194 WHARTON. CEILLIER. [TESTIcommentarium Bedae in epistulas d Pauli genuinum (qui penes ipsum manet) luce donaturum esse dudum spopondit. ne integra igitur Bedae edendi gloria aliis relinquatur, ista saltem illius commentaria Anglis primum euulgare liceat. In curanda istorum Bedae Egberti et Aldhelmi opus- 5 culorum editione me ecclesiae Anglicanae aeque ac causae litterariae litasse profiteor. grauissimam enim nobis iniuriam faciunt siue exteri pontificii seu indigenae puritani, qui sanctissimos ecclesiae Anglosaxonicae patres summa a nobis ueneratione excipi, maximo honore coli, uel negant 10 uel nolunt. ad amoliendam istiusmodi calumniam illorum scripta eo libentius in lucem edimus, ut tam praeclaro testimonio orbi Christiano constet, nos non aliam ab illis fouere religionem; minime aliam, seu doctrinam seu disciplinam spectes, constituere ecclesiam ; neque aliam in 15 caelis ambire sedem. certe in diptychis suis sacris ecclesia Anglicana Bedae et Aldhelmi memoriam celebrat, quin et utrique dies festos consecrauit. IL XXI L règne dans tous les écrits de Bède un air de candeur, 20 de piété et de modestie, qui les feront toujours goûter de ceux qui aiment le vrai et le solide..........rhéteur et grammairien, Bède aurait pu sans doute être plus pur, plus élégant et plus châtié dans son style; mais cherchant à instruire plus qu'à plaire, il s'est uniquement borné à 25 le rendre simple et clair; en quoi il a réussi. 19 Remi Ceillier histoire générale des auteurs sacrés (Paris 1729, new ed 1862) XII 18. MONIA] WORDSWORTH. LINGARD. 193 5 10 15 AT XXII BUT what if one, through grove or flowery mead, indulging thus at will the creeping feet of a voluptuous indolence, should meet of learning, where thou heard'st the billows beat the recreant soul, that dares to shun the debt of a long life; and, in the hour of death, XXIII T its completion it was received by the public with universal applause. succeeding generations preserved it piously as a memorial of the virtue of their ancestors; 20 and Alfred the Great translated it into the Anglo-Saxon tongue for the instruction of those who could not read it in the original. to us it is an invaluable work; for without it we should know nothing of the missionaries who brought to our pagan ancestors the light of the gospel, or the manners 25 of the clergy, or the worship and rites of the infant church. the style is easy and perspicuous; and, though far inferior. to that of the great masters of antiquity, may justly claim 1 William Wordsworth ecclesiastical sonnets I 23. 15 He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St John's gospel. 16 John Lingard history and antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon church Lond 1858 11 176 177 (speaking of the church history). 196 LINGARD. LAPPENBERG. [TESTIhigher praise than any other specimen of the age. to some readers the credulity of the writer with respect to miracles will appear a blemish; but no one can doubt his candour and veracity, nor rise from his pages without feeling himself pleased and edified with that spirit of unaffected piety 5 which pervades and animates his narrative. XXIV THE reputation of Beda survived and grew after his death. the Saxons were proud that their nation had produced so eminent a writer; the monks of Wear- 10 mouth and Jarrow were harassed with solicitations for copies of his works; and, at the distance of a hundred years, the prelates of the Franks, in the council of Aix-laChapelle, numbered him among the fathers of the church, and styled him the venerable and admirable doctor. if the 15 improvements of modern times have diminished the value of his writings, this circumstance ought no more to detract from his merit, than it does from that of the philosophers of Greece and Rome. Beda was a great man for the age in which he lived; he would have been so had he lived in 20 any other age. XXV No one imparts to the age of the 'wisest king' [Aldfrith of Northumberland] greater brilliancy than [Beda], whose knowledge was profound and almost universal...... 25 if, on a consideration of his works, it must appear manifest that that age possessed more means of knowledge, both in manuscripts and learned ecclesiastics, than we are wont 7 ibid 183. 22 JM Lappenberg history of England under the Anglo-Saxon kings translated by B Thorpe (London 1845) I 209 210. MONIA] LAPPENBERG. GINZEL. 197 to ascribe to it; and even if we must recognise in Beda the high culture of the Roman church, rather than AngloSaxon nationality, yet the acknowledgement which his merits found in Rome during his life, and, shortly after 5 his death, whereever learning could penetrate, proves that in him we justly venerate a wonder of the time. his numerous theological writings......throughout many ages, until the total revolution in that branch of learning, found readers and transcribers in every cloister of Europe. his 10 knowledge of Greek, of medicine, of astronomy, of prosody, he made subservient to the instruction of his contemporaries; his work 'de sex huius saeculi aetatibus', though less used than it deserves to be, is the basis of most of the universal chronicles of the middle age. but his greatest 15 merit, which will preserve his name through all future generations, consists in his historic works, so far as they concern his own native land. if a second man like himself had arisen in his days, who with the same clear, circumspect glance, the same honest and pious purpose, had recorded 20 the secular transactions of his forefathers, as Beda has transmitted to us those chiefly of the church, then would the history of England have been to posterity almost like revelation for Germanic antiquity. XXVI 25 DAS gelehrte England soll nicht vergessen dem ‘Lehrer Englands' ein würdiges Denkmal zu setzen durch eine vollständige und kritische Ausgabe sämmtlicher Werke Beda's, welcher Katholiken wie Protestanten der Ehrwürdige' bleiben soll und wird. 24 JA Ginzel in Wetzer und Welte Kirchenlexicon Freibi Br 1854 1724. 29 This endeavour to find common ground with protestants was omitted, as out of date after the Vatican council, in the reprint (JA 198 VARIN. RANKE. [TESTI XXVII PERSONNE plus que nous ne rend hommage au génie du moine anglo-saxon, génie encyclopédique et vraiment surprenant pour l'époque et dans les circonstances où il vivait à ne le considérer même que comme historien, 5 c'est non-seulement le chroniqueur le mieux renseigné et le plus méthodique du moyen âge, c'est encore un critique fort habile et très-pénétrant. DER XXVIII ER erste Germane, der sich die allgemeine aus dem 10 Alterthume stammende Gelehrsamkeit aneignete, ist ein Angelsachse gewesen, der ehrwürdige Beda; der erste germanische Dialekt, in welchem man Geschichte geschrieben und Gesetze verzeichnet hat, war dagegen ebenfalls der angelsächsische. trotz alle Verehrung gegen die 15 Schwellen der Apostel, nahm man doch nicht mehr fremdgeborne Priester bei sich auf, als zur Gründung der neuen Kirche unentbehrlich waren bei dem allmählichen Fortgang der Bekehrung bedurfte es dessen nicht, in kurzem finden wir überall in der Kirche angelsächsische 20 Namen: die Erzbischöfe und vornehmsten Bischöfe stehen in so enger Beziehung zu den königlichen Geschlechtern, wie früher die heidnischen Oberpriester. G kirchen-historische Schriften Wien 1872 11 13): 'eine kritische Ausgabe der sämmtlichen Werke Beda des ehrwürdigen ist noch immer ein eben so berechtigter als frommer Wunsch der Gelehrten, und es ist ungemein zu beklagen, dass es den gelehrten Maurinern nicht gegönnt war, auch dieses Verdienst sich zu erwerben'. 1 Varin in mémoires presentés par divers savants à l'acad d inscr ser IV (1) 158 (1857). Leopold Ranke englische Geschichte (Berlin 1859) 1 17. |