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SJ2
MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
external influence, no country in Christendom contributed
more than England.
The earliest English science worthy ofthe name is found in
the Anglo/Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in the eighth
century; its outstanding representative, Bede, was a figure of
more than merely insular significance and has been called 'the
schoolmaster of the middle ages'. In Bede's time, western
scholars had to guide them only some remnants in Latin ofthe
great tradition of Greek science, and, meagre as these Latin
remnants were, the most considerable collection, the transla^
dons and commentaries of Boethius, was not yet known in
England. The main sources ofBede's scientific ideas were the
fathers, especially St. Ambrose, St. Augustine of Hippo, St.
Basil die Great, and St. Gregory the Great; the Visigothic
encyclopaedist Isidore of Seville, who lived a century before
Bede; most important of all, the Roman encyclopaedist Pliny;
and lastly, some Latin writings on the calendar. Based on these
sources, Bede's writings on scientific subjects fall into two main
classes: a largely derivative account of general cosmology, and
a more independent treatment of some specific practical prob'
lems, in particular those connected with the calendar.
Bede's cosmology is interesting for showing how an educa^
ted person ofthe eighth century pictured the universe. He set out
his views in De Rerum Natura, based largely on Isidore's book
ofthe same tide but also on Pliny's Natural History, which Isidore
had not known. Because ofhis more critical exposition as well
as his use of Pliny, Bede's book shows a marked improvement
over Isidore's. Bede's universe is one ordered by ascertainable
cause and effect. Whereas Isidore had thought the earth shaped
like a wheel, Bede held that it was a static sphere, with five
zones, ofwhich only the two temperate were habitable and only
the northern one actually inhabited. Surrounding the earth
were seven heavens: air, ether, Olympus, fiery space,
the firma/
ment with the heavenly bodies, the heaven of angels, and the
heaven of the Trinity. The waters on the firmament separated
the corporeal from the spiritual creation. The corporeal world
was composed of the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire,