The Venerable Bede & Early English Church History

Episode 5: The Venerable Bede - Show Notes

Image Credit: Folio 5r from the Codex Amiatinus (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Amiatinus 1), Ezra the scribe. [Public Domain] Available at Wikimedia Commons.

Brief Chronology (most dates are approximate):
• 410 - Goths sack Rome
• 431 - Mission of Palladius to Ireland (probably close in time to Patrick's mission)
• 449 - Vortigern invites Angles and Saxons to Britain as mercenaries
• 563 - Columba reaches Iona in Scotland
• 597 - Augustine reaches Kent, beginning mission to the English
• 604 - Death of Pope Gregory the Great
• 627 - Conversion of King Edwin of Northumbria
• 664 - Synod of Whitby
• 673 - Bede's birth near Jarrow in Northumbria
• 674 - Wearmouth (St. Peter's) founded by Benedict Biscop
• 680 - Bede becomes oblate at Wearmouth
• 681 - Jarrow (St. Paul's) founded
• 692 - Bede ordained a deacon at age 19
• 702 - Bede ordained a priest at age 30
• 703 - Bede writes his first works
• 710 - Ceolfrith's letter to the Picts concerning Easter
• 716 - Ceolfrith leaves Jarrow for Rome with the Codex Amiatinus
• 731 - Bede completes his Ecclesiastical History of the English People
• 734 - Bede's letter to Bishop Egbert, dated Nov. 4
• 735 - Bede's death on May 25
• 794 - Vikings attack Jarrow
• 1899 - Bede is declared a Doctor of the Church

Summary:

As discussed in our St. Patrick episode, Britain struggled after the Roman military left. Germanic tribes called the Angles and Saxons soon took advantage of the situation, perhaps after originally being invited as mercenaries to protect the Britons left behind by the Romans. The Pagan Angles and Saxons forced the Christian Britons toward the western side of Britain (Wales and Cornwall now) and carved out several new kingdoms for themselves in the south-eastern part of Britain, such as Kent, Mercia, and Northumbria, to name only a few. The conversion of the newcomers did not get well underway for another century and a half, which is the story Bede tells in his Ecclesiastical History.

Although Anglo-Saxon England seems to have been unstable and often violent, Bede himself lived a quiet life as a priest and scholar at the monastery of Jarrow from a young age until his death. He was probably born about 673 close to Jarrow, located in the northern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. He was sent to Wearmouth at age 7 to be educated. The monastery of St. Peter at Wearmouth had been founded relatively recently by a nobleman named Benedict Biscop, the community's first abbot, who travelled to Rome several times in his life and was enthusiastic about implementing what he learned there. Probably Bede left Wearmouth with Ceolfrith and others when the associated monastery of St. Paul was founded at Jarrow.

A plague seems to have swept the community at some point in Bede's childhood, leaving only the abbot Ceolfrith and a child (possibly Bede himself) well enough to chant the Psalter. Later in life, when Ceolfrith left Jarrow for a pilgrimage to Rome, Bede compared Ceolfrith to Eli, the priest to whom Hannah entrusted her child Samuel (Bede in this analogy). Ceolfrith died on the journey, but his gift to the pope, the Codex Amiatinus, survives to the present day. It was a rare single-volume version of the Bible created by Bede and his fellow monks.

Bede was ordained a deacon at the age of 19, then a priest at 30. He may never have ventured outside of his native Northumbria. (Ward, Give Love and Receive the Kingdom, ch. 2). He seems to have corresponded with people throughout Britain, gathering local information for his history of the English church.

Bede left behind a numerous books, including his landmark Ecclesiastical History of the English People, as well as other historical works and Biblical commentaries. In his Ecclesiastical History, completed in 731, he tells the story of how Roman Britain became Anglo-Saxon England, then how the Anglo-Saxons came to be Christianized by missionaries like Augustine of Canterbury (an Italian who later became bishop of Canterbury) and Bishop Aidan.

