Book Annotation — Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People

 (London: Penguin Classics, 1968) 274 [ISBN 978-0-140-4465-7]

I have come to love the Penguin Classics collection of books. They are all created by well-known and respected scholars/translators, and yet they are inexpensive books which cover nearly all of the original source materials you could want relating to Celtic Britain. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History is an essential resource from the middle ages about Christendom as it had evolved in Britain from the earliest stages. You have to factor in that Bede was “a company man,” with regard to the Romanization of Christendom so he offers comments here and there highly critical of those saints who chose to remain oriented to Celtic calendars and habits. If you choose to not let that put you off, there is much in this original resource which is worth reading. To find Bede’s writings about the saints of Holy Island and Iona you will need to use the index in the back of the book to find the relevant pages.