How the monk ever found time for his accomplishment of study and writing among his constant labors—his chanting and his teaching and his frequent preparation of homilies—it is indeed hard to discover. But he wore away the thin scabbard of the body by the keen edge of his sheathed and unsheathed mind, until he died before his days were truly done. How often must we lament the incredible monotony and weary routine of these noble lives! How much more, we say to ourselves, they could have achieved under better and freer conditions! But perhaps not. Perhaps this very constriction was a source of strength; and perhaps the severe stress which finally broke this noble student was, after all, the creator of his best powers and the director of his finest energy. Did he ever visit Rome? Monks from the Anglo-Saxon monasteries went on pilgrimage back and forth, but if he went with them neither he nor they have mentioned it. Yet there is a letter of Pope Sergius to Ceolfrid which hints at such a journey, and might easily furnish a ground for the opinion. On the whole, we must consider Bede as an unflickering light, burning itself away at Jarrow, but illuminating all England with its rays. It is not because of deficiency in acquirement that we deny these traditions. He knew all that was then current. His writings are an encyclopaedia of universal learning. Honorius of Autun says of him, _scripsit infinita_—he wrote incalculably much. Lanfranc cites his _Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation_. Alcuin compares him to the Younger Pliny, and quotes him with great delight as “Magister Beda.” The hymns ascribed to the Venerable Bede, on what appears to be good authority, are the following: _Adesto, Christe, vocibus_, _Apostolorum gloriam_, _Emitte, Christe, Spiritum_, _Hymnum canamus gloriae_, _Hymnum canentes martyrum_, _Illuxit alma seculis_, _Nunc Andreae sollemnia_, _Praecessor almus gratiae_, _Praecursor altus luminis_, _Primo Deus coeli globum_, _Salve tropaeum gloriae_. Also, but more doubtfully: _Apostolorum passio_, _Inter florigeras_. His Ascension hymn, _Hymnum canamus gloriae_, in its abbreviated form, spread beyond the bounds of English use, and found favor with the Churches of the Continent. It has simplicity and directness, if not much poetic force and is too prolix for Church use in its original form. Mrs. Charles’s version, “A hymn of glory let us sing,” is well known. Next to it stands his _Hymnum canentes martyrum_, known to English readers by the admirable version in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, which begins, “A hymn for martyrs sweetly sing.” A third notable hymn is that to the Cross: _Salve tropaeum gloriae_, in which he embodies the beautiful legend of St. Andrew’s death.