Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/65

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THE LIFE OF BEDE.
lvii

Holy Ghost,' when he had named the Holy Ghost, he breathed his last, and so departed to the Kingdom of Heaven. All those who beheld the blessed father's death, said they had never seen any other person expire with so much devotion, and in so tranquil a frame of mind. For, as you have heard, so long as the soul animated his body, did he never cease to give thanks to the true and living God, with expanded hands exclaiming: 'Glory be to the Father,' and other spiritual ejaculations. But know this, my dear brother, that I could say much concerning him, though my want of erudition abridges this discourse. Nevertheless, by the Grace of God, I purpose shortly to write more concerning him, particularly those things which I saw with mine own eyes, and heard with mine own ears."

In conclusion, we may remark that this letter of his pupil Cuthbert, by fixing the day of his death on Ascension day, on the seventh of the Calends of June, has enabled us to assign the true year to this event. The 26th of May, (the vii. Calend. Junii,) by reference to Astronomical Tables, will be found to have been Ascension day, in the year of our Lord 735. Immediately after his spirit had departed, the whole room is said to have been filled with a most fragrant odour,—a circumstance recorded on the death of so many of the early fathers of our

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