in his own city, by the venerable men Daniel, bishop of Winchester, Ingolgus, bishop of London, Alwyn, bishop of Lichfield, and laldulf, bishop of Rochester, on the tenth day of the month of June. He was a man very eminent for his strictness as an ecclesiastic. A.D. 733. Archbishop Tadwin, having received a pallium, ordained two bishops. The same year, also, king Ceolwolf was taken prisoner, shaved, and sent back to his kingdom. A.D. 734. Ethelbald, king of Mercia, having collected an army, besieged the castle of Somerton. And as no one was able to bring assistance to the beleaguered citizens, the said king made himself master of the castle. And after that, having compelled all the citizens to submit to him, he reigned over all the provinces of England, as far as the river Humber. The same year, an eclipse of the sun took place, on the fourteenth of August, about three o'clock in the day, to such an extent, that nearly the whole orb of the sun appeared covered over with a black shield. The same year, Bede, a venerable man, and of an unvaryingly heavenly disposition, ascended to the palaces of heaven. He was a man endowed with divine virtue, restraining his own vicious propensities and those of others, on which account he deserves to be held in everlasting recollection. For he was a venerable priest, having been educated in that monastery of Peter the chief of the Apostles, which is at the mouth of the river Wire, and is called Gerewi ; where he spent the whole period of his life, under the most reverend abbot Benedict, and afterwards under Ceolfrid, being a man of God, thrice blessed, devoting all bis labours to the Holy Scriptures and to meditative studies, delighting always in learning, or writing, or teaching. In the nineteenth year of his age he attained to the office of deacon, and in bis thirtieth year he was advanced to the rank of the priesthood ; after which time, he employed himself till his fortieth year in compiling from the works of the holy fathers, for the benefit of the church, seventy-eight books, in thirty-six volumes, which he himself gives a list of in his History of England, composing them in a rigidly pure style, by which he deserved to be accounted by the whole church the teacher of the English, and their venerable father. And when, last of all, he published his History of the hongs of England, and other events and exploits, among hie books,