Bede

By Graeme K Talboys

At the age of twelve, Bede came close to death; so close, in fact, that he was able to sing defiantly in its face whilst nearby his life-long companions sickened and died. Of the original monastic community established in Jarrow ‘...which Ceolfrith ruled, all those who could read or preach or were able to sing the antiphons and responsaries were carried off by the plague except the abbot himself and one small boy...’ (Anon, 1998, p218).

It may well have seemed to the boy that his earthly journey was close to its end. Any virulent disease that takes hold in a close community can wreak havoc. However, the term plague can be misleading. It is unlikely to have been the Bubonic Plague of later mediaeval times. Measles (one of the top ten killer diseases in the world even today), smallpox, a strain of influenza, or e-coli are more likely candidates.

Short as Bede’s life had been to this time, it was far from uneventful. ‘I was born on the lands of this monastery, and on reaching seven years of age, I was entrusted by my family first to the most reverend Abbot Benedict [Biscop] and later to Abbot Ceolfrid for my education.’ (Bede, 1990, p329). This opening to Bede’s brief Autobiographical Note may not seem packed with incident, but it does offer vital clues to Bede and the world in which he was raised. A life, after all, is as much the environment in which it is lived as it is the person living it.

It was not unusual for young children to be sent to a monastery. The Benedictine Rule gives guidelines on this. In the case of Bede, however, it is telling that he writes of his family rather than his parents. There would have been no reason for not mentioning them, which leads to the possibility that Bede was an orphan. Not long before he died, he sang the Antiphon for Magnificat from Vespers of Ascension Day. ‘When he came to the words “Do not leave us orphans”, he burst into tears and wept copiously.’ (Cuthbert, 1990, p358)

The Benedictine Rule made special provision for children in terms of workload, education, clothing, food, and sleeping arrangements. All of these would have been well regulated and food and clothing were probably in greater quantity and better quality than much of the population enjoyed. Material comforts, however, are not everything. Bede was fortunate in finding a new family and a loving environment where his talents for singing, cookery, and scholarship were nurtured. It was also a place the like of which had not been seen in Northumbria since the heyday of the Roman occupation.

‘Benedict Biscop ... founded a monastery in honour of the most blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, on the north bank of the Wear, towards the mouth of the river, with the help of the venerable and holy King Egfrid who donated land for it ... comprising seventy hides.’ (Bede, 1998, p187 & p191). A hide is not a precise mathematical measurement. Rather, it was the amount of land necessary to support a family. The area depends on the size of the family and the productivity of the land. By the eleventh century, a hide had been standardized as 120 acres, probably based on an average, which means that Egfrid’s gift was approximately 13 square miles.

With this land came all rights, responsibilities, and tenants – including the family of Bede. We do not know the boundaries, but it was a considerable estate with access to rivers, the sea, good grazing, substantial areas of arable land, forest, moor, and marsh. Once it passed into the protection of the monks, the area underwent improvement on a scale barely imaginable to the average English ceorl. The monastery itself, in a prominent position at the top of a high steep bank on a bend in the river, would have provided medical treatment, alms for the poor, teaching, practical advice, and workshops, as well as spiritual protection. It would also have provided an economic boost to the area with an opportunity for trading, as well as requiring labour for construction.

The monastic site, under construction and in use, must have seemed a wonderland. Even for the most bookish child, the distractions would have been constant. Lessons in Latin, the Scriptures, singing (under the tutelage of the Arch-cantor of Rome); the daily round of services; as well as all the other domestic tasks of the monastery must have been conducted with one eye and one ear focussed on the building work. Free time, which all the monks were allowed, was probably spent watching the smiths, masons, carpenters, and other craftsmen at work. The glaziers, in particular, would have been a special attraction. The transformation of sand, seaweed and other dull looking ingredients in their hot, glowing crucibles to be blown and shaped into dazzling translucent sheets of colour must have seemed close to miraculous. These sheets were then grozed and set in cames to make the first stained glass church windows in England.

Perhaps of even greater interest to a boy good at Latin, interested in the world of learning, and taught by devoted teachers, would have been the large and growing number of books that Benedict Biscop had collected on his many travels throughout Europe. Alongside the new physical world being constructed in Northumbria, a whole new world of the intellect was being established. Although no catalogue exists, we know, from references made by Bede to the works of others, that Benedict’s collection was the core of a library that was to contain seven hundred or more different titles. This may not seem much now, but in the seventh century AD it made the monastery one of the greatest centres of learning in Europe; and Bede grew up with it and was shaped by it as he grew.

