This history of Britain and the Catholic Church, written in the 700s, is a classic text of history and religion.

Bede tells the reader all about saints of Britain and their miracles, while simultaneously crafting a work that can be used to prove the faith to the common person, as well as convert new members.

A superb book, and necessary to understand the role of Christianity in contemporary times. ( )

The Temple Classics edition of 1903 (reproducing the translation by "Dr. Giles" from 1840) is a handsome and convenient little volume in olive-green leather, with a smart, old-fashioned title-page, ornamentally bordered and faced by an engraving of Jarrow monastery. However, it lacks the notes of the Penguin Classics edition, and a little comparison revealed that the translation is also now past its sell-by date. As regards style, where this has "tribunes" and an "ambassador to France", the Penguin edition has the more historically appropriate "ealdormen" and "mission to Gaul". I also found at least one mistranslation: at the end of Book I, it is said that "from that time to this, no king of the Scots durst come into Britain to make war on the English to this day". Clearly, any king in Scotland is already in Britain, and need not come into it to make war. (The excuse that the author means by "Britain" the Roman province south of Hadrian's Wall is belied by Bede's own clear use of "Britain" for the whole island in the description at the beginning of the book.) Bede's Latin, I deduce, must be more accurately rendered by the Penguin translator, Leo Sherley-Price, as "from that day until the present, no king of the Scots in Britain has dared to do battle with the English" (i.e. as distinct from the Scots in Ireland).

Given these inadequacies, I have reluctantly placed the book on the "out" pile, and kept the more functional Penguin on the shelf.

MB 18-iii-2009

Book 1 takes us quickly through the history of Christianity in Roman Britain and then describes the Anglo-Saxon invasions as background to the main event, St. Augustine's arrival and conversion of Kent.

Book 2 describes the spread of Christianity through Anglo-Saxon England until the conversion and of Northumbria under King Edwin.

Book 3 takes the story from King Oswald down to the death of Wigbert in Rome before he can be confirmed as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Book 4 runs from the appointment of Theodore of Tarsus as archbishop of Canterbury down to the death of St. Cuthbert.

Book 5 concludes the History by taking it down to 731, when Bede wrote it.

This translation also includes a letter from Bede to a friend of his who was a bishop about Bede's ideas for the reform of English monasticism and the duties of a bishop, and a letter from one of Bede's friends describing Bede's death.

The earlier parts of Bede's History were more interesting. The later parts tended to be just -- and then this man became bishop. I wish I knew what to make of the miracle stories. Did Bede really think they'd happened? Or were they just edifying stories which didn't necessarily have to have happened? I did find the continual discussions on the right dates to celebrate Easter a bit wearisome. I suppose they thought it was important at the time, but I found it difficult to follow and not that important anyway. ( )

The great history of England in the early middle ages. ( )

One of the classics of early English history. A very good read, but not (by any means) an unbiased approach. ( )