York in 704. Remaining in his monastery, and with no other help than what its library afforded, and amid the numerous and fatiguing duties of the monastic profession, his ardent and comprehensive mind embraced every science which was then studied, and raised him to a high pre-eminence above his contemporaries. In his own catalogue of the books which he had composed, and which for the most part are still extant, we find elementary introductions to the different sciences, treatises on physic, astronomy, and geography, sermons, biographical notices of the abbots of his own monastery, and of other eminent men, together with commentaries on most of the books of scripture. But his ecclesiastical history of the AngloSaxons is the most celebrated of his works. This work was completed two years before the death of the author. It was received with universal applause; by succeeding generations it was piously preserved as a memorial of the virtues of their ancestors, and by Alfred the Great was translated into Saxon for the instruction of his more illiterate countrymen.* Bede died as he lived, in the prosecution of his studies, and the practice of devotion; for in all the progressive stages of his disease, he did not neglect his duty, he employed the usual hours in writing, in study, in exhortation of the brethren, and teaching his disciples of the convent. He endured the attacks of death with great fortitude, exemplary piety, and resignation, and expired on the 26th of May, being the feast of the Ascension, in the year 735. He was interred in the church of his own monastery at Jarrow, where a porch on the north side bore his name; and in the year 1020 his sacred remains were conveyed to Durham, and placed within the shrine of St. Cuthbert. In 1155, they were taken up by Hugh, bishop of Durham, and enclosed in a rich shrine of curious workmanship, adorned with gold, silver, and jewels.† Speed, in his Theatre of Britain, says his marble monu * A List of Venerable Bede's works may be seen in Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. v. Edinburgh edition, page 401, note (a). A new translation of his Ecclesiastical History was published by the Rev. Wm. Hurst, in 1814. The Rev. Peter Wilcock, then of Bishop Wearmouth, now of St. Anthony's chapel, Liverpool, published, in 1817, a translation of Bede's Lives of the first five Abbots of Wearmouth, with engravings of Bede's monument in Durham cathedral, and the church of Monkweremouth. On the lower part of the shrine the following Latin verses were engraved Continet hæc Theca Bedæ venerablis ossa. ment when he wrote was existing in our Lady's chapel at the west end of the cathedral of Durham.* Petrus opus fecit, Præsul dedit hoc Hugo donum; Non procul hinc lapide sub marmoreo requiescunt. * At this time the following epitaph, fairly written on vellum, hung against the wall of the chapel, but from whence it has long been removed, and is carefully preserved in the Library of the Dean and Chapter of Durham. The chapel itself is fitted up, and has for many years been used as the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Durham. BEDA Dei famulus & presbyter Vir non minus sanctitate quam scientia Qui natus in territorio monasterij Girwicensis quod nunc Jaro dicitur Cum esset annorem septem datus est abbati Benedicto & de inde Ceolfrido ibidem educandus, cunctunq. ex eo vitæ tempus In ejusd. monasterij habitatione peragens omnem meditandis Scripturis operam dedit; atq. inter observantiam disciplinæ regularis Et quotidianum cantandi in ecclesia curam Semper Aut discere, aut docere, aut scribere Solebat. Decimo nono autem vitæ suæ anno diaconatum & tricessimo Suscepit VIR OMNI LAUDE MAJOR De quo doctissimi illorum temporum homines hoc elogium protulerunt Anglum in extremo orbis angulo natum Ingenio suo universum orbeum superasse Quippe qui omnium pene scientiarum & universæ theologiæ arcana Penetravit sicut opera ejus & volumina multa orbi christiano notissima Abunde testentur. Quæ etiam illo adhuc vivente tanti nominis erant & auctoritatis ut ex ejus Constat eum aliq' do discipulos habuisse celebratissimos præ- Of the monastery, the ruins are so extremely scattered and confused, that it is very difficult to form any conjecture as to their original appearance and destination. The site of the cloisters may still be traced to the south of the chancel, and some remains of the • domestic offices of the monks are standing further to the south and west. A main wall stretches from east to west; and in the adjoining west gable a window has been preserved, divided by stone mullions and transoms, and decorated with tracery and Saxon ornaments.An old round-headed door is closed up in a wall a little to the north. The church adjoins the remains of the monastic buildings immediately on the north. The tower rises from the centre, between the nave and chancel, from two low round arches with groined ribs, intersecting each other, and forming a