As the story would later be told by the Anglo-Saxon monk and historian Bede, Gregory was struck by the unusual appearance of the slaves and asked about their background.

Ælle was the first king recorded by the 8th century chronicler Bede to have held " imperium ", or overlordship, over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Bede states that Theodore, a Greek, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 668, and he taught Greek.

Bede ( ; ; 672 / 673 – 26 May 735 ), also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede (), was an English monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow ( see Monkwearmouth-Jarrow ), both in the Kingdom of Northumbria.

In 1899, Bede was made a Doctor of the Church by Leo XIII, a position of theological significance ; he is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation ( Anselm of Canterbury, also a Doctor of the Church, was originally from Italy ).

Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work with the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers contributed significantly to English Christianity, making the writings much more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons.

It was completed in about 731, and Bede implies that he was then in his fifty-ninth year, which would give a likely birth date of about 672 – 673.

Bede says nothing of his origins, but his connections with men of noble ancestry suggest that his own family was well-to-do.

Bede's first abbot was Benedict Biscop, and the names " Biscop " and " Beda " both appear in a king list of the kings of Lindsey from around 800, further suggesting that Bede came from a noble family.

The name " Bede " was not a common one at the time.

Some manuscripts of the Life of Cuthbert, one of Bede's own works, mention that Cuthbert's own priest was named Bede ; it is possible that this priest is the other name listed in the Liber Vitae.

The name probably derives from the Old English bēd, or prayer ; if Bede was given the name at his birth, then his family had probably always planned for him to enter the clergy.

Bede does not say whether it was already intended at that point that he would be a monk.

Monkwearmouth's sister monastery at Jarrow was founded by Ceolfrith in 682, and Bede probably transferred to Jarrow with Ceolfrith that year.

The young boy was almost certainly Bede, who would have been about 14.

When Bede was about 17 years old, Adomnan, the abbot of Iona Abbey, visited Monkwearmouth and Jarrow.

In about 692, in Bede's nineteenth year, Bede was ordained a deacon by his diocesan bishop, John, who was bishop of Hexham.

Bede was a teacher as well as a writer ; he enjoyed music, and was said to be accomplished as a singer and as a reciter of poetry in the vernacular.

Translations of this phrase differ, and it is quite uncertain whether Bede intended to say that he was cured of a speech problem, or merely that he was inspired by the saint's works.

Bede would also have been familiar with more recent accounts such as Eddius Stephanus's Life of Wilfrid, and anonymous Lives of Gregory the Great and Cuthbert.

A full catalogue of the library available to Bede in the monastery cannot be reconstructed, but it is possible to tell, for example, that Bede was very familiar with the works of Virgil.

In particular, he felt that the two separate addresses were incongruous and suggested that the first address, occurring before the preamble, may have been inserted by someone familiar with Bede to echo Eadbald's future conversion ( see below ).

The Dominical Letter does not seem to have been familiar to Bede in his " De temporum ratione ", but in its place he adopts a similar device of seven numbers which he calls concurrentes ( De Temp.

Bede would also have been familiar with more recent accounts such as Eddius Stephanus's Life of Wilfrid, and anonymous Lives of Gregory the Great and Cuthbert.

There were clearly gaps in Bede's knowledge, but Bede also says little on some topics that he must have been familiar with.

" ( Hunter, S. 122 ) In fact, in early criticism, the tragedy of infanticide has often been overlooked in favor of the peaceful idyllic world and familiar personalities Eliot recreated. Adam Bede, George Eliot: INTRODUCTION.

King Eadbert and his brother Egbert oversaw the re-energising and re-organisation of the English church, with an emphasis on reforming the clergy and on the tradition of learning that Bede had begun.

King Alfred the Great and the chronicler Æthelweard identified this place with the district that is now called Angeln, in the province of Schleswig ( Slesvig ) ( though it may then have been of greater extent ), and this identification agrees with the indications given by Bede.

A tradition which Bede accepts makes him a twin with his sister Scholastica.

The dedication stone for the church has survived to the present day ; it is dated 23 April 685, and as Bede would have been required to assist with menial tasks in his day-to-day life it is possible that he helped in building the original church.

In Bede's thirtieth year ( about 702 ) Bede became a priest, with the ordination again performed by Bishop John.

Bede had another brush with Wilfrid, for the historian himself says that he met Wilfrid, sometime between 706 and 709, and discussed Æthelthryth, the abbess of Ely.

Because of his widespread correspondence with others throughout the British Isles, and due to the fact that many of the letters imply that Bede had met his correspondents, it is likely that Bede travelled to some other places, although nothing further about timing or locations can be guessed.

According to Cuthbert, Bede fell ill " with frequent attacks of breathlessness but almost without pain ", before Easter.

The preface makes it clear that Ceolwulf had requested the earlier copy, and Bede had asked for Ceolwulf's approval ; this correspondence with the king indicates that Bede's monastery had excellent connections among the Northumbrian nobility.

Bede also had correspondents who supplied him with material.

Bede acknowledged his correspondents in the preface to the Historia Ecclesiastica ; he was in contact with Daniel, the Bishop of Winchester, for information about the history of the church in Wessex, and also wrote to the monastery at Lastingham for information about Cedd and Chad.

Bede was a Northumbrian, and this tinged his work with a local bias.

This, combined with Gildas's negative assessment of the British church at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions, led Bede to a very critical view of the native church.

This was based on parts of Isidore of Seville's Etymologies, and Bede also include a chronology of the world which was derived from Eusebius, with some revisions based on Jerome's translation of the bible.

Bede dedicated this work to Cuthbert, apparently a student, for he is named " beloved son " in the dedication, and Bede says " I have laboured to educate you in divine letters and ecclesiastical statutes " Another textbook of Bede's is the De orthographia, a work on orthography, designed to help a medieval reader of Latin with unfamiliar abbreviations and words from classical Latin works.