THE Ecclefiaftical History OF THЕ English Nation, From the Coming of JULIUS CÆSAR Into this Island, in the 60th Year before Till the Year of our Lord 73 1. Written in Latin by Venerable BEDE, To which is added, The LIFE of the LONDON: Printed for J. BATLEY at the Dove in Pater- M DCC XXIII. Bift Low Library: 752905-291 Fithe Name of Bede were three remarkable Perfons, the first a Prieft and Monk of Lindisfarn, or Holy Island; of whom our Hiftorian speaks with great respect in the binth Chapter of his Book of the Life of Cuthbert, the Bishop; another a Monk contemporary with Charles the Great between these in Fime, and fupe rior to either of them in Character, was the great Luminary of our Nation, roof whomiwe are going to write / Tho some have endeavour'd to deprive our Country of the Honour of his Birth, it is with such an Air of direct Falfity and A 2 and Assurance, that as no Men of Sense, of Learning will come into it, so it is not worth time to disprove it, since his own Words direct us to the very Place, which was the Kingdom of the Northumbrians, now Northumberland, and in that Province of it call'd Bernicia, not Deira, which extends from Tees to Tweed, in which Province, had he been born, Scotland had as little right to claim the Honour of him, as to claim that Province; which (however) some of their Historians have attempted. In this obscure Corner of the World, then (to use Malmfbury's Words) this great Man was born, whence he extended his Learning to the whole. The Village which produc'd him, tho' long since, even long before Turgot's Time, gain'd upon by the Sea, was in the Territories of the Monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, which were indeed two, one of them standing at Gyrwy, on Lyppum, on the Banks of the River Tine, below the Capra Caput, or Laetrheves of the Saxons, now Gates-head, (opposite to Newcastle) and call'd Jarrow, which was dedicated to St. Paul, the other at Weremouth or Wiran mouth, near the Mouth of the River Were therefore by Bede call'd, Ad Oftium Vieris, which River runs through the City of Dur ham, it was call'd by the Saxons, pinamud, and now Monsksweremouth, the Founder of them was one Benedict, surnam'd Bifcop or Bishop, and the Order they profess'd, that of the Benedictines, as appears by the dying Words of their Founder, that they should follow the Rules of the ance great Abbat Benedict; and Alcuinus in his 49 Ep. to the Monks of Were mouth, mentions the fame; from which Injun |