The Ecclesiastical History of the English People - 0 - Introduction
Introduction
Quote
Should history tell of good men and their good estate, the thoughtful listener is spurred on to imitate the good; should it record the evil ends of wicked men, no less effectually the devout and earnest listener or reader is kindled to eschew what is harmful and perverse, and himself with greater care pursue those things which he has learned to be good and pleasing in the sight of God.
Notes
🔥 Bede was probably born in Benecia (in northern England) around 674 AD.
🔥 He joined a monastery at age 7. Nothing is known about his family.
🔥 He wrote some biblical commentaries as a priest and finished his book — The Ecclesiastical History of the English People — in 731 AD.
🔥 There was lots of interest in his work, including a cult, the Cult of Bede, which was mostly wiped out by Viking attacks later.
🔥 In Bede's view, history is a resource for moral (and Christian) instruction, in addition to the Bible (see the quote at the top).
🔥 He reviews his resources carefully, he says, so that people won't doubt or discredit his work.
🔥 At the same time, he says in the Preface that you can't blame him if something in the work isn't true. "For, in accordance with the principles of true history," he says, "I have simply sought to commit to writing what I have collected from common report, for the instruction of posterity." Similar in this respect to Herodotus.
🔥 I'm reading the Oxford World's Classics edition, first published in 1994, and reissued in 2008.