the origin of himself with the sign of the cross, he laid his man, and all the history of Genesis: and made 5 head on the pillow, and falling into a slumber, many verses on the departure of the children ended his life so in silence. of Israel out of Egypt, and their entering into Thus it came to pass, that as he had served the land of promise, with many other histories God with a simple and pure mind, and undisfrom holy writ; the incarnation, passion, turbed devotion, so he now departed to His resurrection of our Lord, and his ascension into 10 presence, leaving the world by a quiet death; heaven; the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the and that tongue, which had composed so many preaching of the apostles; also the terror of holy words in praise of the Creator, uttered its future judgment, the horror of the pains of hell, last words whilst he was in the act of signing and the delights of heaven; besides many more himself with the cross, and recommending about the Divine benefits and judgments, by 15 himself into His hands, and by what has been which he endeavored to turn away all men from here said, he seems to have had foreknowledge the love of vice, and to excite in them the love of his death. of, and application to, good actions; for he was a very religious man, humbly submissive to regular discipline, but full of zeal against those 20 who behaved themselves otherwise; for which reason he ended his life happily.

BEDE'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF (From the same)

(Translated by J. A. GILES)

Thus much of the Ecclesiastical History of Britain, and more especially of the English nation, as far as I could learn either from the writings of the ancients, or the tradition of our ancestors, or of my own knowledge, has, with the help of God, been digested by me, Bede, the servant of God, and priest of the monastery of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, which is at Wearmouth and Jarrow; who being born in the territory of that same monastery, was given, at seven years of age, to be educated by the most reverend Abbat Benedict,2 and afterwards by Ceolfrid; and, spending all the remaining time of my life in that monastery, I wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture, and amidst the observance of regular discipline, and the daily care of singing in the

For when the time of his departure drew near, he laboured for the space of fourteen days under a bodily infirmity which seemed to pre-25 pare the way, yet so moderate that he could talk and walk the whole time. In his neighborhood was the house to which those that were sick, and like shortly to die, were carried. He desired the person that attended him, in the 30 evening, as the night came on in which he was to depart this life, to make ready a place there for him to take his rest. This person, wondering why he should desire it, because there was as yet no sign of his dying soon, did what he 35 had ordered. He accordingly went there, and conversing pleasantly in a joyful manner with the rest that were in the house before, when it was past midnight, he asked them whether they had the Eucharist there? They answered, 40 church, I always took delight in learning, "What need of the Eucharist? for you are not likely to die, since you talk so merrily with us, as if you were in perfect health."-"However," said he, "bring me the Eucharist." Having received the same into his hand, he asked, 45 John,3 and by the order of the Abbat Ceolfrid.

whether they were all in charity with him, and without any enmity or rancour? They answered, that they were all in perfect charity, and free from anger; and in their turn asked him, whether he was in the same mind towards 50 them? He answered, "I am in charity, my children, with all the servants of God." Then strengthening himself with the heavenly viaticum, he prepared for the entrance into another life, and asked, how near the time 55 was when the brothers were to be awakened to

teaching, and writing. In the nineteenth year of my age, I received deacon's orders; in the thirtieth, those of the priesthood, both of them by the ministry of the most reverend Bishop

From which time, till the fifty-ninth year of my age, I have made it my business, for the use of me and mine, to compile out of the works of the venerable Fathers, and to interpret and explain according to their meaning these following pieces.*

1 Bede entered the monastery of St. Peter at Wear-
mouth, in Durham, in his seventh year, and the associated
monastery of St. Paul at Jarrow in his nineteenth year.
2 The famous Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth.
Ceolfrid was his successor.

