Summary: A lifelong monk whose works in theology, history, chronology, poetry and biography have led him to be accepted at the greatest scholar of the early medieval era, Bede is most famous for producing the Historia ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History), a source essential for our understanding of the Anglo-Saxons and the Christianisation of Britain.

Details: Title: Saint Bede the Venerable
Born: 672/3
Died: May 25 735, Jarrow, Northumbria, UK
Canonized: 1899, feast day on May 25

Childhood: Little is known of Bede's childhood, other than he was born to parents living on land belonging to the newly founded Monastery of St. Peter, based in Wearmouth, to which Bede was given by relatives for a monastic education when he was seven. Initially in the care of Abbot Benedict, Bede's teaching was taken over by Ceolfrith, with whom Bede moved to the monastery's new twin-house at Jarrow in 681. The Life of Ceolfrith suggests that here only the young Bede and Ceolfrith survived a plague.

Adult Life: Bede spent the rest of his life as a monk at Jarrow, first being taught and then teaching to the daily rhythms of monastic rule: for Bede, a mixture of prayer and study. He was ordained as a Deacon aged 19 – at a time when Deacons were supposed to be 25 or over – and a priest aged 30. Indeed, historians believe Bede left Jarrow only twice, to visit Lindisfarne and York. While his letters contain hints of other visits, there isn't any real evidence and he certainly never traveled far.

Works: Monasteries were nodes of scholarship in early medieval Europe, and there is nothing surprising in the fact that Bede, an intelligent, pious and educated men, used his learning, life of study and house library to produce a large body of writing. What was unusual was the sheer breadth, depth and quality of the fifty plus works he produced, covering scientific and chronological matters, history and biography and, perhaps as expected, scriptural commentary.
The Theologian: Bede's biblical commentaries – in which he interpreted the bible mainly as an allegory, applied criticism and tried to solve discrepancies – were extremely popular in the early medieval period, being copied and spread – along with Bede's reputation – widely across the monasteries of Europe. This dissemination was helped by the school of Archbishop Egbert of York, one of Bede's pupils, and later by a student of this school, Alcuin, who became head of Charlemagne's palace school.

The Chronologist: Bede's two chronological works - De temporibus (On Times) and De temporum ratione (On the Reckoning of Time) were concerned with establishing the dates of Easter. Along with his histories, these still affect our style of dating: when equating the number of the year with the year of Jesus Christ's life, Bede invented the use of A.D., 'The Year Of Our Lord'. In stark contrast to 'dark age' cliches, Bede also knew the world was round, the moon affected tides and appreciated observational science.
The Historian: In 731/2 Bede completed the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. An account of Britain between the landings of Julius Caesar in 55/54 BC and St. Augustine in 597 AD, it's the key source on the christianisation of Britain, a mixture of sophisticated historiography and religious messages containing details simply not found elsewhere. As such, it now overshadows his other historical, indeed all his other, works.

Death and Reputation: Bede died in 785 and was buried at Jarrow before being re-interred inside Durham Cathedral. He was already renowned among his peers, being described by a Bishop Boniface as having "shone forth as a lantern in the world by his scriptural commentary", but is now regarded as the greatest and most multi-talented scholar of the early medieval era, perhaps of the entire medieval era. Bede was sainted in 1899. We don't know how, or when, he acquired the soubriquet 'venerable'.

Bede on Bede: The Historia ecclesiastica finishes with a short account of Bede about himself and a list of his many works:
"Thus much of the Ecclesiastical History of Britain, and more especially of the English nation, as far as I could learn either from the writings of the ancients, or the tradition of our ancestors, or of my own knowledge, has, with the help of God, been digested by me, Bede, the servant of God, and priest of the monastery of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, which is at Wearmouth and Jarrow; who being born in the territory of that same monastery, was given, at seven years of age, to be educated by the most reverend Abbot Benedict, and afterwards by Ceolfrid; and spending all the remaining time of my life in that monastery, I wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture, and amidst the observance of regular discipline, and the daily care of singing in the church, I always took delight in learning, teaching, and writing. In the nineteenth year of my age, I received deacon's orders; in the thirtieth, those of the priesthood, both of them by the ministry of the most reverend Bishop John, and by the order of the Abbot Ceolfrid. From which time, till the fifty-ninth year of my age, I have made it my business, for the use of me and mine, to compile out of the works of the venerable Fathers, and to interpret and explain according to their meaning..."

