Written in AD 731, Bede's work opens with a background sketch of Roman Britain's geography and history. It goes on to tell of the kings and bishops, monks and nuns who helped to develop Anglo-Saxon government and religion during the crucial formative years of the English people. This title offers an English translation of a historical document.
The accounts given by Bede and Eddius give the reader an idea of 6th and 7th century life in Britain as Roman Episcopal orthodoxy clashed with the monasticism that was spreading over Ireland and Northern England.
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731 AD) is Bede's most famous work. A scholarly monk working in the north-east of England, Bede wrote the five books of the History in Latin. Starting with the invasion of Julius Caesar in the fifth century, he recorded the history of the English up to his own day. In particular, he described their conversion and the complex ways in which Christianity was spread among them. As well as providing the authoritative Colgrave translation of the Ecclesiastical History, this edition includes a new translation of the Greater Chronicle, in which Bede examines the Roman Empire and contemporary Europe. His Letter to Egbert gives his final reflections on the English Church just before his death, and all three texts here are further illuminated by a detailed introduction and explanatory notes.