3 John of Beverley, bishop of Hexham.
4 Here follows a list of Bede's works.

Cuthbert1

CUTHBERT'S LETTER ON THE DEATH
OF BEDE

(c. 735)

(Translated by P. V. D. SHELLY)

And when he had come to the words "leave us not orphans," he burst into tears and wept much. And after a while he began to repeat what he had begun. And we, hearing these 5 things, mourned with him. Now we read, and now we wept; nay, we read as we wept. In such gladness we passed the quinquagesimal days until the above mentioned day, and he rejoiced greatly and gave thanks to God because he had been worthy of such affiiction. He would often say, "God scourgeth every son whom He receiveth," and much more from the holy scriptures. A saying of Ambrose's he would also repeat, "I have not lived in such

but neither do I fear to die, because we have a good God." In these days also, he strove to produce two works worthy of memory, in addition to teaching us and singing psalms.

To his most dear fellow-lector Cuthwin, beloved in Christ, Cuthbert, his co-disciple in God, sends greeting. The little gift you sent 10 me I have received with pleasure, and with great joy have I read your letter, full of a devout learning, in which I learn, what I so greatly desired, that you are diligently celebrating masses and prayers for our father and 15 a manner as to be ashamed to live among you; master, Bede, beloved of God. Whereforemore on account of my love for him than because of any confidence in my powers-I am pleased to tell you in a few words how he departed from this life, since this, I understand, 20 He translated into our tongue, for the use of is what you desire and request. About two weeks before the day of the Resurrection, he was afflicted with great weakness and with shortness of breath, although he was without pain; and so, happy and rejoicing, giving 25 thanks to Almighty God every day and every night, indeed almost every hour, he lived until the day of our Lord's ascension, that is the seventh of the Kalends of June. To us, his pupils, he continued to give lessons every day, 30 and the rest of the day he spent in singing psalms. Ever vigilant, he would spend the whole night in rejoicing and in giving thanks, except when a little sleep prevented. Upon awaking, however, he would again repeat the 35 customary prayers and with hands uplifted continue to give thanks to God. Truly I may say that I have neither seen with my eyes nor heard with my ears any one give thanks so diligently to the living God.

the Church, the gospel of St. John, to where it is said, "But what are these among so many?" 7 and certain excerpts from the works of Bishop Isidore, saying, "I do not wish that my pupils should read falsehood, or labor herein without profit after my death." When the third Tuesday before the Ascension of our Lord had come, he began to experience great difficulty in breathing, and a slight swelling developed in his feet. But he labored all that day, and dictated happily, and among other things said, "Learn quickly, for I know not how long I shall live, or whether in a little while my Maker shall take me." To us, however, it seemed that he knew well the time of his going forth. Thus he spent the night in vigils and thanksgiving. And at dawn, that is on Wednesday, he commanded us to write diligently what we had begun; and this we did unto the third hour. From the third 40 hour we walked with the relics of the saints, as the custom of the day demanded. One of us remained with him, who said to him, "There is yet one chapter lacking. Does it not seem hard that you should be questioned further?" But

O truly blessed man! He was wont to repeat the words of St. Paul the Apostle, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," and many other things from the Scriptures, by which he would admonish us to 45 he answered, "It is easy. Take pen and ink,

rouse ourselves from the sleep of the soul by and write quickly." He did so. At the ninth thinking upon our last hour. Also he some- hour he said to me, "In my chest I have a few times spoke in our tongue, the English, for he little valuables, pepper, napkins, and incense. was very learned in our songs: 4 . . . He Go quickly and bring hither the priests of our would also sing Antiphons, according to his 50 monastery, that I may distribute among them usage and ours, one of which is: "O King of what gifts God has granted me. The rich men, glory, Lord of Hosts, who in triumph didst in this day, may wish to give gold and silver and this day ascend above all the heavens, leave us the like treasures; I, with great charity and not orphans, but send upon us the promise of gladness, shall give to my brothers what God the Father, the Spirit of Truth, Alleluia." 55 has bestowed." And with fear I did this.

which they freely promised. They all continued to weep and mourn, especially because he had said that they should not see his face much longer in this life. But they rejoiced because he said, "It is time that I return to Him who made me, who created me and formed me out of nothing. I have lived long, and my gracious Judge has ordered my life well; the time of my return is come, for I desire to die and to be with Christ."

