Ecclesiastical History of England: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Ecclesiastical History of England, credited to The Venerable Bede, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Ecclesiastical History of England, by The Venerable Bede, translated by A. M. Sellar. Read by volunteer readers. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity. It is considered to be one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history. It is believed to have been completed in 731, when Bede was approximately 59 years old. Divided into five books, it covers the history of England, ecclesiastical and political, from the time of Julius Caesar to the date of its completion (731). The History of the English Church and People has a clear polemical and didactic purpose. Bede sets out, not just to tell the story of the English, but to advance his views on politics and religion. In political terms he is a partisan of his native Northumbria, amplifying its role in English history over and above that of Mercia, its great southern rival. While Bede is loyal to Northumbria, he shows an even greater attachment to the Irish and the Irish Celtic missionaries, whom he considers to be far more effective and dedicated than their rather complacent English counterparts. His final preoccupation is over the precise date of Easter, which he writes about at length. It is here, and only here, that he ventures some criticism of St Cuthbert and the Irish missionaries, who celebrated the event, according to Bede, at the wrong time. In the end he is pleased to note that the Irish Church was saved from error by accepting the correct date for Easter. (Summary modified from Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Ecclesiastical History of England
• Author credits: The Venerable Bede
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 29
• Listed recording duration: 13:06:18

Catalogue topics

• history
• church history
• religion
• Middle Ages
• Great Britain
• Ireland

Opening tracks: first 24 of 29

1. 01 - Editor's Preface & Introduction — 32:34
2. 02 - Life of Bede & Preface — 32:11
3. 03 - Book I, Chapters 1-8 — 29:16
4. 04 - Book I, Chapters 9-17 — 28:42
5. 05 - Book I, Chapters 18-26 — 24:38
6. 06 - Book I, Chapter 27 — 32:08
7. 07 - Book I, Chapters 28-34 — 18:46
8. 08 - Book II, Chapters 1-3 — 28:16
9. 09 - Book II, Chapters 4-9 — 28:10
10. 10 - Book II, Chapters 10-13 — 28:25
11. 11 - Book II, Chapters 14-20 — 27:27
12. 12 - Book III, Chapters 1-7 — 25:43
13. 13 - Book III, Chapters 8-14 — 25:49
14. 14 - Book III, Chapters 15-21 — 28:21
15. 15 - Book III, Chapters 22-24 — 18:51
16. 16 - Book III, Chapters 25-26 — 22:34
17. 17 - Book III, Chapters 27-30 — 20:07
18. 18 - Book IV, Chapters 1-4 — 25:38
19. 19 - Book IV, Chapters 5-11 — 28:43
20. 20 - Book IV, Chapters 12-17 — 26:40
21. 21 - Book IV, Chapters 18-22 — 23:55
22. 22 - Book IV, Chapters 23-25 — 27:52
23. 23 - Book IV, Chapters 26-32 — 29:15
24. 24 - Book V, Chapters 1-7 — 29:52

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.