Ecclesiastical History of the English People

writing the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, from a codex at Engelberg Abbey, Switzerland. The , or An Ecclesiastical History of the English People, is Bede's best-known work, completed in about 731. The first of the five books begins with some geographical background and then sketches the history of England, beginning with Julius Caesar's invasion in 55 BC. A brief account of Christianity in Roman Britain, including the martyrdom of St Alban, is followed by the story of Augustine's mission to England in 597, which brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons. The second book begins with the death of Gregory the Great in 604, and follows the further progress of Christianity in Kent and the first attempts to evangelise Northumbria. These encountered a setback when Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, killed the newly Christian Edwin of Northumbria at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in about 632. The climax of the third book is the account of the Council of Whitby, traditionally seen as a major turning point in English history. The fourth book begins with the consecration of Theodore as Archbishop of Canterbury, and recounts Wilfrid's efforts to bring Christianity to the kingdom of Sussex. The fifth book brings the story up to Bede's day, and includes an account of missionary work in Frisia, and of the conflict with the British church over the correct dating of Easter. The preface mentions that Ceolwulf received an earlier draft of the book; presumably, Ceolwulf knew enough Latin to understand it, and he may even have been able to read it. The preface makes it clear that Ceolwulf had requested the earlier copy, and Bede had asked for Ceolwulf's approval; this correspondence with the king indicates that Bede's monastery had excellent connections among the Northumbrian nobility. ==Scope==

Divided into five books (totalling about 400 pages), the Historia covers the history of England, ecclesiastical and political, from the time of Julius Caesar to the date of its completion in 731. • Book 1 Late Roman Republic to AD 603 • Book 2 AD 604–633 • Book 3 AD 633–665 • Book 4 AD 664–698 • Book 5 AD 687–731 The first twenty-one chapters cover the time period before the mission of Augustine; compiled from earlier writers such as Orosius, Gildas, Prosper of Aquitaine, the letters of Pope Gregory I and others, with the insertion of legends and traditions. After 596, documentary sources that Bede took pains to obtain throughout England and from Rome are used, as well as oral testimony, which he employed along with critical consideration of its authenticity. ==Sources==

The Ecclesiastical History has a clear polemical and didactic purpose. Bede sets out not just to tell the story of the English, but to advance his views on politics and religion. In political terms he is a partisan of his native Northumbria, amplifying its role in English history over and above that of Mercia, its great southern rival. He takes greater pains in describing events of the seventh century, when Northumbria was the dominant Anglo-Saxon power than the eighth, when it was not. The only criticism he ventures of his native Northumbria comes in writing about the death of King Ecgfrith in fighting the Picts at Nechtansmere in 685. Bede attributes this defeat to God's vengeance for the Northumbrian attack on the Irish in the previous year. For while Bede is loyal to Northumbria he shows an even greater attachment to the Irish and their missionaries, whom he considers to be far more effective and dedicated than their rather complacent English counterparts. His final preoccupation is over the precise date of Easter, which he writes about at length. It is here, and only here, that he ventures some criticism of St Cuthbert and the Irish missionaries, who celebrated the event, according to Bede, at the wrong time. In the end he is pleased to note that the Irish Church was saved from error by accepting the correct date for Easter. ==Models==

Bede's stylistic models included some of the same authors from whom he drew the material for the earlier parts of his history. His introduction imitates the work of Orosius, Bede also followed Eusebius in taking the Acts of the Apostles as the model for the overall work: where Eusebius used the Acts as the theme for his description of the development of the church, Bede made it the model for his history of the Anglo-Saxon church. Bede quoted his sources at length in his narrative, as Eusebius had done. Bede's work as hagiographer, and his detailed attention to dating were both useful preparations for the task of writing the Historia Ecclesiastica. His interest in computus, the science of calculating the date of Easter, was also useful in the account he gives of the controversy between the British and Anglo-Saxon church over the correct method of obtaining the Easter date. ==Themes==

