INTRODUCTION

who were seculars, and distinct from these the Monk, the Frere, and the Prioresse with her Nonne and Presstes three.

Bede was a Saxon. He was, says Fuller, wanting in charity to the Britons, and at any rate it may be admitted that his sympathy with them was imperfect. He has little pity for the slaughter of the British monks at Chester,¹ and in noting the unfriendliness of the British clergy towards the Roman mission he makes no allowance for the good reason which the Britons had to hate their Saxon conquerors. This lack of sympathy does not apply to the British Church before the days of the Saxon invasion, while to the missionary zeal of the Irish Church and the learning of its schools, to the example of Iona and Lindisfarne and the devoted labours of men like Columba and Aidan, in spite of ecclesiastical differences, he does the fullest justice.²

Bede's most important work, at any rate for later generations, is his Ecclesiastical History, which was only completed in the last years of his life. The first book begins with a summary of the early history of the country and of the Church in Britain down to the coming of Augustine, and ends with the death of Gregory, who had sent the Roman missionaries to Britain. The second book begins with a tribute to the memory of the great pope, narrates the failure of the overtures for union made to the British and Irish Churches, and ends with the death of Edwin, king of Northumbria, in whose reign Paulinus introduced Christianity into that country. The third book gives the history of Oswald and Oswy and the Scotic mission under Aidan, and ends with the despatch of Wighard to be consecrated archbishop of Canterbury.

¹ II. 2.