“It has ever been my delight to learn or teach or write.” At age 7, Bede was given to the monks of Wearmouth Abby as an oblate. He never left. “From that time, I have spent the whole of my life within that monastery, devoting all my pains to the study of the Scriptures, and amid the observance of monastic discipline and the daily charge of singing in the church, it has ever been my delight to learn or teach or write.” Indeed: