Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/16

viii “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. Felix”was 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