1. The Venerable Bede
Aly Scholle

2. Background
C A.D.
Entered the monastery around age 7, ordained deacon age 19, priest age 30
Wrote exegesis, histories, hagiographies
Primary scholarly language was Latin, also fluent in Old English
Knew a fair amount of Greek and maybe Hebrew
Named a Doctor of the Church
Monastery of Wearmouth - Jarrow in Northern England

4. Monastic education Both religious and secular subjects Monastic rule
Grammar
Rhetoric
Dialectic
Monastic rule
Library and scriptorium
Bede continues this
Edits and writes texts to educate younger monks and others

5. Ecclesiastical History - Goals
Elevate the status of the English
Connect them with universal Church history
Uses both Latin and Old English techniques to story tell
Reformist
Encourage both educated lay and religious to spread Christianity
Use of present tense
“In praesenti”

6. Ecclesiastical History - Techniques
4-fold interpretation
Literal / historical, allegorical, tropological, and anagorical
Numbers represent “signs”
5 languages - 5 books - Pentateuch - 5 ages of man
Cites sources
Remarkably accurate in chronology
Vera lex historiae
Less about historical truth, more about true history

7. Reception Used as a source by later historians
Both Protestant and Catholic churches regard him as integral part

8. Question
Is what we have read of the Ecclesiastica Historia historical truth as we know it? To what degree should we understand these things as what literally happened, and what should we understand as true as Bede understood true?