sources. Bede published this history about the year 734, when, as he informs us, he was in his fifty-ninth year, but before this he had written man)' other books on various subjects, a catalogue of which he subjoined to his history. So great was his reputation, that it was said of him, " hominem, in extremo orbis angulo natum, universum orbem suo ingenio perstrinxisse." He had a multitude of scholars, and passed his life in stud)', in teaching others, and in prayer, thinking, like his master, John of Beverley, that the chief business of a monk was to make himself of use to others. In the
Bede : the life of St. Patrick is by.Probus ; that of St. Columbanus by Jonas ; and that of St. Arnolphus, of Mctz, by Paul the Deacon : — 17. Carmen de Justini martyrio (St. Justin beheaded at Paris under Diocle- tian) : — 18. Marty rologium. Composed, as he states, by himself, but altered and interpolated in subsequent times. See the Preface of the Bollandists, ad Januar. cap. 4, and Prolog, ad Mensem Mart. torn, ii, sec. 5. The corrupted Martyrology was given separately at Antwerp in 1564, 12mo : — 19. De situ Hierusalt m, < t locorum sanctorum: — 20. Interpretatio nominum Ilebrai-
yaar 735, shortly before Easter, he was seized by a | coruni et Gracorum in S. Script, occurrcntium : — 21. slight attack of inflammation of the lungs, which con- i Excerpta et Collectanea. Unworthy altogether, in the tinued to grow worse until the 26th of May (Ascension- i opinion of Cave and Dupin, of Bede : — 22. In Hexae- day). He was continually active to the last, and par- tneron, taken from Sts. Basil, Ambrose, and Augustine : ticularly anxious about two works : one his translation —23. In Pentateuelium et libros Regum : — 24. In Samu- of John's Gospel into the Saxon language, the other ekm : — 25. In Esdram, Tobiam, Job (not by Bede, but some passages which he was extracting from the works by Philip of Syda, the presbyter), Proverbia, et Canti- of St. Isidore. The day before his death he grew much j ca: — 26. De Tabernand.o. ac vasis et vestibus ejus: — 27. worse, and his feet began to swell, yet he passed the [ Commentaria in IV Evangdia et Acta Apost. : — 28. De night as usual, and continued dictating to the person I nominibus locorum qui in Actis Apost. leguntnr : — 29. who acted as his amanuensis, who, observing his weak- J Commentaria in Epp. Catho'.icas et Apocalgpsin : — 30. ness, said, "There remains now < nly one chapter, but j Retractationcs et Qnastiones in Acta Apost. : — 31. Corn- it seems difficult to you to speak." To which he an- mentaria in omnes Epist. S. Pauli; a work almost en- swered, " It is easy : take your pen, mend it, and write ! tirely compiled from St. Augustine. (The most prob- quickly." About nine o'clock he sent for some of his j able opinion is that this is a work of Floras, a deacon brethren, priests of the monastery, to divide among of Lyons, whose name it bears in three or four MSS. them some incense and other things of little value I It is, however, certain [from himself] that Bede wrote which he had preserved in a chest. While he was | such a commentary as the present, and Mabillon states speaking, the young man, Wilberch, Avho wrote for that he found in two MSS., each eight hundred years him, said, "Master, there is but one sentence want- old, A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, taken from St.
ing;" upon which he bid him write quick, and soon after the scribe said, " Now it is finished." To which he replied, " Thou hast said the truth — consummatum est. Take up my head ; I wish to sit opposite to the place where I have been accustomed to pray, and where now sitting I may yet invoke my Father." Being thus seated, according to his desire, upon the floor of his cell, he said, " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;" and as he pro- nounced the last word he expired (Neandcr, Light in Dark Places, 162). He died, according to the best
Augustine, and attributed to Bede, but quite different from this which goes under his name. There can, therefore, be little doubt that the latter is the genuine work of Bede, and this of Floras) : — 32. Homilice de Tempore, viz., 83 for the summer, 32 for the summer festivals, 15 for the winter, 22 for Lent, 16 for the winter festivals, and various sermons to the people (Cologne, 1534) : — 33. Liber de muliere forfi, i. e. the Church: — 34. De Offieiis liber: — 35. Scintill.fr sire Loci Communes: — 3G. Fragmenta in libros Sapientialee et Psalterii versus: — 37. De Temp'o So'omonis: — 38. Qua>s-
opinion, May 20th, 735, though the exact date has J times in Octateuchum et IV libros Regum: — 39. Quces- been contested. tiones Varice: — 40. Commentaria in Psalmos: — 41. Vo-
The first catalogue of Bede's works, as we have be- cabulorum Psalterii Expositio : — 42. De Diapsalmate col- tore observed, we have from himself, at the end of his | lectio: — 43. Sermo in id, " Dominus de ccelo prospcxit .-" Ecclesiastical History, which contains all he had writ- j —44. Commentarii in Boethii Libros de Trinitate : — 45. ten before the year 731. This we find copied by Le- De septem verbis Christ!: — 4G. Meditationes Passionis land, who also mentions some other pieces he had met Christi, per septem horas diei: — 47. De Remediis Pecca- with of Bede's, and points out likewise several that \torum (his Penitential) :— 48. Cunabula grammatical passed under Bede's name, though, in Leland's judg- ar/is Donati: — 49. De oeto partibus Orationis:—b0. De ment, spurious (Leland, D<> Script. Brit. ed. Hall, Ox- ; Arte Metricd :— 51 . De Orthographia:— 52. De schemali- ford, 1709, i, 115). Bale, in the first edition of his \bus S. Script urw : —53. De tropis S. Scriptural; and work on British writers (4to, Gippesw. 1548, fol. 50), j various works relating to arithmetic, astronomy, etc. mentions ninety-six treatises written by Bede, and in : etc. All these works were collected and published at his last edition (fol. 1559, p. 94) swells these to one Paris, in 3 vols, fol., 1545, and again in 1554, in 8 hundred and forty-five tracts,' and declares at the vols. ; also at Basle in 1563 ; at Cologne in 1612; and close of both catalogues that there were numberless ' again in 1688, in 4 vols. fol. The Cologne edition pieces besides of Bede's which he had not seen. The | of 1612 is very faulty. There is also a pretty com-