He took his books as he found them--they were the popular manuals of his age--the Consolation of Boethius, the Pastoral Book of Pope Gregory, the compilation of "Orosius," then the one accessible handbook of universal history, and the history of his own people by Baeda.

He translated these works into English, but he was far more than a translator, he was an editor for his people.

Here he omitted, there he expanded.

He enriched "Orosius" by a sketch of the new geographical discoveries in the North.

He gave a West-Saxon form to his selections from Baeda.