Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/17

Rh rivetted the attention of all thinking and zealous members of the Anglican Church.

"The Account of the Seven Wonders of the World," and "The Book of the Holy Places," were compiled by Bede, for the use of his own Monastery. The latter is chiefly taken from the crude and ill-digested narrative of Adamnan, who wrote from the dictation of Bishop Arculph. "That Holy Prelate," says Bede, "from a desire to see the Holy Places, left his native country and went to the Land of Promise, where he stopped two months at Jerusalem, having an old priest named Peter, for his guide and interpreter. He then with great zeal visited every thing around, which he longed to see, and travelled to Alexandria, Damascus, Constantinople, and Sicily. On his way home, the vessel in which he sailed, after much beating about, was carried by contrary winds to our island; and here, after various perils, he came to Adamnan, and narrated to him his voyage, and what he had seen." We are thus furnished with a well-authenticated account of the Holy City and the rest of Palestine, prior to the Crusades, by an eye-witness, and one who surmounted every difficulty to achieve the object of his pilgrimage.

"The Chronicle of the Six Ages of the World," in