One of the important themes of the Historia Ecclesiastica is that the conversion of Britain to Christianity had all been the work of Irish and Italian missionaries, with no efforts made by the native Britons. This theme was developed from Gildas' work, which denounced the sins of the native rulers during the invasions, with the elaboration by Bede that the invasion and settlement of Britain by the Angles and Saxons was God's punishment for the lack of missionary effort and the refusal to accept the Roman date for celebrating Easter. Although Bede discusses the history of Christianity in Roman Britain, it is significant that he ignores the missionary work of St Patrick. He writes approvingly of Aidan and Columba, who came from Ireland as missionaries to the Picts and Northumbrians, but disapproved of the failure of the Welsh to evangelize the invading Anglo-Saxons. Bede was a partisan of Rome, regarding Gregory the Great, rather than Augustine, as the true apostle of the English. Likewise, in his treatment of the conversion of the invaders, any native involvement is minimized, such as when discussing Chad of Mercia's first consecration, when Bede mentions that two British bishops took part in the consecration, thus invalidating it. No information is presented on who these two bishops were or where they came from. Also important is Bede's view of the conversion process as an upper-class phenomenon, with little discussion of any missionary efforts among the non-noble or royal population. Another view, taken by historian D. H. Farmer, is that the theme of the work is "the progression from diversity to unity". According to Farmer, Bede took this idea from Gregory the Great and illustrates it in his work by showing how Christianity brought together the native and invading races into one church. Farmer cites Bede's intense interest in the schism over the correct date for Easter as support for this argument, and also cites the lengthy description of the Synod of Whitby, which Farmer regards as "the dramatic centre-piece of the whole work." The historian Walter Goffart says of the Historia that many modern historians find it a "tale of origins framed dynamically as the Providence-guided advance of a people from heathendom to Christianity; a cast of saints rather than rude warriors; a mastery of historical technique incomparable for its time; beauty of form and diction; and, not least, an author whose qualities of life and spirit set a model of dedicated scholarship." Goffart also feels that a major theme of the Historia is local, Northumbrian concerns, and that Bede treated matters outside Northumbria as secondary to his main concern with northern history. Goffart sees the writing of the Historia as motivated by a political struggle in Northumbria between a party devoted to Wilfrid, and those opposed to Wilfrid's policies. Much of the "current" history in the Historia is concerned with Wilfrid, who was a bishop in Northumbria and whose stormy career is documented not only in Bede's works but in a Life of Wilfrid. A theme in Bede's treatment of Wilfrid is the need to minimize the conflict between Wilfrid and Theodore of Tarsus, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was involved in many of Wilfrid's difficulties. The Historia Ecclesiastica includes many accounts of miracles and visions. These were de rigueur in medieval religious narrative, but Bede appears to have avoided relating the more extraordinary tales; and, remarkably, he makes almost no claims for miraculous events at his own monastery. ==Bede's sparrow==

One of the most famous sections is the parable of the sparrow. In 627 King Edwin of Northumbria was converted to Christianity. In Bede's account, the king held a meeting of his council to discuss acceptance of the new religion. The chief pagan priest, Coifu, declared that he had not had as much favour from the king or success in his undertakings as many other men even though no one had served the gods more faithfully, so he saw that they had no power and he would convert to Christianity. Then a leading councillor spoke: :This is how the present life of man on earth, King, appears to me in comparison with that which is unknown to us. You are sitting feasting with your ealdormen and thegns in winter time; the fire is burning on the hearth in the middle of the hall and all inside is warm, while outside the wintry storms of rain and snow are raging; and a sparrow flies swiftly through the hall. It enters in at one door and quickly flies out through the other. For the few moments it is inside, the storm and wintry tempest cannot touch it, but after the briefest moment of calm, it flits from your sight, out of the wintry storm and into it again. So this life of man appears but for a moment; what follows or indeed what went before, we know not at all. If this new doctrine brings us more certain information, it seems right that we should accept it. ==Omissions and bias==

Bede apparently had no informant at any of the main Mercian religious houses. His information about Mercia came from Lastingham, now in North Yorkshire, and from Lindsey, a province on the borders of Northumbria and Mercia. There were clearly gaps in Bede's knowledge, but Bede also says little on some topics that he must have been familiar with. Only the existence of other sources such as the Life of Wilfrid make it clear what Bede discreetly avoids saying. This veiled comment, another example of Bede's discretion in commenting on current affairs, could be interpreted as ominous given Bede's more specific criticism of quasi-monasteries in his letter to Ecgberht, written three years later. It also was no part of Bede's purpose to describe the kings who did not convert to Christianity in the Historia. ==Anno Domini==

