BED 



Bede, even as he lias given it in Englifti, might in many 

 pafTagcs be fhcwn to be far enough from favouring the doc- 

 trines of the church of Rome. 



The lad hterary labour of venerable Bede, was "A Tranf- 

 lation of the Gofpel of St. John into the Saxon Language," 

 which he coTipleted with difficulty on the day and hour of 

 his death, which happened on the 2C)th of May, A.U. 735. 

 The diforder of whicli he died was an allhma ; and lie bore 

 the pain that attended it with exemplary fortitude and pa- 

 tience, difcharging the duties of his office, and profecuting 

 the works in wliich he was engaged, and which lie wifhed 

 to finilh, with unabated affiduity. During many fiecjilel; 

 nights, he h faid to have fung piaifes to Alniijjhty God ; 

 and in the profpeil of dl(F.>lmion, he did not difumble iiis 

 apprehcnfions of it, though he cxprefled the utmofl confi- 

 dence in the divine mercy, and was able, on a review of his 

 condu£\, to declare ferioufly that he iiad fo lived, as not to 

 be afhamcd to die. During an acl of devoticm, and whilft 

 he was pronouncing the lad word of it, he expired. It 

 would be cafy to cite a great number of teftimonies to the 

 extent of Bedc's harnin^, as well .'^ to the eSccelUnce of his 

 charadcr. William of Malmediui-y, after giving hlni an ex- 

 traordinary character, tells us, " that it was much more 

 eafy to admire him in thought, than to do him jufticc in cx- 

 prelfion." Bale afTures us, that he was fo well n<illed in the 

 writings of Pagan authors, that he had fcarcely an equal 

 in that age, and that he learned natural philofophy and ma- 

 thematics from the pureil iources, the Greek and L^lin au- 

 thors themfclves. Pits fays, that he was fo well vcrfed in 

 all the branches of learning, that Europe fcarcely ever pro- 

 duced a greater fcholar in all refpefls ; that even, while he 

 was living, his writings were of fueh authority, that it was 

 ordered by a council held in England, and approved after- 

 wards by the catholic church, that they (hould be publicly 

 read in the churches ; that from his earlieft years, he was re- 

 markable for his piety and love of learning, alternating with- 

 out interruption his prayers and his iludies ; and that his in- 

 tenfe application furnidied him with a complete knowledge 

 of poetry, rhetoric, natural philofophy, metaphyfics, adro- 

 nomy, arithmetic, mufic, geometry, cofmography, chrono- 

 logy, hidory, and the whole circle of the liberal arts, and 

 all parts of mathematics, philofophy, and divinitv. Camden 

 reprefents him as the fingular light of onr England ; and 

 many tedimonies in his favour may be found in the works of 

 our hidorians and antiquarians, fuch as lloUinflied, Stowe, 

 Speed, Selden, fir Henry Spelman, SliUingfleet, Mabillon, 

 Warton, &c. 



Bcddts the Hidory, the trandation of St. John's gofpel, 

 and the letter to E;4bert, already mentioned, there are a 

 great many works, both piibl'llied and in mamifcript, that 

 have been attributed to Bede ; fome of whirl., however, 

 are of dubious genuinenefs. They are enumerated in the 

 Biographia Britannica, Cave's Hid. Lit. and in the appendix 

 to the fourth volume of Henry's Hittory. They coinpofe a 

 very milcellaneous coUeclioii of verfioiis and commentaries 

 upon feveral books of the Old and New Tedament, of le- 

 gends, and theological dlfTertations ; among which are fome 

 of greater value on the fcripture chronology, and many ele- 

 mentary compilatior.Sj for the ufe of his fcholars, on the fub- 

 jeAs of arithmetic, grammar, rhetoric, adronomy, mufic, 

 and natural philofophy. The fird general cdlleAion of his 

 works appeared at Paris, in 1544, in 3 vols, folio ; and again 

 in 1J44, at the fame place, in 8 vols. ; at Bafil, in the fame 

 fize and number of volumes, in 1 563, reprinted at Cologne, 

 in j6i2, and at the fame place in i688. Several of Bede's 

 works have been feparatcly printed ; and thofe treatifes, 

 which are mentioned in hie own catalogue of his works, an- 



BED 



nexed to hft ecclefiaftical hidory, were publidied by the 

 learned and indudnous Mr. Wharton, from three nianu- 

 fcripta in the archiepifeopal palace at Lambeth, London, 

 1693, 4to. Cave's Hid. Lit. vol. i. p. 612, Sec. Henry's 

 Hid. vol. iv. p. 26, &c. Walton's Hid. Poetry, vol. i. did". 2. 

