The Plague of 664
Tracey J. Kinney
Disease in Medieval England
Written records from the early medieval period in England are almost non-existent. Historians have therefore relied heavily on Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People [Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum], written in the first half of the 8th Century, for information on this era. Bede’s primary focus, however, was on the expansion of the Christian Church into pagan territories; therefore, the contemporary reader must bear this in mind when drawing conclusions based upon Bede’s interpretation of events. The excerpts that follow begin in 664, with the first appearance of a “sudden pestilence” and conclude approximately four years later. Bede would have had access to oral testimony and to monastic records in constructing this part of his History.
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Chap. XXVII.
How Egbert, a holy man of the English nation, led a monastic life in Ireland. [664 a.d.]
In the same year of our Lord 664, there happened an eclipse of the sun, on the third day of May, about the tenth hour of the day. In the same year, a sudden pestilence depopulated first the southern parts of Britain, and afterwards attacking the province of the Northumbrians, ravaged the country far and near, and destroyed a great multitude of men. By this plague the aforesaid priest of the Lord, Tuda, was carried off, and was honourably buried in the monastery called Paegnalaech. Moreover, this plague prevailed no less disastrously in the island of Ireland. Many of the nobility, and of the lower ranks of the English nation, were there at that time, who, in the days of the Bishops Finan and Colman, forsaking their native island, retired thither, either for the sake of sacred studies, or of a more ascetic life; and some of them presently devoted themselves faithfully to a monastic life, others chose rather to apply themselves to study, going about from one master’s cell to another. The Scots willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with daily food without cost, as also to furnish them with books for their studies, and teaching free of charge.
Among these were Ethelhun and Egbert, two youths of great capacity, of the English nobility. The former of whom was brother to Ethelwin, a man no less beloved by God, who also at a later time went over into Ireland to study, and having been well instructed, returned into his own country, and being made bishop in the province of Lindsey, long and nobly governed the Church. These two being in the monastery which in the language of the Scots is called Rathmelsigi, and having lost all their companions, who were either cut off by the plague, or dispersed into other places, were both seized by the same sickness, and grievously afflicted. Of these, Egbert, (as I was informed by a priest venerable for his age, and of great veracity, who declared he had heard the story from his own lips,) concluding that he was at the point of death, w