CHAP. VI.
* 1.1BEda was an English man, born not farre from Dyrrham: He was the Learnedest man of his time, skillfull in Divine and Secular Learning.
Of his rare learning and knowledge his Writings yet extant are a clear and sufficient testimony. He was so great a follower of St Augustine (the worthiest Pillar of the Church since the Apostles time, as some hold) that his Commentaries upon the Scripture, both of Old and New Testament, are almost word for word out of St Augustine.
He was a continuall Preacher, as his Homilies do testifie.
He was usually called Venerable Bede, but why, the Monks usque ad ineptias cer∣tant, as Lilius Gyraldus saith, De Poet. Hist. Dial. 5. Some of the reasons given for that title are ridiculous. One saith, Pietate & eruditione venerabilis cognomen adeptus est. He was called Venerable for his Piety and Learning. Others say he was called Venerable, because that was the title of Presbyter, and his Homilies were read in his life time, and they calling him then not Saint but Venerable, so called him after his death. Vide Trithem. de Script. Eccles.
Sedulius is likewise styled Venerabilis.
Beda's Works were printed in three Tomes at Paris, An. 1545. and in eight Tomes at Basil, Anno Domini 1563. in Folio, containing four great Vo∣lumes.
In omni disciplinarum genere, Graecae etiam atque Latinae linguae gnarus excelluit: Poeta, licet mediocris, Rhetor, Historicus, Astronomus, Arithmeticus, Cosmogra∣phus, Philosophus, Theologus, ita eo tempore mirabilis, ut in proverbium apud ejus seculi doctores abierît, Hominem in extremo orbis angulo natum, universum orbem suo ingenio perstrinxisse. Possev. Apparat. Sac. Tomo 1o.
Coringius in his 3d Dissertat. de Antiq. Acad. saith it is observable, Sexto septimo atque octavo seculo neminem fere per Italiam, Galliam, Britanniam, Hispaniam (uno verbo) in occidentalis Ecclesiae toto orbe, nomen aliquod scripto libro invenisse, qui non in Monasterio educatus sit atque institutus. Qui inter Britannicos Monachos eminet Beda, idem omnium illius tempestatis per occidentem universum fuit doctissimus. Nos ipsi Germani prima Christianae doctrinae exordia illis caenobitis debemus. Imo de∣bemus illis initia omnis culturae melioris, atque eruditionis: sicut & Angli ipsi ac Scoti à Monachis Romanis eam antehac acceperant.
* 1.2William Bedwell: He was skilfull in the Orientall Tongues.
He hath put out the Catholick Epistle of John in Arabick with a Preface to it.