Of this new literature (which began with the Latin biography of Wilfrith by AEddi or Eddius, and the Latin verses of Ealdhelm) the great representative is, in fact, Baeda, whose life has already been sufficiently described in an earlier chapter.  Living at Jarrow, a Benedictine monastery of the strictest type, in close connection with Rome, and supplied with Roman works in abundance, Baeda had thoroughly imbibed the spirit of the southern culture, and his books reflect for us a true picture of the English barbarian toned down and almost obliterated in all distinctive features by receptivity for Italian civilisation.  The Northumbrian kingdom had just passed its prime in his days; and he was able to record the early history of the English Church and People with something like Roman breadth of view.  His scientific knowledge was up to that of his contemporaries abroad; while his somewhat childish tales of miracles and visions, though they often betray traces of the old heathen spirit, were not below the average level of European thought in his own day.  Altogether, Baeda may be taken as a fair specimen of the Romanised Englishman, alike in his strength and in his weakness.  The samples of his historical style already given will suffice for illustration of his Latin works; but it must not be forgotten that he was also one of the first writers to try his hand at regular English prose in his translation of St. John’s Gospel.  A few English verses from his lips have also come down to us, breathing the old Teutonic spirit more deeply than might be expected from his other works.

During the interval between the Northumbrian and West Saxon supremacies—­the interval embraced by the eighth century, and covered by the greatness of Mercia under AEthelbald and Offa—­we have few remains of English literature.  The laws of Ine the West Saxon, and of Offa the Mercian, with the Penitentials of the Church, and the Charters, form the chief documents.  But England gained no little credit for learning from the works of two Englishmen who had taken up their abode in the old Germanic kingdom:  Boniface or Winfrith, the apostle of the heathen Teutons subjugated by the Franks, and Alcuin (Ealhwine), the famous friend and secretary of Karl the Great.  Many devotional Anglo-Saxon poems, of various dates, are kept for us in the two books preserved at Exeter, and at Vercelli in North Italy.  Amongst them are some by Cynewulf, perhaps the most genuinely poetical of all the early minstrels after Caedmon.  The following lines, taken from the beginning of his poem “The Phoenix” (a transcript from Lactantius), will sufficiently illustrate his style:—­

    I have heard that hidden Afar from hence
    On the east of earth Is a fairest isle,
    Lovely and famous.  The lap of that land
    May not be reached By many mortals,
    Dwellers on earth; But it is divided
    Through the might of the Maker