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Rome’s Legacy……..

For three and a half centuries Britain was under Roman rule. The Romans built roads, towns, forts and temples, bringing with them soldiers and cultures from across Europe. They conquered the native 'Celtic' tribes of Britain and established military control in the North with the construction of Hadrian's Wall and the huge legionary fortress at York. In the reign of Constantine the Great, they also brought Christianity. Constantine, who was proclaimed Emperor at no less a place than York, would himself become the first Emperor to convert to Christianity.
By 314 York was one of a number of important places in the Roman empire with a Christian bishop. Christianity was however, only one of a number of religions accepted within the Roman empire and it is not known how many Britons were actually Christians. The native people of Britain were ancient Britons, speaking a Celtic language resembling Welsh, but of course many would also learn to speak the Latin of the Romans. Many of these people continued to practice their native Celtic 'pagan' religions, while others may have adopted more exotic religions introduced from other parts of the Roman empire. One thing is certain however, in 300 years of occupation the Britons had intermixed with the multicultural Romans to form a 'Romano-British' society, quite different from the Celtic culture of pre-Roman times.

A CRADLE OF CHRISTIANITY

Lindisfarne's Norman priory stands on the site of an Anglo-Saxon monastery founded by St Aidan in A.D 635, on land granted by Oswald, King and Saint of Northumbria. Aidan is believed to have chosen the island site because of its isolation and proximity to the Northumbrian capital at Bamburgh. Aidan the first Bishop of Lindisfarne, a Scots-Celtic monk from the isle of Iona, traveled widely throughout Northumbria and with the help of King Oswald as interpreter, began the conversion of the pagan Northumbrians to Christianity. The conversion of the Northumbrians to Christianity by Aidan and Oswald, cannot have been an easy task.
The Northumbrians were the descendants of a heathen race of people who were in many ways no more civilized than the Scandinavian Vikings, who invaded Britain centuries later. St Aidan's death in 651 A.D, is said to have been related in a vision to a young shepherd boy called Cuthbert who lived in the hills somewhere near the River Tweed. The vision convinced Cuthbert that he should take up the life of a monk and at the age of sixteen, he entered the Northumbrian monastery of Melrose in Tweeddale (now in the southern borders of Scotland).

In 654 Cuthbert came to Lindisfarne, where his reputed gift of healing and legendary ability to work miracles, achieved far reaching fame for the island. Cuthbert was elected Bishop of Hexham in 684 A.D but exchanged the see for Lindisfarne, to become the fifth successor to Bishop Aidan. When Cuthbert died in 687 A.D, he was buried in accordance with his wishes on the island of Lindisfarne, but eleven years after his death, his body was found to be in an incorrupt state by the astonished monks of the island. The monks were now convinced that Cuthbert was a saint and pilgrims continued to flock to Lindisfarne in numbers as great as during Cuthbert's lifetime.

VIKING RAIDS ON LINDISFARNE

In 793 A.D Lindisfarne was to witness the first Viking raid on the coast of Britain, which was recorded with much drama by an informative book of the period called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;
" 793. In this year terrible portents appeared over Northumbria, which sorely affrighted the inhabitants: there were exceptional flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying through the air. A great famine followed hard upon these signs; and a little later in that same year, on the 8th June, the harrying of the heathen miserably destroyed God's church by rapine and slaughter. "
The Anglo-Saxon chroniclers were largely responsible for giving the Vikings the `bad press' they still have today. The chroniclers fail to mention that the Anglo-Saxons had invaded Britain in much the same way, two and a half centuries earlier.Nevertheless Viking raids on Lindisfarne's wealthy coastal monastery did continue throughout the following century and in 875 A.D the monks of Lindisfarne fled their Holy Island with the body of Cuthbert, remembering the dying wishes of their saint;- "....if necessity compels you to chose between one of two evils, I would much rather you take my bones from their tomb and carry them away with you to whatever place of rest God may decree, rather than consent to iniquity and put your necks under the yokes of schismatics" For many years the monks wandered the north of England, with the coffin of St Cuthbert, until they eventually settled at Durham in 995 A.D where St Cuthbert's body lies to this day.

