This paper is about endings, but also about continuations, about carrying on where a great teacher left off.1 So, I begin with the conclusion of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (HE):And I pray you, merciful Jesus, that as You have graciously granted me sweet draughts from the Words of your knowledge, so may You, from Your goodness, grant that I may come at length to You, the Fount of all wisdom, and stand before your face for ever. Here ends, with God’s help, the fifth book of the Ecclesiastical History of the English people.