HIS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.--His ecclesiastical history opens with a
description of Britain, including what was known of Scotland and Ireland.
With a short preface concerning the Church in the earliest times, he
dwells particularly upon the period, from the arrival of St. Augustine, in
597, to the year 731, a space of one hundred and thirty-four years, during
nearly one-half of which the author lived. The principal written works
from which he drew were the natural history of Pliny, the Hormesta of the
Spanish priest _Paulus Orosius_, and the history of Gildas. His account of
the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, "being the traditions of the Kentish
people concerning Hengist and Horsa," has since proved to be fabulous, as
the Saxons are now known to have been for a long period, during the Roman
occupancy, making predatory incursions into Britain before the time of
their reputed settlement.[9]

For the materials of the principal portions of his history, Bede was
indebted to correspondence with those parts of England which he did not
visit, and to the lives of saints and contemporary documents, which
recorded the numerous miracles and wonders with which his pages are
filled.


BEDE'S RECORDED MIRACLES.--The subject of these miracles has been
considered at some length by Dr. Arnold,[10] in a very liberal spirit; but
few readers will agree with him in concluding that with regard to some
miracles, "there is no strong _a priori_ improbability in their
occurrence, but rather the contrary." One of the most striking of the
historical lessons contained in this work, is the credulity and
superstition which mark the age; and we reason justly and conclusively
from the denial of the most palpable and absurd, to the repudiation of
the lesser demands on our credulity. It is sufficient for us that both