from sources acknowledged to be trustworthy; and he is always careful to
tell us when he gives a story on evidence only hearsay.

St Bede refused to be Abbot of Jarrow, because "the office demands
household care, and household care brings with it distraction of mind,
which hinders the pursuit of learning."

He wrote many things, and it has been said that his writings form nearly
a complete encyclopædia of the knowledge of his day; but the work of St
Bede by which he is best known is the "Church History of the English
Race." It is of greater value than we can tell, and has been used for
many generations for knowledge and help.

The history of England was in St Bede's time inseparable from the
history of her Church, as we pray that one day it may again come to be.

The book begins with a short account of Britain before the coming of St
Augustine. St Bede used old writers for this, and he was much helped by
two of his friends, Albinus and Northelm. Northelm used to make
researches for him at Rome, and brought him copies of letters written by
St Gregory the Great, and other Popes, bearing on the Church history of
Britain. From other sources also he took the information which has come
down through him to us, a heritage for which we cannot be too grateful.
Our two great early histories are the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," and
Bede's "Church History of the English Race." Without these, what could
our historians have done?

This great book of St Bede's was, like almost all his work, written in
Latin; the grand old tongue in which our priests say their daily Office
and minister at God's altar. It was King Alfred who gave us a free