In the nineteenth year of my life I received ordination as deacon; in my thirtieth year I attained to the priesthood; both functions being administered by the most reverend bishop John [afterwards known as St.
John of Beverley], at the request of Abbot Ceolfrid.

From the time of my ordination as priest to the fifty-ninth year of my life, I have occupied myself in briefly commenting upon Holy Scripture, for the use of myself and my brethren, from the works of the venerable fathers, and in some cases I have added interpretations of my own to aid in their comprehension." The variety of Baeda's works, the large knowledge of science and of classical literature which he displays (when judged by the continental standard of the eighth century), and his familiar acquaintance with the Latin language, which he writes easily and correctly, show that the library of Jarrow must have been extensive and valuable.

Besides his Scriptural commentaries, he wrote a treatise _De Natura Rerum_, Letters on the Reason of Leap-Year, a Life of St.Anastasius, and a History of his Own Abbey, all in Latin.

In verse, he composed many pieces, both in hexameters and elegiacs, together with a treatise on prosody.

But his greatest work is his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," the authority from which we derive almost all our knowledge of early Christian England.