However I think, God willing, fhortly to write more of him, which I faw with my Eyes, and heard with my Ears.

Cryftallus patria, gregis aftrum, lumen avorum,
Laus juris, bajulus legis, honorque jacet.
Beda datus facris, gravitate fenex, puer annis,
D Devotæ mentis athera thure replet.
Difcit, fcrutatur divina, docet, meditatur
Hujus cura Deo reddere vota fuit.
Juftitia fedes, virtutum regia, cafus
Illecebra, gladius lubrica carnis arans.
Enfe pio verbi confratrum cafta tuetur,
-Ne CHRISTI miles hofte ruente ruat.
Non invafit eo prefente penuria mentes:
Efurie lafis pafcua lata fuit.

Ecclefia

Hujus innardus refpirat odorem,
Et circumfufos mulcet odore bono,
Hic dum fubtrahitur cæco carbunculus orbi,
Orbis damna ferens munere lucis eget.
Vellere depofito fuperum comitatur ovite,
3 Cui merces operis vita beata Deus.
boss oved woy s TOT
BOY

ebet aid at b'unica o luo2 2ld as

2

Light,

His Country's Gem, Flock's Guide, our Fathers
Laws Friend, and Honour, the renown of Right,
Bede, fent for pious Ends, who, while a Child,
Was grave, and Heaven with pious Incense fill'd,
Whole earliest Vow to God, whofe conftant Care
Was Learning, reading Scripture, Preaching,,
Ky stor
Pray',
The place of Juftice, Virtue's Realm, the Seat
Of fweet attraction, treach'rous Lufts defeat,
By Gospel Arms, long practis'd to defend
His Chastity against the dangerous Fiend;

Who

Who ne'er upon his Abftinence could steal: With Hunger spent, he made his joyful Meal. (breaths,

Here, in this Church, this pleafing Spikenard And all around refreshing Scents bequeaths. But now from the benighted World he's gone, The World benighted does its Light bemoan: (Herd,

While he, new cloth'd, joins with the heavenly And leads a Life of Blifs for his Reward.

Bede as is before mention'd, dy'd on the Wednesday, being the Day of the Afcenfion, which happen'd in the 7th Year of the Reign of Ceolulph, and of our Lord 735, in the 624 Year of his Age, according to Mabillon, but according to the common Computation, in the 59th, he was buried by the Brothers of his Houfe in the South Porch of the Church of Farrow, which was dedicated to him, upon whofe Grave fome ancient Writing gives us this Epitaph, unworthy of him.

Presbyter hic Beda requiefcit carne Sepultus. Dona CHRISTI animam in cælis gaudere per avum, Digne illi Sophia debriari fonte cui jam Sufpiravit ovans intento femper amore.

Of Bede the mortal Part here buried lies,
But his Immortal's bleft amidst the Skies:
He well deferv'd to drink of Wisdom's Spring,
Who glow'd with Praises of his heavenly King.

1

Soon after his Death his Name began to fpread, and grew facred all over the Chriftian Church, Boniface the Pope, calls him in one of his Epiftles, The Candle of the English Church, Lucius his Succeffor calls him, Bede of bleffed Memory, and blessed Father, and fent a Veft of Silk (Holofericam,) to his Reliques, which Veftments, however common now, were then Prefents for Princes, and their Drefs as appears by fome Orders of Senate for regulating the Ufe of that Habit. He was likewife efteem'd a Saint, and had that Title given him, and an Altar erected to his Honour, in the Monaftery of in the 9th Century And in the Miffal done into Meter by Hartiman in the fame Century, his Memory is thus jointly celebrated.

Pachumius, Beda, Attala, Pafnutius.

While he rested at Farrow, great Resort was made to his Grave, and particularly one Elfred a Prieft of Durham in the beginning of the eleventh Century, came yearly on the Day of his Death, and fpent it in watching and Prayer at his Tomb; and fuch a Veneration had he for him, that he took away privately his Bones, and carried them with him to Durham, and being ask'd by his Friends, where they lay, he reply'd, no one knows so well as myself; and after being prefs'd by them, gave this Anfwer, Believe me, my beloved Brothers, and be affur'd, that the fame Cheft that contains the most Holy Body of St. Cuthbert, our Father, holds likewife that of the venerable DoElor and Monk Bede.

In the Year 1054, when St. Cuthbert was remov'd, the Bones of Bede were found in the fame Cheft, ty'd in a little linnen Bag, as appears by the Hiftory of the Tranflation of Cuthbert, the Bishop; and afterwards Bede's Bones were put by themselves in a wooden Box.

In the Year 1154, Hugh, Bishop of Durham, built a Shrine of pure Gold, and the finest Silver richly enchaft with Jewels, in which he placed the Bones of Bede, with the Relicks of other Saints, as Turgot tells us in his Appendix; but this Shrine was demolish'd by Order of Hen. VIII. However Spede tells us, that in his Time there was a Tomb of Marble in the Weft Part of the Church, of which Part then remain'd, notwithstanding which, the Monafticon fays, his Bones were at Glastonbury, with thofe of Bifhop St. Eftervinus, Sigfrid and Herbert, Abbots of Weremuth. Among other Reliques they fhow'd, at Durham, the Coat of Bede.