Introduction
St Bede of Jarrow (673-735) could claim to be one of founding Fathers of the English nation: his ground-breaking ‘History’ helped create a sense of national identity and Christian culture. Artistic yet scientific, jealous of Northumbrian sovereignty yet appreciative of European culture, he exemplifies all that is best in the English people.
THE church of St Peter in Monkwearmouth is all that remains today of a monastery founded in 674 by St Benedict Biscop, a local man who had studied abroad and was a frequent visitor to Rome. The land was donated by Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria, and included the home of a Christian family with a one-year-old boy called Bede.
When he was seven, Bede was sent to the monastery school to be tutored by Benedict in Latin and Greek, astronomy, music and art. Two years later, he was taken to a new monastery school in Jarrow further north, and continued his studies under Abbot Ceolfrid.
Bede spent the remainder of his life at Jarrow. Although he did some travelling (he went to Lindisfarne and York), peasants, kings and monks – such as Adamnán,* who came to learn the Northumbrian way of singing the liturgy – brought him news, while Benedict brought him books, music and icons from his journeys to France and Rome.*
Rome in Bede’s day was under Constantinople’s governance and was culturally Greek, with Greek-speaking popes and strongly eastern culture. Benedict borrowed a musician from Rome named John to set up a music school at Monkwearmouth, and according to Andrew J. Ekonomou in Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes he too was probably an Easterner, brought over under Pope Vitalian (r. 657-672) to help St Peter’s in Rome emulate the glory of Agia Sophia in Constantinople. See How Benedict Biscop brought Byzantium to Britain.
Précis
Bede was born in modern-day Sunderland, on lands acquired by St Benedict Biscop for a new monastery that Bede later attended as a schoolboy. Most of his life however was spent in a daughter-house at Jarrow, surrounded by books gathered from all over Europe, and fed with news by a constant stream of visitors from across the British Isles. (59 / 60 words)
Bede was born in modern-day Sunderland, on lands acquired by St Benedict Biscop for a new monastery that Bede later attended as a schoolboy. Most of his life however was spent in a daughter-house at Jarrow, surrounded by books gathered from all over Europe, and fed with news by a constant stream of visitors from across the British Isles.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: despite, just, must, not, since, unless, until, who.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
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