borders they maintained their peace, their customs, and their might, and at the same time extended their territory beyond; how they prospered both in war and in wisdom; and also 5 how zealous were those of the religious life in teaching and in learning and in all those services which they owed to God; and how foreigners came hither to this land seeking wisdom and learning, and how we must now get them from 10 abroad if we are to have them. So clean was learning fallen away among the English, that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their service-book in English, or translate a letter from Latin into

This and much else he said, passing the day in gladness up to vespers. And the boy mentioned above said, "One sentence, dear master, is yet to be written." He answered, "Write quickly." After a little the boy said, "Now the 15 English; and I ween there were not many sentence is written." "It is well; you spoke truly; it is finished. Take my head in your hands, for it pleases me greatly to sit opposite my holy place where I was wont to pray, so that sitting I may invoke my Father." And 20 thus, on the floor of his cell, chanting "Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto," as he named the Holy Spirit he breathed his last, and so passed to the heavenly kingdom.

All who saw the death of the venerable 25 father said that they had seen no one end his life in such devotion and tranquillity, for, as you have heard, while his soul was in his body, he chanted the Gloria Patri and other divine songs to the glory of God, and, his hands up- 30 lifted to the living God, he uttered thanks without ceasing. Know, dear brother, that I could record many things of him, but my lack of skill in speech makes my narrative short. Nevertheless, I purpose, with God's help, to 35 write of him more fully what I have seen with my eyes and heard with my ears.

King Alfred

849-901

THE STATE OF LEARNING IN ENG

LAND

beyond the Humber. So few of them were there that I cannot think of one south of the Thames when I came to the throne. To God Almighty be the thanks that we have any supply of teachers now. And therefore I bid thee, as I believe thou art willing, as often as thou art able, to free thyself from worldly affairs, that thou mayest apply the wisdom that God gavest thee wherever thou canst. Think what punishments came upon us on account of this world, when we neither loved wisdom ourselves nor allowed it to other men: the name alone of being Christians we loved, and very few of the practises.

When I remembered all this, I also recalled that I saw, before it was all laid waste and burnt, how the churches throughout England stood filled with treasures and books, and also a great number of God's servants; but they knew very little use of those books, since they were able to understand no whit of them, for they were not written in their own tongue. As if they had said, "Our elders, who held these places of old, loved wisdom, and through it they got wealth 40 and left it to us. Here we can yet see their tracks, but we know not how to follow them; and therefore we have lost both the wealth and the wisdom, because we would not bend our minds to follow their path."

King Alfred's Preface to his Translation of 45
Gregory's Pastoral Care

(Translated by P. V. D. SHELLY)

Alfred, the king, greets bishop Werferth,1

When I remembered all this, I wondered very greatly, concerning the good wise men who were formerly among the English and had fully learned all those books, that they had turned no part of them into their own language. But I

with his words lovingly and in friendly wise; and 50 soon answered myself and said, "They did not

I let it be known to thee that it has very often
come to my mind what wise men there were
formerly among the English, both of godly and
of worldly office, and what happy times were
those throughout England; and how the kings 55
who had rule of the folk in those days obeyed
God and His ministers; and how within their

1 Bishop of Worcester. Alfred intended to send a copy of this work to each of the English bishops.

think that men would ever become so careless and that learning would so fall away; hence they neglected it, through the desire that there might be the more wisdom here in the land the more we knew of languages."