 Biog. Brit. Gen. Did. 



It is from the EcrhfmJIical Hj/lory of this worthy monk, 

 that we know any thing" concerning mufic in our country 

 during the feventh and eighth centuries, the mod barbarous 

 period of its annals. In his account of thecor.vcrfion of the 

 Saxons to Cliridianity, he fpeaks o'i Ihan'n-s ani rJL-lujahs be- 

 inp- I'una in thcGrcgorian manner, according to the Roman 

 ritual, when bilhop Stiilingfltet thinks that the goodnefs of 

 the mufic was the principal iiicitcment to tlie reception of 

 the mafs by the Saxons. 



Bede was himfelf an able mufician, and is fuppofed to 

 have been the author of a ftiort mulical traft, " Dc Mufica 

 Theoriea, et Pracliea feu Menfurata." Of tlie two parts of 

 this treatife afcribed to Bode, the fird mny have been written 

 by him ; the fecond, however, is manifedly the work of a 

 much more modem author ; for we find in it, not only the 

 mention of mulic in two or three diiTtrent parts, under the 

 name of difcant, but of indrumeiits never mentioned in 

 writers cotemporary with Bede ; fuch as the organ, iKok, 

 alola, iyc. A notation too of much later times appears 

 here, in which tlie /o«j;, the /'irve, Ttv.d /cmiL/rih; are uied, 

 and thefe upon Jivir lines and fpaccs, with equivalent reds and 

 paufes. The word modus is alfo ufed for tim/ in the fenfe to 

 which the term mood was applied after it ceafed to mean key. 

 Upon the whole it feems as if this lad part of the traft at- 

 tributed to Bede, was written about the twelfth century ; 

 that is, between the time of Guido and John de Muris. 



Bede, however, informs us that, in 680, John, precen- 

 tor of St. Peter's in Rome, was fent over by pope Aga- 

 tho to indruft t!ie monks of Weremouth in the art of 

 finging, and particularly to acquaint them with the manner 

 of performing the feilival fcrvices throughout the year, ac- 

 cording to th.it whicli was pradiifed at Rome. And fuch was 

 the reputation of his dtill, that " the maders of mufic from 

 all the other monaderies of the north came to hear him ; 

 and prevailed on him to open fchools for teaching mufic in 

 other places of the kingdom of Northumberland." 



And it is from Bede's information that we have any 

 knowledge of the focial and domedic finging to the harp in 

 the Saxon language, upon our iiland, at tb.e beginning of 

 the eighth century ; which is amply detailed in bifliop Per- 

 cy'.'', ediiy on tlie aucient Englidi miudrels. Reliques of 

 Ancient Poetry. 



Beda, or Bede, Noel, a doftor of divinity in the uni- 

 verfity of Paris, was a native of Picardy, and flouriflied in 

 the beginniiig of the fixteenth century. His temper waa 

 violent and impetuous, and he was a great enemy to every 

 kind of innovation and riiform. Erafmus and Fabcr Stapu- 

 lenfis, who were great promoters of literature, were the ob- 

 je£ls of his vehement attack. Againd the fcriptiiral para- 

 phrafes of the fin-mer he wrote a book, in which Erafmus de- 

 tefted many mifnprefentations and calumnies; and yet fuch 

 was his influence among his brethren, that he induced the 

 faculty of divinity to cenfure the works of his antagonift. 

 In his oppofition to the defign of Francis I. for obliging the 

 Sorbonne to concur with the other univerfities of France 

 in giving a favourable opinion concerning liie divorce of 

 Henry VIII. of England, he afted a more judifiable part ; 

 but he injured his charafter, and ruined his caufe, by his paf- 

 fionatc and turbulent behaviour, and involved himfelf in the 

 crime of perjury. After having made the amende honorable, 

 by publicly acknowledging thai he had fpoken againd truth 



and 