Here is a basic sketch of the Ecclesiastical History:

• Book I - Roman Britain is Christianized, but then overrun by the Pagan Angles and Saxons. Pope Gregory the Great sends missionaries led by Augustine of Canterbury, who reaches Kent in 597.
• Book II - Christianity spreads from Kent to Northumbria, where King Edwin is converted by Bishop Paulinus. King Edwin is killed in battle against the Pagan Mercians and Britons, so a fresh start is needed.
• Book III - King Oswald of Northumbria invites Bishop Aidan from Iona and Christianity spreads in Northumbria again. Irish and Roman influences begin to conflict, leading to Synod of Whitby.
• Book IV - Theodore becomes bishop of Canterbury and applies Synod of Whitby decisions in favor of Roman customs to the rest of the English church. A generation of saintly church leaders is discussed: Abbess Hilda, St. Cuthbert, Etheldreda, and the poet Caedmon.
• Book V - Bede turns his attention back to Northumbria, describing for example Bishop Wilfrid and Bishop John of York, who ordained Bede. A consensus is reached in favor of Roman customs (especially Easter). Bede includes Ceolfrith's letter to the Picts on celebration of Easter and concludes with an autobiographical note.

The unfamiliar names and sometimes unpredictable arrangement of material can make reading the Ecclesiastical History a challenge, but there are also many inspiring and colorful lives presented by Bede. Were it not for Bede, most of what we know about the poet Caedmon, Bishop Aidan, and Abbess Hilda would be lost to history. (See Ecclesiastical History, notes to p. 243, on p. 372) Bede's history is filled with tension between the old Paganism and Christianity, violent politics and religion, and the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon churches. Especially important is the conflict over the celebration of Easter and the proper form of the tonsure, issues which reach a head at the Synod of Whitby and are finally resolved in favor of unified adoption of the Roman customs by the end of Bede's book.

Bede also describes how St. Gregory the Great made crucial decisions as Pope to convert the barbarians who had settled in what was left of the Western empire and to try to baptize their cultures (cleansed of Paganism) instead of insisting on full rejection of their own traditions. (See Ecclesiastical History, Book I.30, p. 91-92 and notes p. 365) This decision set the stage for the conversion of pre-Christian holidays and customs we talked about back in our first episode on Dia de los Muertos.

An important legacy of Bede is how he helped shape the study of history. He made clear what sources he was relying on and helped to popularize the "year of our lord" (A.D./B.C.) system of dating events chronologically. (Ward, Give Love and Receive the Kingdom, ch. 2) While we moderns may take chronology for granted, agreement over the order of events and a system of dating should be appreciated as a major achievement. Bede also believed that a historian should faithfully transmit the traditions of the people (while still carefully noting sources and their reliability) and present history as an inspiration for living a holy life.

Bede's death on May 25, 735 is recounted by his student Cuthbert. He had been suffering from difficulty breathing for some time and had just finished dictating a book to a fellow monk. Earlier in the day he had distributed a few personal "treasures" : some pepper, handkerchiefs, and incense. (Cuthbert's Letter, p. 359). He asked his scribe to help him position himself near his personal area for prayer, seated on the floor of his monastic cell, and then peacefully passed away chanting "Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

St. Bede was not officially canonized, since he lived and died before the process had become very formalized, but he has been recognized as a saint since the Middle Ages. In 1899 he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII. His feast day is celebrated on May 25.

Sources:

• The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede, with Introduction by D. H. Farmer, Trans. by Leo Sherley-Price, Notes by D. H. Farmer, Revised by Ronald Latham (Penguin, 1991).
• The Cambridge Companion to Bede, edited by Scott DeGregorio (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010) - Contains wide range of essays on all things Bede and a useful table of chronology, which we used in the brief chronology above. Especially recommended is the essay "British and Irish Contexts".
• The World of Bede by Peter Hunter Blair (St. Martin's Press, 1970).

• Give Love and Receive the Kingdom: The Essential People and Themes of English Spirituality by Sr. Benedicta Ward (Paraclete Press, 2018).
• The Early Church by Henry Chadwick (Penguin Books, Revised Edition 1993) - See Ch. 17 "The Church and the Barbarians" for background on Pope Gregory the Great.

Intro Music Credit:
*Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)!