 Bede synthesised and transmitted the learning from his predecessors , as well as made careful , judicious innovation in knowledge ( such as recalculating the age of the earth — for which he was censured before surviving the heresy accusations and eventually having his views championed by Archbishop Ussher in the sixteenth century — see below ) that had theological implications . In order to do this , he learned Greek , and attempted to learn Hebrew . He spent time reading and rereading both the Old and the New Testaments . He mentions that he studied from a text of Jerome 's Vulgate , which itself was from the Hebrew text . He also studied both the Latin and the Greek Fathers of the Church . In the monastic library at Jarrow were a number of books by theologians , including works by Basil , Cassian , John Chrysostom , Isidore of Seville , Origen , Gregory of Nazianzus , Augustine of Hippo , Jerome , Pope Gregory I , Ambrose of Milan , Cassiodorus , and Cyprian . He used these , in conjunction with the Biblical texts themselves , to write his commentaries and other theological works . He had a Latin translation by Evagrius of Athanasius 's Life of Antony , and a copy of Sulpicius Severus ' Life of St. Martin . He also used lesser known writers , such as Fulgentius , Julian of Eclanum , Tyconius , and Prosper of Aquitaine . Bede was the first to refer to Jerome , Augustine , Pope Gregory and Ambrose as the four Latin Fathers of the Church . It is clear from Bede 's own comments that he felt his job was to explain to his students and readers the theology and thoughts of the Church Fathers . 