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PONS AELIUS, CONDERCUM & SEGEDUNUM

Benwell, in the western suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne was the site of a fort on Hadrian's Wall called CONDERCUM but the later name of Benwell is of Anglo Saxon origin deriving from Beonnam-Wall meaning a place within the wall Today most of what remains of the fort at Benwell is largely buried beneath modern housing, but the defensive Roman ditch called the `Vallum' can still be clearly be seen along with the nearby ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to a local god called Antenociticus.
From Benwell the Roman wall continued east, towards the fort near the river at Newcastle called Pons Aelius . Between Benwell and Newcastle City Centre Hadrian's Wall more or less ran along the course of what is now the Westgate Road. This road is built along the site of a Roman defensive ditch situated just north of Hadrian's Wall.
In Roman times the fort of Pons Aelius at Newcastle was probably not as important as that at Benwell, although it had a significant role in guarding a Roman bridge across the Tyne. Pons was the Latin word for Bridge, so Pons Aelius was the name of both the the fort and the bridge at Newcastle. In fact Pons Aelius can be translated to mean `the Bridge of Hadrian' , as Aelius, was the family name of the Emperor who gave his name to the Roman Wall. Pons Alelius was probably an early name for Newcastle.
The Roman bridge at Newcastle was built of timber on stone piers and may have continued in use for many centuries. Records suggest that the bridge may still have stood in Norman times and if this is so then it was not finally destroyed until 1248 during a raging fire. It is highly likely that a medieval bridge which replaced this burned structure still utilised the Roman foundations.
Initially the Roman bridge and fort at Newcastle formed the eastern terminus of Hadrian's Wall but later the wall was extended three miles further to the east where a fort called Segedunum was built at what we now know as Wallsend.
The fort of Segedunum was strategically located at the point where a short northward flowing section of the River Tyne suddenly turns east towards the sea. East of here the Tyne provided a natural continuation of Roman defences. This is demonstrated by the fact that one of the defensive walls of Wallsend fort actually extended into the River Tyne itself.
Two altars have been found that were on the original Pons Aelius one was dedicated to Oceanius who was the god of the sea and Neptune who at the time was the god of fresh water these were placed on the bridge because the Romans thought that at this point the fresh water of the river met with the sea.

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51AD – REBEL SET FREE IN ROME
(Rome)
Caractacus, the leader of British resisitance, has been paraded in chains through Rome where his tough-minded defiance impressed the Roman Emperor. The emperor has released Caractacus from captivity and allowed him to live freely in Rome.

51AD – QUEEN DIVORCES
(North Yorks)
Cartimandua has divorced Venutius and is planning to marry her new lover Vellocatus who had been the armour-bearer of her husband. This didn’t go down well with her subjects and Civil war has broken out between the supporters of Cartimandua – who are backed by the Romans – and Venutius.

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Amateur archaeologists John Davies and Jim Hutchinson discovered Mesolithic flint artefacts from an eroding cliff-edge at Howick, Northumberland. This prompted a detailed investigation of the site by archaeologists from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne during the summers of 2000 and 2002.
The remains of a Mesolithic hut were discovered revealing evidence of three distinct structural phases.

Twenty-one radiocarbon dates taken from successive hearth features indicate that the hut was constructed c. 7,800 BC .

The Howick structure is the earliest dated evidence for human settlement in Northumberland, and moreover, is one of only a few Stone Age dwellings known from the British Isles.
Over 18,000 pieces of flint were recovered during the excavations, as well as charred animal bone, charred hazelnut shells, red ochre and limpet shell fragments. Howick represents one of the most detailed Mesolithic excavations hitherto undertaken anywhere in Europe.

In addition to the Mesolithic site a completely unexpected Bronze Age cist cemetery was exposed in the excavation trench. This consisted of five cists, though only one contained surviving fragments of bone. Some small sherds of food vessel were associated with another of the cists but this had been disturbed by a later linear burning pit. However, a curious association was the placing of limestone axe roughouts directly on top of, or next to, the capstones of a number of the cists. This is particularly interesting as the limestone outcrops on the beach immediately below the site.
Four of the five cists were for infants and the surviving bone fragments from Cist 2 included pieces of a small skull. Cist 5 was adult-sized although no bone survived in the acid soil. The reason bone fragments survived in Cist 2 was due to the cist slabs being made from whinstone which has an alkaline bias, unlike the acidic sandstone used for the other cists.

Another Bronze Age cist cemetery was discovered on the opposite promontory to the south of the Howick Burn by antiquarians during the nineteenth century. One of these cists had rock art on the underside of the capstone and a fragmentary pottery vessel was also found.

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There’s a nasty rumour that us northerners migrated up from the south…..

 

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