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The Church Fathers · 734
Letter to Egbert
The Venerable Bede · c. 673–735
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What it is
Written months before his death to a former pupil now a bishop, complaining of absentee clergy, fraudulent monasteries founded as tax shelters, and dioceses too large to serve.
Why it lasted
Bede's last word, and a blunt indictment of the English church he is usually thought to have celebrated.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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