"[4] The library he
formed was worthy of the labour, we cannot doubt: possibly
was the best then in Britain. It served as the model for
the still more famous collection at York. The scholarship
of Bede, who used it in writing his works, proclaims its
value for literary purposes.[5] Bede tells us he always
applied himself to Scriptural study, and in the intervals of
observing monastic discipline and singing daily in the
church, he took pleasure in learning, or teaching, or writing.[6]
The picture of Bede in his solitary monastery, leading a
placid life among Benedict's books, poring over the beautifully-
wrought pages with the scholar's tense calm to find
the material in the Fathers and the historians, and to seek
the apt quotation from the classics, must always flash to the
mind at the mere mention of his name.[7] Every fact in
connexion with his work testifies to the excellent equipment
of his monastery for writing ecclesiastical history, and to
the cordial way in which the religious co-operated for the
advancement of learning and research.
[1] These foundations were regarded as one house, the inmates
being bound together by "a common and perpetual affection and
intimacy.
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