In 725 Bede wrote The Reckoning of Time (), using something similar to the anno Domini era (BC/AD dating system) created by the monk Dionysius Exiguus in 525, continuing to use it throughout Historia Ecclesiastica, becoming very influential in causing that era to be adopted thereafter in Western Europe. Specifically, he used anno ab incarnatione Domini (in the year from the incarnation of the Lord) or anno incarnationis dominicae (in the year of the incarnation of the Lord). He never abbreviated the term like the modern AD. Bede counted anno Domini from Christ's birth, not from Christ's conception. Within this work, he was the first writer to use a term similar to the English before Christ. In book I chapter 2 he used ante incarnationis dominicae tempus (before the time of the incarnation of the Lord). However, the latter was not very influential—only this isolated use was repeated by other writers during the rest of the Middle Ages. The first extensive use of "BC" (hundreds of times) occurred in Fasciculus Temporum by Werner Rolevinck in 1474, alongside years of the world (anno mundi). ==Continuation of Bede==

Some early manuscripts contain additional annalistic entries that extend past the date of completion of the Historia Ecclesiastica, with the latest entry dated 766. No manuscripts earlier than the twelfth century contain these entries, except for the entries for 731 through 734, which do occur in earlier manuscripts. although the surviving manuscripts are predominantly in the West Saxon dialect, it is clear that the original contained Anglian features and so was presumably by a scholar from or trained in Mercia. The translation was once held to have been done by King Alfred of England, but this attribution is no longer accepted, and debate centres on how far it owes its origins to the patronage of Alfred and/or his associates. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the earliest tranche of which was composed/compiled around the same time as the translation was made, drew heavily on the Historia, which formed the chronological framework of the early parts of the Chronicle. ==Assessment and influence==

The Historia Ecclesiastica was copied often in the Middle Ages, and about 160 manuscripts containing it survive. About half of those are located on the European continent, rather than in the British Isles. This total does not include manuscripts with only a part of the work, of which another 100 or so survive. It was printed for the first time between 1474 and 1482, probably at Strasbourg. Modern historians have studied the Historia extensively, and a number of editions have been produced. For many years, early Anglo-Saxon history was essentially a retelling of the Historia, but recent scholarship has focused as much on what Bede did not write as what he did. The belief that the Historia was the culmination of Bede's works, the aim of all his scholarship, a belief common among historians in the past, is no longer accepted by most scholars. The Historia Ecclesiastica has given Bede a high reputation, but his concerns were different from those of a modern writer of history. Likewise, the later medieval writers William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and Geoffrey of Monmouth used his works as sources and inspirations. Early modern writers, such as Polydore Vergil and Matthew Parker, the Elizabethan Archbishop of Canterbury, also utilized the Historia, and his works were used by both Protestant and Catholic sides in the Wars of Religion. Some historians have questioned the reliability of some of Bede's accounts. One historian, Charlotte Behr, asserts that the ''Historia's'' account of the arrival of the Germanic invaders in Kent should be considered as current myth, not history. Historian Tom Holland writes that "When, in the generations that followed Alfred, a united kingdom of England came to be forged, it was Bede's history that provided it with a sense of ancestry that reached back beyond its foundation." ==Manuscript tradition==

Manuscripts of the Historia Ecclesiastica fall generally into two groups, known to historians as the "c-type" and the "m-type". Charles Plummer, in his 1896 edition of Bede, identified six characteristic differences between the two manuscript types. The letters under the "Version" column are identifying letters used by historians to refer to these manuscripts. Relationships between the manuscripts With few exceptions, Continental copies of the Historia Ecclesiastica are of the m-type, while English copies are of the c-type. History of the manuscripts • K appears to have been written in Northumbria in the late 8th century. Only books IV and V survive; the others were probably lost during the Middle Ages. The manuscript bears a 15th-century pressmark of the Abbey of Fulda. ==Printing history==

