people. Carter, a schoolmaster of Cambridge, seems to speak on no better authority, in his History of the University of Cambridge, where he attempts to prove its superior antiquity over that of Paris. "As for Paris," says he, "which claims the precedency, it is at most no older than the reign of Charlemagne, and founded by four disciples of the venerable Bede." Though the character of Cantalupe's History is too low to allow us to attach any importance to this and other statements which it contains, yet "Bede's knowledge of the Scriptures, the result of so many years of patient study, and his great reputation for learning, would no doubt draw round him a multitude of disciples. The names of some of his more favoured pupils are preserved by himself, in the dedications to such of his works as were undertaken at their suggestion, or for their especial benefit. Amongst these we may notice Huetbert, afterwards Abbot of Weremouth, to whom he dedicated his treatise De Ratione Temporum, and his Exposition upon the Revelations; Cuthbert, the successor of Huetbert, for whom he wrote his Liber de Arte Metrica; Constantine, for whose use he edited a dissertation concerning the division of Numbers; and, lastly, Nothelm, presbyter of London, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, at whose request he propounded thirty questions 2 Lond. 1753, page 3. 3 upon the Books of Kings. Although there were probably other disciples, whose names he does not specify, yet we can by no means agree with Vincent of Beauvais in including amongst the number, Rhabanus Maurus, who was not born until fifty years after Bede's death; nor the more celebrated Alcuin, as some writers erroneneously have done." it a difficult task for his biographers to extend their accounts of him to that length which might seem suitable to his reputation and the value of his works. It has been truly remarked that scholars and persons of sedentary habits, though liable to frequent petty illnesses from want of bodly exercise and too great mental exertion, are nevertheless on the whole rather a long 3 Spec. Histor. xxiii. 173. + Stevenson's Introduction. lived race. This rule was not exemplified in the case of Bede. He seems to have contracted at a somewhat early period a complaint in his stomach, accompanied with shortness of breath: "Ita ut," says Malmesbury, " stomacho laboraret ægroque et angusto suspirio anhelitum duceret."5 An attack of this disorder had lately prevented him from visiting his friend Archbishop Egbert, and led to his writing him the valuable letter on the duties of a bishop, which we have still extant. We are not informed whether the disorder left him at that time, and came on afresh, when it at last killed him; but it is most probable that he enjoyed general ill health during the last few years of his existence. He was ill some weeks before he died, and was attended by Cuthbert, who had been one of his pupils, and after Huetbert became abbot of the monastery. The Christian piety with which he suffered the dispensation which awaited him, has been the universal theme of panegyric. The whole scene of his increasing malady, his devout resignation, and fervent prayers for all his friends, together with his paternal admonitions for the regulation of their lives, and his uncontrollable anxiety to dictate to the boy who was his amanuensis, even to his last moments, are so beautifully recorded in the letter of his pupil Cuthbert, that we shall not attempt here to describe it in other terms." 5 Gesta Regum Anglorum, I. | X. I. 15, p. 8. Leland, Collect. 2, 23. Hearne, IV. 111. 77. Mabilloni Act. Bened. Sec. III. 6 See Simeon. Dunelm. de Ecc. Dun. ap. Twysdeni Scrip. tisfaction read the letters of your devout erudition; wherein I found that masses and holy prayers are diligenty celebrated by you for our father and master, Bede, whom God loved: this was what I principally desired, and therefore it is more pleasing, for the love of him (according to my capacity), in a few words to relate in what manner he departed this world, understanding that you also desire and ask the same. He was much troubled with shortness of breath, yet without pain, before the day of our Lord's resurrection, that is, about a fortnight; and thus he afterwards passed his life, cheerful and rejoicing, giving thanks to Almighty God every day and night, nay, every hour, till the day of our Lord's Ascension, that is, the seventh of the Calends of June [26th of May] and daily read lessons to us his disciples, and whatever remained of the day, he spent in singing psalms; he also passed all the night awake, in joy and thanksgiving, unless a short sleep prevented it; in which case he no sooner awoke than he presently repeated his wonted exercises, and ceased not to give thanks to God with uplifted hands. I declare with truth, that I have never seen with my eyes, nor heard with my ears, any man so earnest in giving thanks to the living God. O truly happy man! He chanted the sentence of St. Paul the Apostle, It is dreadful to fall into the hands of the living God, and much more out of Holy Writ; wherein also he admonished us to think of our last hour, and to shake off the sleep of the soul; and being learned in our poetry, he said some things also in our tongue, for he said, putting the same into English, "For tham neod-fere which means this Ær his heonen-gange "No man is wiser than is requisite, before the necessary departure; that is, to consider, before the soul departs hence, what good or evil it hath done, and how it is to be judged after its departure." He also sang Antiphons according to our custom and his own, one of which is, "O glo rious King, Lord of all Power, who, triumphing this day, didst ascend above all the Heavens; do not forsake us orphans; but send down upon us the Spirit of Truth which was promised to us by |