Editing Bede (section)

==== Models and style ====
Bede's stylistic models included some of the same authors from whom he drew the material for the earlier parts of his history. His introduction imitates the work of Orosius,<ref name="ODNB" /> and his title is an echo of Eusebius's ''Historia Ecclesiastica''.<ref name="ASEEncBede" /> Bede also followed Eusebius in taking the ''[[Acts of the Apostles]]'' as the model for the overall work: where Eusebius used the ''Acts'' as the theme for his description of the development of the church, Bede made it the model for his history of the Anglo-Saxon church.<ref name="Farmer_26">{{harvnb|Farmer|1978|p=26}}</ref> Bede quoted his sources at length in his narrative, as Eusebius had done.<ref name="ODNB" /> Bede also appears to have taken quotes directly from his correspondents at times. For example, he almost always uses the terms "Australes" and "Occidentales" for the South and West Saxons respectively, but in a passage in the first book he uses "Meridiani" and "Occidui" instead, as perhaps his informant had done.<ref name="ODNB" /> At the end of the work, Bede adds a brief autobiographical note; this was an idea taken from Gregory of Tours' earlier ''History of the Franks''.<ref name="Farmer_27">{{harvnb|Farmer|1978|p=27}}</ref>

Bede's work as a [[hagiography|hagiographer]] and his detailed attention to dating were both useful preparations for the task of writing the ''Historia Ecclesiastica''. His interest in computus, the science of calculating the [[date of Easter]], was also useful in the account he gives of the controversy between the British and Anglo-Saxon church over the correct method of obtaining the Easter date.<ref name="Farmer_21" />

Bede is described by [[Michael Lapidge]] as "without question the most accomplished Latinist produced in these islands in the Anglo-Saxon period".<ref>{{harvnb|Lapidge|2005|p=323}}</ref> His Latin has been praised for its clarity, but his style in the ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' is not simple. He knew rhetoric and often used figures of speech and rhetorical forms which cannot easily be reproduced in translation, depending as they often do on the connotations of the Latin words. However, unlike contemporaries such as [[Aldhelm]], whose Latin is full of difficulties, Bede's own text is easy to read.<ref name="CM_xxxvii">{{harvnb|Colgrave|Mynors|1969|pp=xxxvii–xxxviii}}</ref> In the words of [[Charles Plummer (historian)|Charles Plummer]], one of the best-known editors of the ''Historia Ecclesiastica'', Bede's Latin is "clear and limpid&nbsp;... it is very seldom that we have to pause to think of the meaning of a sentence&nbsp;... Alcuin rightly praises Bede for his unpretending style."<ref name="Plummer_I_liii">Plummer, ''Bedae Opera Historica'', vol. I, pp.&nbsp;liii–liv.</ref>