(10.) Venerable Bede.—p. 305.
“Scriptura ait: Qui fecisti mundum de materia informi. Sed materia facta est de nihilo, mundi vero species de informi materia. Proinde duas res ante omnem diem et ante omne tempus condidit Deus angelicam videlicet creaturam et informem materiam.”—In Pentateuch. Comment.; sub. cap. 1: Edit Migne, Patr. Lat. Cursus Completus, tom. 91, p. 191. In another place, citing the words of Ecclesiasticus, Qui vivit in aeternum creavit omnia simul, he says, “hoc utique ante omnem diem hujus saeculi fecit, cum in principio coelum creavit et terram.”—Hexaemeron, Lib. i. in Genes, ii. 4; Edit. Migne, tom. 91, p. 39.
“Discipulus. Da ordinem per sex dies factarum rerum? Magister. In ipso quidem principio conditionis facta sunt coelum, terra, aer, et aqua.... Discipulus. Sequere ordinem generationis? Magister. In principio diei primae lux facta est; secunda vero factum firmamentum;” etc.—Quaestiones super Genesim; Edit. Migne, Patr. Lat. tom. 93, p. 236. This work is classed by Migne among the Dubia et Spuria of Bede. The critics, however, seem to be agreed that it belongs to a period not later than the tenth century. If it is not the genuine composition of Bede, which is considered more probable, then it only follows that we have, besides Bede, another ancient authority in favor of our opinion.