Bede: HISTORIAM ECCLESIASTICAM GENTIS ANGLORUM

HISTORIAM gentis Anglorum ecclesiasticam, quam nuper edideram, libentissime tibi desideranti, rex, et prius ad legendum ac probandum transmisi, et nunc ad transscribendum ac plenius ex tempore meditandum retransmitto; satisque studium tuae sinceritatis amplector, quo non solum audiendis scripturae sanctae uerbis aurem sedulus accommodas, uerum etiam noscendis priorum gestis siue dictis, et maxime nostrae gentis uirorum inlustrium, curam uigilanter impendis. Siue enim historia de bonis bona referat, ad imitandum bonum auditor sollicitus instigatur; seu mala commemoret de prauis, nihilominus religiosus ac pius auditor siue lector deuitando quod noxium est ac peruersum, ipse sollertius ad exsequenda ea, quae bona ac Deo digna esse cognouerit, accenditur. Quod ipsum tu quoque uigilantissime deprehendens, historiam memoratam in notitiam tibi simul et eis, quibus te regendis diuina praefecit auctoritas, ob generalis curam salutis latius propalari desideras.

The ecclesiastical history of the English people, which I lately published, most willingly to you who desire it, O king, I both formerly sent over for reading and approving, and now I send back again for transcribing and for being more fully meditated upon as time allows; and I quite embrace the zeal of your sincerity, whereby you not only assiduously lend an ear to the words of Holy Scripture, but also expend vigilant care on getting to know the deeds or sayings of those before us, and especially of the illustrious men of our own nation. For whether history reports good things about the good, the hearer is anxiously stirred to imitate the good; or whether it commemorates evils about the depraved, nonetheless the religious and pious hearer or reader, by avoiding what is harmful and perverse, is himself the more skillfully kindled to carry out those things which he has recognized to be good and worthy of God. This very thing you also, most vigilantly discerning, desire to have the aforesaid history more widely made known for your knowledge at once and for those over whom the divine authority has set you to rule, on account of the general care of salvation.

Ut autem in his, quae scripsi, uel tibi, uel ceteris auditoribus siue lectoribus huius historiae occasionem dubitandi subtraham, quibus haec maxime auctoribus didicerim, breuiter intimare curabo.

But so that, in the things which I have written, I may remove for you, or for the other auditors or readers of this history, the occasion for doubting, I will take care briefly to intimate from which authors I have chiefly learned these things.

Auctor ante omnes atque adiutor opusculi huius Albinus abba reuerentissimus, uir per omnia doctissimus, extitit; qui in ecclesia Cantuariorum a beatae memoriae Theodoro archiepiscopo et Hadriano abbate, uiris uenerabilibus atque eruditissimis, institutus, diligenter omnia, quae in ipsa Cantuariorum prouincia, uel etiam in contiguis eidem regionibus a discipulis beati papae Gregorii gesta fuere, uel monimentis litterarum, uel seniorum traditione cognouerat; et ea mihi de his, quae memoria digna uidebantur, per religiosum Lundoniensis ecclesiae presbyterum Nothelmum, siue litteris mandata, siue ipsius Nothelmi uiua uoce referenda, transmisit. Qui uidelicet Nothelmus postea Romam ueniens, nonnullas ibi beati Gregorii papae simul et aliorum pontificum epistulas, perscrutato eiusdem sanctae ecclesiae Romanae scrinio, permissu eius, qui nunc ipsi ecclesiae praeest Gregorii pontificis, inuenit, reuersusque nobis nostrae historiae inserendas cum consilio praefati Albini reuerentissimi patris adtulit. A principio itaque uoluminis huius usque ad tempus, quo gens Anglorum fidem Christi percepit, ex priorum maxime scriptis hinc inde collectis ea, quae promeremus, didicimus.

Before all, the author and helper of this little work was Abbot Albinus, most reverend, a man most learned in all respects; who, having been instructed in the church of the Cantwaras (Canterbury) by Theodore of blessed memory, archbishop, and by Abbot Hadrian, venerable and most erudite men, had diligently come to know all the things which in the province of the Cantwaras itself, and also in the regions contiguous to the same, were done by the disciples of blessed Pope Gregory, either by the monuments of letters or by the tradition of elders; and he sent to me those things which seemed worthy of remembrance through the religious presbyter of the church of London, Nothelm, whether committed to letters or to be reported by the living voice of Nothelm himself. This same Nothelm, later coming to Rome, found there several letters of blessed Pope Gregory together with those of other pontiffs, by searching the scrinium of that same holy Roman Church, with the permission of him who now presides over that church, Pope Gregory; and returning he brought them to us, to be inserted in our history, with the counsel of the aforesaid most reverend father Albinus. From the beginning of this volume, therefore, up to the time when the nation of the Angles received the faith of Christ, we learned what we set forth chiefly from the writings of our predecessors gathered here and there.

Exinde autem usque ad tempora praesentia, quae in ecclesia Cantuariorum per discipulos beati papae Gregorii, siue successores eorum, uel sub quibus regibus gesta sint, memorati abbatis Albini industria, Nothelmo, ut diximus, perferente, cognouimus. Qui etiam prouinciae Orientalium simul et Occidentalium Saxonum, nec non et Orientalium Anglorum atque Nordanhymbrorum, a quibus praesulibus, uel quorum tempore regum gratiam euangelii perceperint, nonnulla mihi ex parte prodiderunt. Denique hortatu praecipue ipsius Albini, ut hoc opus adgredi auderem, prouocatus sum.