Then I called to mind how the law was first found in Hebrew; and again, when the Greeks learned it, they translated all of it into their own tongue, and also all other books. And

again, the Romans likewise, after they learned them, translated the whole of them, through wise interpreters, into their own language. And also all other Christian peoples turned some part of them into their own tongue. Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also translate some books that are most needful for all men to know, into that language which we are all able to understand; and that, as we very easily can with God's help 10 if we have peace, we cause all the youth now in England of the class of freemen, who are rich enough to be able to apply themselves to it, to be set to learn, the while they can be put to no other employment, until they are well able to 15 tools no king may display his special talent.

possession of earthly power, nor longed for this authority," but I desired instruments and materials to carry out the work I was set to do, which was that I should virtuously and fittingly 5 administer the authority committed unto me. Now no man, as thou knowest, can get full play for his natural gifts, nor conduct and administer government, unless he hath fit tools, and the raw material to work upon. By material I mean that which is necessary to the exercise of natural powers; thus a king's raw material and instruments of rule are a well peopled land, and he must have men of prayer, men of war, and men of work. As thou knowest, without these

Further, for his materials he must have means of support for the three classes above spoken of, which are his instruments; and these means are land to dwell in, gifts, weapons, meat, ale,

read English writing; and afterward let those be taught in the Latin tongue who are to be taught further and to be put in a higher office. When I remembered how, before now, the knowledge of Latin had fallen away among the 20 clothing, and what else soever the three classes

need. Without these means he cannot keep his tools in order, and without these tools he cannot perform any of the tasks entrusted to him. "I have desired material for the exercise of government that my talents and my power might not be forgotten and hidden away," for every good gift and every power soon groweth old, and is no more heard of, if Wisdom be not in them. Without Wisdom, no faculty can be brought out, for whatsoever is done unwisely can never be accounted as skill. To be brief, I may say that it has ever been my desire to live honourably while I was alive, and after my death to leave to them that should come after

English and yet many knew how to read English writing, I began, among other various and manifold concerns of this kingdom, to translate into English the book that in Latin is called "Pastoralis," and in English, "Shepherd's 25 Book," at times word by word, and again according to the sense, as I had learned it from Plegmund my archbishop, and from Asser my bishop, and from Grimbold my mass-priest, and from John my mass-priest. After I had learned 30 it, I turned it into English as I understood it and could most clearly expound it; and to every bishopric in my kingdom I wish to send one; and in each there is a book-mark worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God's name that 35 me my memory in good works.' no man take the book-mark from the book, nor the book from the minster. We know not how long there may be such learned bishops as, God be thanked, there now are nearly everywhere. Therefore, I would that they may always be 40 not alluding to the subject, and yet she led up

in their place, unless the bishop wishes to have them with him, or they be lent anywhere, or anyone copy them.

THE CONSOLATION OF BOETHIUS (Selections from King Alfred's Translation) (Translated from the Old English by W. J. SEDGEFIELD)

THE KING AND HIS SERVANTS1

FATE AND PROVIDENCE

"Then she began to speak in a very remote and roundabout fashion, as though she were

to it, saying, 'All creatures, both the seen and the unseen, the motionless and the moving, receive from the unmoving, unchanging, and undivided God their due order, form, and 45 proportions; and, inasmuch as it was so created, He knoweth why He hath made all that He hath made. Nothing of what He hath made is without use to Him. God ever dwelleth in the high city of His unity and mercy; thence He 50 dealeth out ordinances many and various to all His creatures, and thence He ruleth them all. But regarding that which we call God's providence and foresight, this exists as long as it abides with Him in His mind, ere it be brought to pass, and while it is but thought. But as soon as it is accomplished we call it Fate. From this every man may know that Providence and Fate are not only two names, but two things. Providence is the Divine Reason,

"When Philosophy had sung this song she was silent for a time. Then the Mind answered, saying, 'O Philosophy, thou knowest that I 55 never greatly delighted in covetousness and the

The passages in this, and in the following selection, not enclosed in double quotation marks, were composed by Alfred himself and inserted in his translation.

and lieth fast in the high Creator that knoweth how everything shall befall ere it come to pass. But that which we call Fate is God's working day by day, both that which we see, and that which is not seen of us. The divine forethought holdeth up all creatures, so that they may not fall asunder from their due order. Fate therefore allots to all things their forms, places, seasons, and proportions; but Fate comes from the mind and the forethought of Almighty 10 God, who worketh whatsoever He will according to His unspeakable providence.

