King Ecgrith of Northumbria gave the land at Jarrow to the church in 681. His reputation alone made this one of the most important historical and religious sites in Europe. The Venerable Bede was early medieval Europe’s greatest scholar and the first to record the history of the English nation. Jarrow’s most famous resident and the most important figure of this generation of art and learning was a humble monk named Bede. Paul’s, Jarrow.Ībout 1,300 years ago, however, under the reign of Northumbria’s sagacious King Aldfrith, this sparsely populated northern monarchy enjoyed a golden age. It’s hard to imagine that just over the crest of the riverbank lie the rural remnants of one of Europe’s most historic centres of learning, the ancient Saxon monastery of St.

His Latin is generally clear and without affectation, and he was a skilful story-teller.' (Wikipedia article on Bede, accessed 11-22-2008).Bede: England's First Great Historian CloseĪlong the narrow coastal plain of Northumbria, the River Tyne winds from Newcastle towards the North Sea, lined with oil tanks, heavy equipment, and the relics of the Tyne’s industrial importance. He was proficient in patristic literature, and quotes Pliny the Elder, Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Horace and other classical writers, but with some disapproval. 'Bede's writings are classed as scientific, historical and theological, reflecting the range of his writings from music and metrics to exegetical Scripture commentaries. It is thought that the library at Wearmouth-Jarrow, built up by abbot Benedict Biscop through his extensive travels, might have included as many as 250 titles, probably in fewer volumes, making it the largest and most extensive in England at the time. This work was the founding document of English History.īede's works show that he had at his command virtually all of the learning of his time. About 731 The Venerable Bede, a Benedictine monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow, completed Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ( The Ecclesiastical History of the English People).

Bede english history