Answer both questions. You should write c. 2500 words overall, supplying footnotes and bibliography as normal.
Q. 1. Comment on the following source extract
He doubled the number of books in the libraries of both monasteries with an ardour equal to that which Benedict Biscop has shown in founding them. He added three copies of the new translation of the Bible to the one copy of the old translation which he had brought back from Rome. One of these books he took with him as a present when he went back to Rome in his old age, and the other two he bequeathed to his monasteries. For eight hides of land by the River Fresca he exchanged with King Aldfrith, who was very learned in the scriptures, the magnificently worked copy of the Cosmographers which Benedict had bought in Rome. Bede, Lives of the abbots
Q 2. Comment on the following source extract
At this time Oswiu gave Peada, the son of King Penda, the kingdom of Southern Mercia, because he was his kinsman. It was said to consist of 5000 hides, being divided by the River Trent from Northern Mercia, which is 7000 hides in extent. But Peada was most foully murdered in the following spring by the treachery, or so it is said, of his wife during the very time of the Easter festival. Bede, Ecclesiastical History
