Venerable bede and ecclesiastical h

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VENERABLE BEDE AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLISH PEOPLE Prepared by : Sinde Kurt (2011010113061) Prepared to : Oya Önalan

Transcript of Venerable bede and ecclesiastical h

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VENERABLE BEDE AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLISH PEOPLE

Prepared by : Sinde Kurt (2011010113061) Prepared to : Oya Önalan

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Venerable Bede

Venerable Bede is generally regarded as the greatest of all theAnglo-Saxon scholars.He is also known as St Bede.He was a prolific author,a Biblical scholar, poet and historian.He wrotearound 40 books and these books are mainly dealing withtheology and history.

Also,he wrote on every area of knowledge.This area includesnature,astronomy and poetry. Perhaps,he is best known forhis two major histories.They provide us some histories of theearly Medieval era.

As a result, Bede is often referred to as "the father of Englishhistory .His work ’The History of the Abbots of Wearmouthand Jarrow’ is an important account of early church history.

His best known work is ‘The Ecclesiastical History of theEnglish People’.

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Short Biography of Bede

Bede was born near St. Peter and St. Paul monastery at Wearmouth-Jarrow, England in 672.At the age of seven,he began his monastic training at the newly-foundedBenedictine monastery of St Peter in Wearmouth. When he had completed his education he moved to the twinmonastery of St Paul in nearby Jarrow and Bede spent his entire life in these two monestaries .He gained fame as a scholar and teacher of Greek,Latin and Hebrew.

When he was nineteen years old,Bede was ordained a deaconand at the age of thirty,he was ordained into the priesthood.

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Short Biography of Bede

He was well educated, especially by the standards of the day. As a boy he studied calligraphy in thescriptorium, grammar, computus, music, and even naturalsciences.

Bede was known for his piety. His love of truth and fairnessand his unfeigned piety combine to make him an exceedinglyattractive character.

Bede not only wrote books, but also translated manyworks.He was the first person who attempted to translate theBible into English from Latin.

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Short Biography of Bede

Bede died on 26 May 735 in Jarrow and he was declared

‘venerable’ by the Church in 836.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English Peopleoriginal Latin name: The Historia EcclesiasticaGentis Anglorum

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People was written byBede and completed in 731 AD .

It is a work in Latin.

This work examines the religious and political history of theAnglo-Saxons from the fifth century to 731.

In this way Bede provided the most important source of information about England prior to 731.

The work is considered the first great history written in western Europe.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People existed only inmanuscript copies for many centuries after it was written.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

The book opens with the information about Roman Britain'sgeography and history.

Bede tells us the disagreement between Roman and CelticChristians, the dates and locations of significant events in theChristian calendar, and political upheaval during the 600's.

He used information of the oral histories of Rome andBritain,many monasteries,early church and governmentwriting to wrote his history.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Nearly 200 hand written copies of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People were produced in the Middle Ages and thisproved its historical importance.

Book I includes a description of Britain’s early races, theoccupation of Rome and coming of Saxons.In book I,Bede giveinformation about Britain’s early history from the Roman invasion of Caesar(55BC) to 600 C.E

Book II includes the conversion of the kingdom of Kent toChristianity by St Augustine and also it describes PopeGregory The Great and events from his death to about 633.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Book III includes the return of Northumbria topaganism, King Oswald’s victory at Havenfield in 634 C.E., andthe consequent return of Northumbria to Christianity.

Book IV mainly concerned with the organization anddevelopment of the English church.

The final section of the work,book V, tells the the personalhistory of Holy Ethelwald.Also in this section Bede discuss thegrowth of English Church.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, theVenerable Bede records the story of Caedmon.

‘Caedmon's Hymn‘ or ‘Hymn of Creation’was composedorally in Old English alliterative verse by an illiterate cowherdnamed Caedmon in honour of God the Creator.

It survives in a Latin translation by Bede.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

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MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF HYMN OF CREATION

Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven's kingdom,The might of the Creator, and his thought,The work of the Father of glory, how each of wondersThe Eternal Lord established in the beginning.He first created for the sons of menHeaven as a roof, the holy Creator,Then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,The Eternal Lord, afterwards made,The earth for men, the Almighty Lord.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

It is important that : Old English was not a written language: poetry was composed in an oral-formulaic style and recitedaloud, from memory, to an illiterate public.

Additionally,in The Ecclesiastical History of the EnglishPeople” ,Bede discusses the position of women.

He represented the women as needing guidance, especiallyfrom males and particularly those with religious authority.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

‘The conversion of the British Isles to Christianity’ and ‘theprogression from diversity to unity’ are important themes of the work

Finally,Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English Peopleends with a summary of the development of the episcopatein the English church.

It is one of the most important original source of Anglo-Saxonhistory and it has an important role in the development of an English national identity.