This book was fun, for Bede attempts to stitch together a comprehensive history not only of the English (Anglo-Saxon) Church, but of the Christian presence in these countries before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The volume which I have is printed by Oxford University Press, and I acquired it (quite appropriately) from the local Waterstones in Durham, where Bede lies entombed in the old cathedral. The book unfortunately comes coupled with a critical commentary, in the form of substantial end-notes, perhaps because it has been printed for historians. The little asterisks throughout the main body of the book are rather intrusive, but I'll try to ignore them if I go through it again.
I love Bede's devotional attitude and his veneration for the Saints and his sense of wonder at the wonderful miracles that accompanied the evangelisation of the British Isles; even if the book's editor feels the need to apologise for Bede's being a Catholic monk. I'm going to call this four stars out of five, and here's an interesting little factoid: at the end of Bede's Greater Chronicle, which is also bundled into this volume, at the end, he mentions that his abbot, Father Coelfrid, made a pilgrimage to Rome with a very special gift for the Holy Father. He never arrived, for he died at Langres. Coelfrid's gift for the Holy Father was a complete Latin-language Bible, carefully written by the monks of Bede's monastery in Northumbria. The critical commentary calls it the Codex Amiatinus, for it has been identified in a library in Milan. Now, watch this video:
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