ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the unusual structure of the chronicle and discusses that Bede’s critical engagement with his sources and wider Insular computistical tradition is again in evidence, along with the influence of Scripture on his presentation of time. It considers the purpose of the chronicle in De temporibus, the potential significance of 703 as its date of completion and demonstrate that the traditional terminology and treatment of Bede’s chronicles is misleading. Bede’s adoption of Vulgate chronology is the most remarked-upon element of his chronicle, indeed of De temporibus in general. The attention paid to the chronology is primarily based on the negative reaction to the work as evidenced in Bede’s letter to Plegwin, written in 708, in which he assertively defended his chronology against a spurious charge of heresy. Bede’s association of saeculi with human generations in De temporibus distinguishes his divisions of time from his forebears, both Isidore and the Irish computistical tradition.
