Alfred the Great.
Effect of the Danish Invasions.
BIOGRAPHY.
Bede was a precocious youth, whose excellent parts commended him to Bishop Benedict.

He made rapid progress in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; was a deacon at the unusual age of nineteen, and a priest at thirty.

It seems probable that he always remained in his monastery, engaged in literary labor and offices of devotion until his death, which happened while he was dictating to his boy amanuensis, "Dear master," said the boy, "there is yet one sentence not written." He answered, "Write quickly." Soon after, the boy said, "The sentence is now written." He replied.

"It is well; you have said the truth.

Receive my head into your hands, for it is a great satisfaction to me to sit facing my holy place where I was wont to pray, that I may also sitting, call upon my Father." "And thus, on the pavement of his little cell, singing 'Glory be unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost,' when he had named the Holy Ghost he breathed his last, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom." HIS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY .-- His ecclesiastical history opens with a description of Britain, including what was known of Scotland and Ireland.
With a short preface concerning the Church in the earliest times, he dwells particularly upon the period, from the arrival of St.Augustine, in 597, to the year 731, a space of one hundred and thirty-four years, during nearly one-half of which the author lived.