He the Lord eternal
laid the foundation.
He shapèd erst
for the sons of men,
heaven their roof,
holy Creator;
the middle world he,
mankind's sovereign,
eternal captain,
afterwards created,
the land for men
Lord Almighty.[65]


BEDA was born in 672, in the neighbourhood of Wearmouth, two
years before Biscop founded an abbey there. Of this abbey Beda became an
inmate in his seventh year, under Abbot Biscop. He was afterwards moved
to the sister foundation at Jarrow, under Abbot Ceolfrid, and there he
lived, with rare absences, the remainder of his life. He was ordained
deacon at the early age of nineteen; in his thirtieth year he was
ordained priest; he died in his sixty-third year, A.D. 735. He
was a very prolific author, and he has left us, at the end of his most
considerable work, a sketch of his life, and a list of his writings,
down to the fifty-ninth year of his age, A.D. 731. The bulk of
his works are theological, chiefly in the form of commentaries, and they
are little more than extracts from the best known of the Fathers. This
was adapted to the needs of the time, and Bede's commentaries were held
in great esteem during the whole period. Ælfric, in the tenth century,
used them largely for his "Homilies."