UNIT 5- VENERABLE BEDE

Venerable Bede is called the "Father of English History". He was born in Northumbria in 673 and died in 735.

Among his literary production we can find works related to poetry, history, chronology, religion, to mention a few. As an theologian he wrote the Ecclesiastical History a source essential for the understanding of the Anglo-Saxons and the Christianisation of Britain.

Bede's biblical commentaries – in which he interpreted the Bible mainly as an allegory, he applied criticism and tried to solve discrepancies – were extremely popular in the early medieval period, being copied and spread widely across the monasteries of Europe. In 1899, Bede was made a Doctor of the Church by Leo XIII, a position of theological significance. Actually he is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this title.

He wrote the Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731). Hence he gained the title "The Father of English History".

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