wards. Just as the spokes have one end sticking in the felly and the other in the nave, while in the middle the spoke is equally near either, so the midmost men are at the middle of the 5 spokes, the better sort nearer the nave, and the baser nearer the fellies, joined, however, to the nave, which in turn is fixed to the axle. Now, the fellies are fastened to the spokes, though they roll on the ground; and so the least worthy men are in touch with the middle sort, and these with the best, and the best with God. Though the worst men turn their love towards this world they cannot abide therein, nor come to anything, if they be in no degree fastened to God, no more than the wheel's fellies can be in motion unless they be fastened to the spokes, and the spokes to the axle. The fellies are farthest from the axle, and therefore move least steadily. The nave moves nearest the

So do the best men; the nearer to God they set their love, and the more they despise earthly things, the less care is theirs, "and the less they reck how Fate veers, or what she brings." So

'Even as every craftsman thinks over and marks out his work in his mind ere he take it in hand, and then carries it out altogether, so this 15 changing lot that we call Fate proceeds according to His forethought and purpose, even as He resolveth that it shall be done. Though it seem to us manifold, partly good, partly evil, yet it is to Him good, pure and simple, for He 20 axle, therefore is its motion the most sure. bringeth it all to a goodly conclusion, and doeth for good all that He doeth. When it is done, we call it Fate; before, it was God's forethought and His purpose. Now Fate He setteth in motion by means of the good angels 25 also the nave is ever sound, let the fellies or the souls of men, or the lives of other creatures, or through the heavenly bodies, or the divers wiles of evil spirits; at one time through one of them, at another through all. But it is manifest that the divine purpose is single and 30 unchanging, and rules everything in orderly wise, and gives unto all things their shape. Now some things in this world are subject to Fate, others are in no way subject; but Fate, and the things that are subject to her, are sub- 35 confounded and afflicted both in mind and in ject to divine Providence. Concerning this I can tell thee a parable, so that thou mayest the more clearly understand who are the men that are subject to Fate, and who are they that are not.

strike on what they may; and nevertheless the nave is in some degree severed from the axle. Thereby thou mayest perceive that the wagon keeps far longer whole the less its distance from the axle, and so also those men are most free from care, both in this present life of tribulation and in the life to come, that are firmly fixed in God. But the farther they are sundered from God, the more sorely are they

body.

"That which we call Fate is, compared to divine Providence, what reflection and reason are when measured against perfect knowledge, 40 and as things temporal compared with things eternal, or, again, like the wheel compared with the axle, the axle governing all the wagon. So with the forethought of God; it governeth the firmament and the stars, and maketh the

'All this moving and changing creation turns round the unmoving, the unchanging, and the undivided God, and He ruleth all creatures as He purposed in the beginning, and still doth purpose. The wheels of a wagon turn upon its 45 earth to be at rest, and measureth out the four

axle," while the axle stands still and yet bears all the wagon and guides all its movement. The wheel turns round, and the nave next the wheel moves more firmly and securely than the

elements, to wit, water, earth, fire, and air. These it keepeth in peace; unto these it giveth form, and again taketh it away, changing them to other forms and renewing them again. It

felly does. Now the axle is as it were the high- 50 engendereth everything that groweth, and

hideth and preserveth it when old and withered, and again bringeth it out and reneweth it when it pleaseth." Some sages, however, say that Fate rules both weal and woe of every

est good we call God, and the best men move next unto God just as the nave moves nearest the axle. The middle sort of men are like the spokes, for one end of each spoke is fast in the nave, and the other is in the felly; and so it is 55 man. But I say, as do all Christian men, that

with the midmost man, at one time thinking in his mind upon this earthly life, at another upon the divine life, as if he looked with one eye heavenwards, and with the other earth

it is the divine purpose that rules them, not Fate; and I know that it judges all things very rightly, though unthinking men may not think so. They hold that all are good that