thirtieth year I attained to the priesthood; both functions being
administered by the most reverend bishop John [afterwards known as St.
John of Beverley], at the request of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my
ordination as priest to the fifty-ninth year of my life, I have occupied
myself in briefly commenting upon Holy Scripture, for the use of myself
and my brethren, from the works of the venerable fathers, and in some
cases I have added interpretations of my own to aid in their
comprehension."

The variety of Bæda's works, the large knowledge of science and of
classical literature which he displays (when judged by the continental
standard of the eighth century), and his familiar acquaintance with the
Latin language, which he writes easily and correctly, show that the
library of Jarrow must have been extensive and valuable. Besides his
Scriptural commentaries, he wrote a treatise _De Natura Rerum_, Letters
on the Reason of Leap-Year, a Life of St. Anastasius, and a History of
his Own Abbey, all in Latin. In verse, he composed many pieces, both in
hexameters and elegiacs, together with a treatise on prosody. But his
greatest work is his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," the
authority from which we derive almost all our knowledge of early
Christian England. It was doubtless suggested by the Frankish history of
Gregory of Tours, and it consists of five books, divided into short
chapters, making up about 400 pages of a modern octavo. Five
manuscripts, one of them transcribed only two years after Bæda's death,
and now deposited in the Cambridge library, preserve for us the text of
this priceless document. The work itself should be read in the original,
or in one of the many excellent translations, by every person who takes
any intelligent interest in our early history.

Bæda's accomplishments included even a knowledge of Greek–then a rare