All this work and gathering of intellectual riches would have attracted more than the young Bede and his compatriots. Locals would no doubt have kept a close eye on the comings and goings, especially as these included visits from foreigners, churchmen, nobles, and the Northumbrian king. Indeed, ‘King Egfrid was deeply impressed by Benedict’s virtue, industry and devotion. Realizing how sound and fruitful an idea his original grant of land for building the monastery had turned out to be, he saw to it that another forty hides were added. A year later ... Benedict chose seventeen monks from the community with the priest Ceolfrid to form the nucleus of a new foundation at Jarrow...’ (Bede, 1998, p193).

It is unlikely that Bede was in that first cohort. Their task would have been to construct temporary wooden buildings and do the groundwork for the permanent stone structures. He would, however, have been there for the dedication ceremony on the ninth day before the kalends of May in the fifteenth year of Egfrid’s rule (23 April 685). The six mile walk north was a journey into a new phase of his life. The road was well travelled, but crossing the hills and dropping down into the valley of the river Don with its extensive tidal salt marsh alive with birds may have been the first time Bede had been out of sight of his original home.

At twelve, however, with almost half his life spent in monastic routine, with excellent teachers, his future looked secure. Yet for all the new and sophisticated world being created by Benedict Biscop and his close friend Ceolfrid; for all that this new world was shaping the young Bede; only in hindsight are there certainties in life.

We now take the life of Bede and the scholarly work he produced for granted. It happened; his works survive. Yet during his early years, war, famine, and disease were commonplace; and in their wake rides death. Thoughts of the future must surely have been forgotten as all around him in his ordered world, the monks and lay members of the community sickened and died. He, too, could so easily have succumbed.

Whilst this may not have had large scale social or political consequences, a great deal that was good would have been lost. Bede was never a firebrand scholar, burning down as much as illuminating. His was a steadier, more homely light devoted to brightening the world of those about him and spreading his faith by example.

Those two voices singing alone in the church at Jarrow must have seemed scant defence against plague. Yet this was the raison d’être of the monastic community and Bede, young as he was, would have been clear about his duty – to praise God and to pray for those in need. If, in all that service to others, he also slipped in the occasional silent prayer for his own deliverance we cannot ever know, although it would be only human. And for a short time, the answer was uncertain.

Death did not come for Bede for another fifty years by which time he had written nearly forty books and distinguished himself in so many other ways. ‘I was ordained deacon in my nineteenth year, and priest in my thirtieth, receiving both these orders at the hands of the most reverend Bishop John at the direction of Abbot Ceolfrid ... And while I have observed the regular discipline and sung the choir offices daily in church, my chief delight has always been in study, teaching, and writing.’ (Bede, 1990, p329).

References

Anon (1998) [1965] ‘The Anonymous History of Abbot Ceolfrith’, in Webb, J. F. and Farmer, D. H. (eds & trs) The Age of Bede, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Anon (2000) [1996] M. Swanton (ed. & tr.) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, London: Phoenix Press.

Bede (1990) [1955] Leo Sherley-Price (tr.) Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Bede (1998) [1965] ‘Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow’, in Webb, J. F. and Farmer, D. H. (eds & trs) The Age of Bede, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Benedict of Nursia (1986) Father Timothy Fry OSB (tr.) The Holy Rule of St Benedict Collegeville: Liturgical Press.

Cramp, R. (2005) Wearmouth and Jarrow Monastic Sites, Volume 1 London: English Heritage.

Cuthbert (1990) [1955] ‘Cuthbert’s Letter on the Illness and Death of the Venerable Bede, the Priest’, in Leo Sherley-Price (tr.) Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Nennius (1980) J. Morris (ed. & tr.) British History and The Welsh Annals Chichester: Phillimore.

Dedication Stone, St Paul’s Church, Jarrow.

All medical information was taken from the English language website of the World Health Organization – http://www.who.int/en/

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Graeme K Talboys spent many years as a teacher in schools and museums before ill health gave him the opportunity to spend more time writing. He has had a number of non-fiction works published as well as a historical novel, Wealden Hill.