SOURCE: Joel T. Rosenthal, "Bede's Use of Miracles in Ecclesiastical History," in Traditio, Vol. XXXI, 1975, pp. 328-35.

In the following essay, Rosenthal examines Bede's descriptions of miracles … in the Ecclesiastical History, contending that Bede used them carefully and for specific purposes, often to honor particular individuals.

Bede believed in miracles. They were basic to him, both as a practicing Christian and as a working historian. Without accepting this we can understand him neither as a man of the seventh and eighth centuries nor as the author who carefully constructed the Ecclesiastical History.

One of Bede's warmest admirers, the late Bertram Colgrave, was rather embarrassed by what seemed to be the naïveté of his hero. To rescue Bede from the charge of being either overly credulous or simply simple-minded, Colgrave did a useful study of the use of miracle stories in Bede's works, particularly in the Ecclesiastical History...