forms one of the most important documents for early English history. In
681 he completed the conversion of England by his preaching to the South
Saxons, whom he endeavoured to civilise as well as Christianise. His
monastery of Selsey was built on land granted by the under-king (now a
tributary of Wessex), and his first act was to emancipate the slaves
whom he found upon the soil. Equally devoted to Rome was the young
Northumbrian noble, who took the religious name of Benedict Biscop.
Benedict became at first an inmate of the Abbey of Lérins, near Cannes.
He afterwards founded two regular Benedictine abbeys on the same model
at Wearmouth and Jarrow, and made at least four visits to the papal
court, whence he returned laden with manuscripts to introduce Roman
learning among his wild Northumbrian countrymen. He likewise carried
over silk robes for sale to the kings in exchange for grants of land;
and he brought glaziers from Gaul for his churches. Jarrow alone
contained 500 monks, and possessed endowments of 15,000 acres.

It was under the walls of Jarrow that Bæda himself was born, in the year
672. Only fifty years had passed since his native Northumbria was still
a heathen land. Not more than forty years had gone since the conversion
of Wessex, and Sussex was still given over to the worship of Thunor and
Woden. But Bæda's own life was one which brought him wholly into
connection with Christian teachers and Roman culture. Left an orphan at
the age of seven years, he was handed over to the care of Abbot
Benedict, after whose death Abbot Ceolfrid took charge of the young
aspirant. "Thenceforth," says the aged monk, fifty years later, "I
passed all my lifetime in the building of that monastery [Jarrow], and
gave all my days to meditating on Scripture. In the intervals of my
regular monastic discipline, and of my daily task of chanting in chapel,
I have always amused myself either by learning, teaching, or writing. In
the nineteenth year of my life I received ordination as deacon; in my