Bede (c. 673-735)
“If history records good things of good men,
the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate
what is good: or if it records evil of wicked men,
the devout, religious listener or reader is encouraged
to avoid all that is sinful and perverse and to follow
what he knows to be good and pleasing to God.”
- From the preface of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (and relevant letters), translated by Leo Sherley-Pride, R. E. Latham and D. H. Farmer (Penguin Classics, 2003).
