Was Bede Really That Venerable?

It is 686 AD at the gates of the Northumbrian monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey. Pushing one of the great oak doors ajar, we are confronted with an assault on the senses. Many of the abbey's monks lie strewn across the courtyard, their bodies motionless, cold, and pale. At the far end of the courtyard, a brother digs away at the soil. His body trembles as he sobs, praying under his breath that this pestilence may cease its relentless onslaught. Once a sanctuary on the Christian frontier, the plague has ravaged this settlement. Only two of the brothers of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow are to survive: one being the monastery’s abbot, Ceolfrith, and the other—if the sources are to be believed—the future ‘Father of English History’, the Venerable Bede (c. 673–735).

Now, many of you may recognise the name ‘Venerable Bede’; some of you may even know who he was. And although I am far from a supporter of the ‘Great Man’ theory, and all the misfortunes that follow in its wake, I believe Bede was indeed very venerable. This venerableness rests upon the monumental scholarly undertakings Bede pursued in the over sixty books he completed before his death. But before we delve into the life of one of history's greatest scholars, let us first explore the world of Bede.

Between the sixth and eighth centuries, the land we now know as England had been carved up into the seven kingdoms of the Heptarchy: Northumbria to the north, Mercia in the midlands, Wessex to the south-west, and East Anglia, Essex, Kent, and Sussex to the south-east. At this time, England was a land of fertile fields, leaving many a king’s chest brimming with gold. However, it was also a place of unforgiving violence, its fertile valleys, forests, and plains often drenched in the blood of both thegn and churl.

While Bede wrote his renowned texts, such as his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731 AD), Mercia, through martial conquest, ascended to the throne as England’s dominant power—much to the detriment of Bede’s homeland of Northumbria. The Anglo-Saxon world was not only a theatre of near-constant geopolitical turbulence; ideologically, too, it was undergoing fundamental change. As a monk, Bede practised a relatively novel way of life, for like so many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Northumbria had only recently adopted Christianity. In fact, it was only by the time Bede had turned twelve or thirteen that the Heptarchy had at least been united in faith—and even then, it remains unclear whether the populace had truly embraced this new religion behind closed doors.

While the world around him reeled from seemingly unrelenting forces of change, within the relative safety of the monastery's walls, Bede—unlike many of his brethren—demonstrated an innate curiosity and diligent work ethic that would set him apart. Through these qualities, he went on to prove himself truly venerable.

Bede was an academic powerhouse. From his theological roots in biblical commentary to history, hagiography, geography, grammar, poetry, and cosmography, Bede’s scholarly exploits seemed to know no bounds. His works were not simply the sporadic ramblings of a man driven half-mad within the monotonous walls of a monastery. Rather, they were the monumental undertakings of a rigorous scholar, committed to (ecclesiastical) ‘objective inquiry’. Academic writing today owes much to Bede. He popularised the use of citation, both referencing the ideas of his predecessors and insisting that fellow monks cite him when copying his texts.

Bede set a precedent: to be a truly great scholar, one must pursue their work with integrity. Furthermore, as a man of profound Christian sentiment, Bede helped to shape how we understand time itself. Through his On the Reckoning of Time (725), he popularised the system of ‘Before Christ’ and ‘Anno Domini’—a dating framework that, for many, particularly of a Christian inclination, still shapes our understanding of history.

Texts such as On the Reckoning of Time and the Ecclesiastical History made Bede something of a posthumous international celebrity. From the eighth century onwards, carried by Anglo-Saxon missionaries across northern Europe, Bede’s manuscripts spread far and wide. His Ecclesiastical History even found a home in the court library of Charlemagne (748–814), the Frankish king who brought much of Europe under his rule. Later, in the twelfth century, historians such as William of Malmesbury (c. 1080–1143) sought to reignite the flame of historical inquiry, shedding light on England’s past, and citing Bede directly as their inspiration.

Without Bede’s diligent historical inquiry in the eighth century, much of what we know today of high medieval England might have been lost—or, at the very least, of far poorer academic integrity. Although Bede came to be known as ‘the Venerable’ from the eleventh century onwards, it was only in 1899 that he was canonised as a ‘Doctor of the Church’ for his scholarly exploits—nearly 1,200 years after his death. This is a testament to the monk’s enduring influence on both ecclesiastical and academic practice, and to a scholarly legacy that still endures to this day.

In his Ecclesiastical History, Bede offers a tantalising glimpse into his own life, describing himself simply as ‘a servant of Christ and a priest of the monastery of St Peter and St Paul’. This modesty is emblematic of how special he truly was. Unlike the ‘Great Men’ of history—such as Caesar or Bonaparte—whose self-serving ambition brought little but toil and destruction, Bede stands in stark contrast. He represents one of the very few individuals from the past who might genuinely be described as ‘Great’—or, at the very least, venerable.

Bede did not write in the hope that his name would be emblazoned in the minds of future generations. Rather, he was an individual imbued with academic gumption few could match. His works, such as the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, illuminate a period so rich in history, yet so scarce in sources. For this fact alone, we are forever indebted to this venerable man.

So, as we tiptoe across the plague-ravaged courtyard, peering into the abbey’s meagre book collection, we find a single soul asleep—illuminated only by weak candlelight, flickering as it struggles for life in the draught-ridden corridors of the monastery. We can only gaze in awe, watching a young man, exhausted by academic strain. For this monk must be none other than the one and only—Venerable Bede.

Bibliography

Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, The Greater Chronicle, Bede's Letter to Egbert, ed. By Judith McClure and Roger Collins, (Oxford University Press, 2008) 

Benison, Liam, 'Early Medieval Science: The Evidence of Bede', Endeavour, vol.24, no.3, (2000), <https://www.medievalists.net/2012/03/early-medieval-science-the-evidence-of-bede/>, [Accessed: 19 March 2025] 

Bonner, Gerald, 'Bede and Medieval Civilization', Anglo-Saxon England, vol.2, (1973), pp.71-90 

Cavadini, John, Bede the Theologian: History, Rhetoric, and Spirituality, (Catholic University of America Press, 2022) 

Dodds, Gregory, Bede the Venerable, (2012), <https://spectrummagazine.org/post-archives/bede-venerable/>, [Accessed: 31 March 2025] 

Higham, Nicholas, Martin Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World, (Yale University Press, 2013) 

O'Holloran, Quentin, Reflecting On The Timeless Legacy of St. Bede: Scholar, Historian and Educator, <https://www.delasalle.org.au/stbede>, [Accessed: 31 March 2025] 

Rosenthal, Joel, 'Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and the Material Conditions of Anglo-Saxon Life', Journal of British Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, (1979), pp. 1–17 

Walter, H.E., 'Bede and the Gewissae: The Political Evolution of the Heptarchy and its Nomenclature', The Cambridge Historical Journal, vol.12, no.2, (1956), pp.174-186