saltier. The tower has roundheaded double lights on every side, exactly resembling those of Monkweremouth. The fragments of several Saxon pilasters are preserved in the church. A spacious burial ground extends to the west of the church. Jarrow church was repaired, or rather, with the exception of the tower and part of the chancel, was rebuilt in 1783, when many fragments of antiquity were destroyed. A most extraordinary relique is still preserved, which is the well-known and authenticated inscription recording the foundation of the church, A. D. 685. This memorial bearing the following inscription, P. DEDICATIO BASILICÆ CEOLFRIDI ABB EIVSDEMQ is cut in good Roman letters on a square thorough stone, and is now placed in the arch of the tower, between the chancel and the nave. Qui primi Lutetiæ docuerunt & Galliam bonis artibus Obiit in monasterio Girwicensi, A. D. DCCXXXIIII. Ætat suæ LIX. Et ibidem sepultus fuit : Sed postea huc Dunelmum primo cum capite regis OSWALDI Deinde in ista galilea & feretro per HVGONEM episcopum Epitaphium de eodem istud circumfertur But what is considered as the greatest curiosity, and carefully preserved in the vestry room, is a great two-armed chair, of which the wood engraving now shewn is a correct representation, said to have been the common seat of Venerable Bede, and which has remained there since his time. It is of oak, and appears as rude as if hewn out with an ax, except at the top of the back, where the cross piece is mortised to the standards, or upright pieces, which also serve for legs. A. H. LETTER II. ON THE SCIENCE AND LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES, Considered with reference to the cause of Catholic Emancipation. SIR, To the Editor of the Catholic Miscellany. PHILOSOPHY, in the true signification of the word, may be regarded as the highest intellectual attainment of the human mind; for it represents the love of wisdom, or, in other words, a disposition and temper of mind which, loving truth, and having for its object the advancement of knowledge, enables the possessor of a philosophic mind to cultivate his own talents, and to extend the benefits of their due exercise to the rest of his kindred, which, in the end, promotes the good of the human species, and manifests the glory of God, who, in allusion to our various endowments, has expressly declared, that we are responsible for not using them according to the measure of our power, and " that of every one it will be required according as is measured unto him.” In the modern and perverted sense of the word, however, philosophy has been made to signify the subjection of all propositions, physical, moral, and religious, to the precarious judgment of individuals, pompously styled human reason. In this latter sense, the vulgar rage for false philosophy has led to innumerable errors of the understanding, not only in religion, but in morals and in sciences, and in all the arts of human life; for the self-created philosopher of the modern school, allowing no standard of truth, and yielding to no authority, endeavours to explain every thing according to the particular views suggested by his own limited understanding. It was this spirit of false philosophy, of which personal vanity and avarice are the greatest prompters, which sprang up and became prevalent in Europe towards the close of the fifteenth age of the christian church, when interested and selfish individuals, availing themselves of that spirit of licentiousness in religion, and depravity in morals entailed on us by the Reformation, tried severally to promote their own personal views by an endeavour to substitute their own contradictory explanations of the laws of God, and the moral government of the world, for those genuine doctrines which the consolidated wisdom of their forefathers had maintained for fourteen hundred years with undeviating unanimity of opinion. Hence have arisen the motley groups of heretics and sectarians of endless modifications, who seem united in but two points, first, that of mutual hatred, and the reciprocal imputation of blasphemy, which they fix on each other, and secondly, their common aversion to the parent source of all the christian information they ever possessed-The Catholic Church. This discord, which has been increasing ever since the commencement of Protestant disunion, is any thing but philosophical. It may be, and indeed has been, made a handle of by false philosophers to injure the Catholic religion; but as unity and consistency are the genuine marks of truth, so disunion and mutual inconsistency are the surest signs of error; and Protestantism stands convicted of falsehood by its own internal evidence. When the celebrated French philosopher, Volney, in his romance of the Ruins, brought representatives of all the faiths in the world into the area of discussion, and made them all propound their creeds, he vainly imagined he had given the coup de grace to all existing |