Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/105

Bede Scripture, or lines of English verse, which bade men remember how—'Before he need go forth, none can be too wise in thinking, how before his soul shall go, what good or ill deeds he hath done, how after death his doom shall be;' or again he sang the antiphons, hoping to console the hearts of his scholars, but when he came to the words 'Leave us not orphans,' he wept much, and they wept with him. And so the days wore on, and in spite of his sickness he worked hard that he might finish his translation into English of the Gospel of St. John, for he knew that it would be of use to the church, and also of some extracts from Bishop Isidore, for 'I do not want my boys,' he said, 'to read what is false, or to have to work at this without profit when I am dead.' On the day of his death, when the rest had gone to the procession held on the festival, his scribe was left alone with him. 'Dearest master,' he said, 'there is one chapter wanting, and it is hard for thee to question thyself'. 'No, it is easy,' he said; 'take thy pen and write quickly.' He spent the day in giving his little treasures of spice and incense to the priests of the house, in asking their prayers, and in bidding them farewell. The evening came, and his young scribe said, 'There is yet one more sentence, dear master, to write out.' He answered, 'Write quickly.' After a while the boy said, 'Now it is finished.' 'Well,' he said, 'thou hast spoken truly "It is finished. Then he bade his friends place him where he could look on the spot on which he was wont to kneel in prayer. And lying thus upon the pavement of his cell, he chanted the 'Gloria Patri,' and as he uttered the words 'the Holy Ghost' he breathed his last, and 'so he passed to the kingdom in heaven.'

Bæda was buried at Jarrow. Men recognised the greatness of the loss which had come upon them. Winfrith (St. Boniface) wrote to Cuthberht to beg him to send him one of the works of Bæda, 'that wise searcher of Scripture who of late shone in your house of God like a candle in the church' (. Epp. 37, 62, ed. Giles). Before the end of the eighth century, Alcuin used his name to excite the Northumbrian monks to study diligently and betimes, and bade them remember 'what praise Bæda had of men, and how far more glorious a reward from God'. (, Analect. ii. 310). In his poem on the bishops and other ecclesiastics of the church of York, he reckons over the various powers of the departed master, and speaks of a miracle worked by his relics (Carmen de Pontif. &c. Eccl. Ebor. 1. 1300-1317). In the course of the next century the epithet 'Venerable' began to be generally added to his name. Each year, on the day of his death, men used to come and watch and pray in the church at Jarrow. A certain priest of Durham named Alfred, who lived in the first half of the eleventh ceutury, and who seems to have spent his life in stealing the bones and other relics of departed saints in order to attract the gifts of the faithful to his own church, violated the grave of Bæda. He carried off the bones to Durham, and placed them in the coffin in which St. Cutherht lay. There they were found at the translation of St. Cuthberht in 1104. Bishop Hugh de Puiset (1153-1195) laid them in a casket of gold and silver in the glorious galilee which he added to his church. In 1541 the casket of Bishop Hugh fell a prey to sacrilegious greed, and the remains of the great English scholar were dispersed ( iii. 7;, Disput. 33 et seq.; As late as the middle of the eighteenth century 'Bede's well' at Monkton, near Jarrow, 'was in repute as a bath for the recovery of infirm or diseased children' (, ''Hist. of Durham'', ii. 80). According to the list which Bæda appended to his 'Historia Ecclesiastica,' the books which he had written by the year 731, when that work was brought to an end, were: 1. On the first part of the Book of Genesis, four books. 2. On the Tabernacle, its Vessels, &c. three books. 3. On the first part of Samuel to the death of Saul, three books. 4. An Allegorical Exposition on the Building of the Temple, two books. 5. On Thirty Questions concerning the Book of the Kings. 6. On the Proverbs of Solomon, three books. 7. On the Song of Solomon, seven books. 8. Extracts from St. Jerome on the divisions of chapters in Isaiah, Daniel, the twelve Prophets, and part of Jeremiah. 9. On Ezra and Nehemiah, three books. 10. On Habakkuk, one book. 11. An Allegorical Exposition of the Book of Tobit, one book. 12. Chapters for readings in the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges. 13. On the Books of Kings and Chronicles. 14. On the Book of Job. 15. On the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. 16. On Isaiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah. 17. On Mark, four books. 18. On Luke, six books. 19. Two books of 'Homilies on the Gospel.' 20. Extracts from St. Augustine on the Apostle (Paul). 21. On the Acts, two books. 22. A Book on each of the General Epistles. 23. On the Apocalypse, three books. 24. Chapters for readings in the New Testament except the Gospels. 25. A book of Letters, in which are: 'Of the Six Ages,' 'Of the Resting Places of Israel,' 'Of the Words of Is. xxiv. 22,' 'Of Bissextile,'