Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Bede’s *Ecclesiastical History of the English People* is a five-book account of Christianity among the English peoples, framed by an earlier history of Britain. It follows the conversion of kingdoms and the growth of church life across the island.

Its narrative joins missionaries, rulers, bishops, and monastic communities, from Augustine’s mission to Kent and Aidan’s work at Lindisfarne to the spread of Christianity across other kingdoms. Letters and council records sit alongside accounts of holy lives and miracles. The Synod of Whitby brings the dispute over when to celebrate Easter into focus; the final book follows English missionaries to the Frisians and Old Saxons.

Completed in the early eighth century, the work emerged from the Northumbrian monastic community of Wearmouth and Jarrow, where Bede lived and studied. Northumbria’s church had been shaped by missions associated with Canterbury and Rome and with Iona and Irish monasteries. These communities shared Christian beliefs but differed over some customs, including the calculation of Easter.

Sellar’s English version revises Giles’s translation, which itself revised John Stevens’s. It uses Plummer’s Latin text. The source edition was published in London in 1907. This edition includes Sellar’s introduction and biographical account of Bede, followed by a separate continuation of annals covering 731–766.