From then on, moreover, down to the present times, what things in the church of the Cantuarians were done through the disciples of blessed Pope Gregory, or their successors, and under which kings, we have learned by the industry of the aforesaid Abbot Albinus, with Nothelm, as we said, conveying them. They also disclosed to me, concerning the provinces of the East and likewise the West Saxons, and also of the East Angles and the Northumbrians, by which prelates, or in whose times of the kings, they received the grace of the Evangel. Finally, by the exhortation especially of Albinus himself, I was provoked to dare to undertake this work.

Sed et Danihel reuerentissimus Occidentalium Saxonum episcopus, qui nunc usque superest, nonnulla mihi de historia ecclesiastica prouinciae ipsius, simul et proxima illi Australium Saxonum, nec non et Uectae insulae litteris mandata declarauit. Qualiter uero per ministerium Ceddi et Ceadda religiosorum Christi sacerdotum, uel prouincia Merciorum ad fidem Christi, quam non nouerat, peruenerit, uel prouincia Orientalium Saxonum fidem, quam olim exsufflauerat, recuperauerit, qualis etiam ipsorum patrum uita uel obitus extiterit, diligenter a fratribus monasterii, quod ab ipsis conditum Læstingaeu cognominatur, agnouimus. Porro in prouincia Orientalium Anglorum, quae fuerint gesta ecclesiastica, partim ex scriptis uel traditione priorum, partim reuerentissimi abbatis Esi relatione conperimus.

But also Danihel, the most reverend bishop of the West Saxons, who even now survives, has declared to me in writings certain matters of the ecclesiastical history of that province, as well as of the province of the South Saxons adjacent to it, and likewise of the island of Wight. How indeed, through the ministry of Ceddi and Ceadda, religious priests of Christ, the province of the Mercians came to the faith of Christ, which it had not known, and the province of the East Saxons recovered the faith which it had once exsufflated (blown away), and what sort of life and death those same fathers had, we learned carefully from the brothers of the monastery which, founded by them, is surnamed Læstingaeu. Furthermore, in the province of the East Angles, what ecclesiastical deeds were done, we discovered partly from the writings and tradition of the elders, partly from the account of the most reverend Abbot Esi.

At uero in prouincia Lindissi, quae sint gesta erga fidem Christi, quaeue successio sacerdotalis extiterit, uel litteris reuerentissimi antistitis Cynibercti uel aliorum fidelium uirorum uiua uoce didicimus. Quae autem in Nordanhymbrorum prouincia, ex quo tempore fidem Christi perceperunt, usque ad praesens per diuersas regiones in ecclesia sint acta, non uno quolibet auctore, sed fideli innumerorum testium, qui haec scire uel meminisse poterant, adsertione cognoui, exceptis his, quae per me ipsum nosse poteram. Inter quae notandum, quod ea, quae de sanctissimo patre et antistite Cudbercto, uel in hoc uolumine, uel in libello gestorum ipsius conscripsi, partim ex eis, quae de illo prius a fratribus ecclesiae Lindisfarnensis scripta repperi, adsumsi, simpliciter fidem historiae, quam legebam, accommodans, partim uero ea, quae certissima fidelium uirorum adtestatione per me ipse cognoscere potui, sollerter adicere curaui.

But indeed, in the province of Lindsey, what things have been done with regard to the faith of Christ, and what sacerdotal succession has existed, we learned either by the letters of the most reverend prelate Cynibert, or by the viva voce of other faithful men. Moreover, the things which in the province of the Northumbrians, from the time when they received the faith of Christ up to the present, have been done in the Church through diverse regions, I came to know not from any one author, but by the trustworthy assertion of innumerable witnesses who could know or remember these matters—excepting those which I was able to know by myself. Among these it is to be noted that the things which I have written concerning the most holy father and bishop Cuthbert, either in this volume or in the little book of his deeds, I partly took from those writings about him which I previously found composed by the brethren of the church of Lindisfarne, simply accommodating faith to the history which I was reading, and partly I took care carefully to add those things which I myself was able to learn by the most certain attestation of faithful men.

Lectoremque suppliciter obsecro, ut, siqua in his, quae scripsimus, aliter quam se ueritas habet, posita reppererit, non hoc nobis imputet, qui, quod uera lex historiae est, simpliciter ea, quae fama uulgante collegimus, ad instructionem posteritatis litteris mandare studuimus.

I humbly beseech the reader that, if he shall have found anything among these things which we have written set down otherwise than as truth itself stands, he not impute this to us, who, in accordance with what the true law of history is, have simply endeavored to commit to letters, for the instruction of posterity, those things which, fame spreading abroad, we have collected.

Praeterea omnes, ad quos haec eadem historia peruenire potuerit nostrae nationis, legentes siue audientes, suppliciter precor, ut pro meis infirmitatibus et mentis et corporis apud supernam clementiam saepius interuenire meminerint; et in suis quique prouinciis hanc mihi suae remunerationis uicem rependant, ut, qui de singulis prouinciis siue locis sublimioribus, quae memoratu digna atque incolis grata credideram, diligenter adnotare curaui, apud omnes fructum piae intercessionis inueniam.

Moreover I humbly beseech all of our nation, to whom this same history may be able to come, whether reading or hearing, to remember to intercede more often with the supernal clemency on behalf of my infirmities both of mind and of body; and let each in his own provinces render to me this return of their remuneration, that I—who have taken care diligently to annotate from the several provinces or more exalted places those things which I believed worthy of mention and pleasing to the inhabitants—may find among all the fruit of pious intercession.