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Rh canonical hours and gatherings of the brethren; what if they find not me there among the brethren? Will they not say, Where is Bede: why does he not come with the brethren to the prescribed prayers?" (Alc. Ep. 16, ed. Migne).

Of the legendary or fictitious statements about Bede, the following are the most important: his personal acquaintance with Alcuin which is impossible; his education and sojourn at Cambridge, on which see Giles, ''PP. Eccl. Angl.'' i. lxx. seq.; his visits to Italy and burial at Genoa or at Rome, which seem to belong to another person of the same name, (ib. i. cvi.), and the legendary statements about his title of Venerable (ib. i. ci.). For a detailed investigation of these, and the alleged authorities for them, see Gehle's learned monograph, ''Disp. Hist. Theol. de Bed. Ven. (Leyden, 1838), pp. 2‒4, 17‒21, and for the fallacies as to the date of Bede's death, ib.'' pp. 31 seq.

Bede's own list of his works may be rearranged as follows:

(1) Commentaries on O.T.—viz. Gen. 4 books, derived chiefly from Basil, Ambrose, and Augustine; the Tabernacle, 3 books; Sam. 3 books; the Building of the Temple, 2 books; on Kings, 30 questions dedicated to Nothelm; Prov. 3 books; Canticles, 7 books; on Isa., Dan., the 12 minor prophets, and part of Jer., extracts from Jerome; on Ezra and Neh. 3 books; on the Song of Habakkuk, 1 book; on Tobit, 1; chapters of lessons on the Pentateuch, Josh., and Judges; Kings, Job, Prov. Eccles. Canticles, Isa., Ezra, and Neh.

(2) Commentaries on N.T.: St. Mark, 4 books; St. Luke, 6 books; 2 books of homilies on the Gospels; Acts, 2 books; a book on each Catholic Ep.; 3 books on the Apocalypse, Lessons on the whole N.T. except the Gospels.

(3) Letters: de Sex Aetatibus; de Mansionibus filiorum Israel; de eo quod ait Esaias "et claudentur, etc."; de Ratione Bissexti; de Aequinoctio.

(4) Hagiographies: on St. Felix, rendered from the poem of Paulinus; on Anastasius, a revised trans. from the Greek; on St. Cuthbert, in verse and prose; the abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow; the History of the English Church; the Martyrology.

(5) Hymns and epigrams.

(6) Scientific books: de Natura Rerum, de Temporibus, de Temporum Ratione.

(7) Elementary books: on Orthography, Ars Metrica, Schemato, and Trope.

Besides these he wrote translations into English, none of which are extant, from the Scriptures; Retractationes on the Acts; the Letter to Egbert; and a book on penance is ascribed to him.

Bede's collected works, including many not his, were pub. at Paris, 1544; Basle, 1563; Cologne, 1612, 1688; and by Dr. Giles (Lond. and Oxf.) in 1843; and in Migne's Patr. xc.–xcv. [S.] All study of Bede must henceforth begin with Mr. C. Plummer's monumental edition of the historical writings Baedae Opera Historica (Clarendon Press, 1896). It contains the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, the Historia Abbatum, the ''Ep. ad Egbertum, and the anonymous Historia Abbatum''. An excellent introduction presents a critical survey of Bede's works with large references in footnotes

to modern authorities. The student should consult the index in vol. ii. 418 for the frequent allusions scattered throughout the two vols. to the various writings of Bede. For the text of works other than historical reference must still be made to Migne's ''Patr. Lat. (vols. 94‒95), or to Dr. J. A. Giles's Patres Ecclesiae Anglicanae'' (vols. 1‒12). A critical edition of, at all events, the Biblical words of Bede is still a desideratum. Dr. Giles edited some of the smaller treatises 50 years ago, and Mr. Edward Marshall published Bede's Explanation of the Apocalypse in 1878; but with these exceptions few, if any, of his writings have in recent years appeared separately. In the 16th and 17th cents. homilies and other works were frequently printed. Reference may be made on this point to the art. in the 4-vol. ed. of this Translations of the historical books were made by Dr. Giles in 1840, Mr. Gidley in 1870, and by Miss A. M. Sellar in 1907. The last named is the most useful for the student. It is a revision of Dr. Giles, and his work is in turn based upon Mr. Stevens (1723). The notes in Mayor and Lumby's ed. of H. E. iii. and iv. (Camb. Univ. Press) are learned and important. Reference should also be made to Lives of Bede by Bp. Browne (1879) and Canon H. D. Rawnsley (1904), and to the general treatment of Bede and his times in Dr. Bright's Chapters from Early English Church Hist. (pp. 335‒338), and Dr. W. Hunt's History of the English Church (vol. i. pp. 205‒208). A monograph on "Place Names in the English Bede and the Localization of the MSS.," by Thomas Miller, was contributed to Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Culturgeschichte der germanischen Völker (Strassburg, 1896). The important question of the chronological order of Bede's works is discussed by Mr. Plummer, op. cit. (i. cxlv.‒clix.). [H.G.]  Benedictus of Nursia. St. Benedict, abbot of Monte Cassino ("Abbas Casinensis"), called "patriarch of the monks of the West," lived during the troubled and tumultuous period after the deposition of Augustulus, when most of the countries of Europe were either overrun by Arians or still heathen. There were many monks in southern Europe, but without much organization till Benedict reformed and remodelled the monastic life of Europe (Mab. Ann. I. i.). The principal, almost sole, authority for the life of St. Benedict are the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. The genuineness of these has been questioned, but without sufficient cause.

Benedict was born about A.D. 480 at Nursia (Norcia), anciently belonging to the Sabines ("frigida Nursia," Virg.), an episcopal city in the duchy of Spoleto in Umbria. His parents were of the higher class ("liberiori genere," Praef. Dial.). A later writer gives their names, Euproprius and Abundantia (Petr. Diac. de Vir. Ill. i.). The ruins of the ancestral palace are shewn at Norcia, with a crypt, the reputed birthplace of Benedict (Mab. Ann. i. 4). He was sent as a boy to be educated at Rome; but soon, shocked by the immorality of his companions, fled, followed by his nurse (Cyrilla; Petr. D. de Vir. Ill. i.), to Ahle (Effide), on the Anio (Teverone), about forty miles from Rome (Dial. ii. 1). Thence he retired to a cave at 