The first printed copy of the Historia Ecclesiastica appeared from the press of Heinrich Eggestein in Strasbourg, probably between 1475 and 1480. A defect in the text allows the identification of the manuscript Eggestein used; it subsequently appeared in a catalogue of the Vienna Dominicans of 1513. Eggestein had also printed an edition of Rufinus's translation of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, and the two works were reprinted, bound as a single volume, on 14 March 1500 by Georg Husner, also of Strasbourg. Another reprint appeared on 7 December 1506, from Heinrich Gran and S. Ryman at Haguenau. A Paris edition appeared in 1544, and in 1550 John de Grave produced an edition at Antwerp. Two reprints of this edition appeared, in 1566 and 1601. In 1563, Johann Herwagen included it in volume III of his eight-volume Opera Omnia, and this was in turn reprinted in 1612 and 1688. Michael Sonnius produced an edition in Paris in 1587, including the Historia Ecclesiastica in a collection of other historical works; and in 1587 Johann Commelin included it in a similar compilation, printed at Heidelberg. In 1643, Abraham Whelock produced at Cambridge an edition with the Old English text and the Latin text in parallel columns, the first in England. He spent the majority of his time residing in Cambridge, and working on it, but did not live to complete the preparation. His son George brought out in 1722 the Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ Gentis Anglorum Libri Quinque, auctore Venerabili Bæda ... cura et studio Johannis Smith, S. T. P., published by Cambridge University Press. It had the Old English version of the Historia ecclesiastica. Smith's edition is described by David C. Douglas as "an enormous advance" on previous ones, adding that textual criticism of Bede hardly then changed until 1896, when the Plummer edition appeared. Subsequently, the most notable edition was that of Charles Plummer, whose 1896 Venerabilis Bedae Opera Historica, with a full commentary, has been a foundation-stone for all subsequent scholarship. ==Facsimiles and manuscript images==

London, British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius C II, 1st half of 9th century, Latin https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/bedes-ecclesiastical-history-of-the-english-people Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Tanner 10, first half of 10th century, Old English https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/8fb7abbc-bea5-494b-8ed5-34d11c8ce942/surfaces/04b93784-d6fa-4346-852b-724c0d9d7877/ Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 041, c. 11th century, Old English https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/qd527zm3425 Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.16 (The Moore Bede), c.737 https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-KK-00005-00016/1 ==Editions==

• 1475: Heinrich Eggestein, Strasbourg. • 1550: John de Grave, Antwerp. • 1587: Michael Sonnius, Paris. • 1643: Abraham Whelock, Cambridge. • 1722: John Smith, Cambridge. • 1861: Migne, Patrologia Latina (vol. 95), reprint of Smith's edition. • 1896: Charles Plummer (ed.), Venerabilis Baedae Historiam ecclesiasticam gentis Anglorum, Historiam abbatum, Epistolam ad Ecgberctum una cum Historia abbatum auctore anonymo, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896). • 1969: Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (eds.), ''Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969 [corr. repr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991]). • 2005: Michael Lapidge (ed.), Pierre Monat and Philippe Robin (trans.), Bède le Vénérable, Histoire ecclésiastique du peuple anglais = Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Sources chrétiennes, 489–91, 3 volumes (Paris: Cerf, 2005). • 2008–2010: Michael Lapidge (ed.), Paolo Chiesa (trans.), Beda, Storia degli Inglesi = Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Scrittori greci e latini, 2 volumes (Rome/Milan: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla/Arnoldo Mondadori, 2008–2010). Complete critical apparatus. Translations • Late ninth century: an anonymous, abbreviated translation, possibly at the suggestion of Alfred the Great. • 1565: Thomas Stapleton (Antwerp: John Laet, at the signe of the Rape) full text. • 1723: John Stevens (London: J. Batley at the Dove in Paternoster Row, and T. Meighan in Drury Lane) full text • 1845: John Allen Giles (London: James Bohn) full text. • 1866: M. M. Wilden. Kirchengeschichte des englischen Volkes (Schaffhausen: Hurter). • 1903: Lionel Cecil Jane (London: J.M. Dent, Temple Classics) full text. • 1907: A. M. Sellar (London: George Bell & Sons) full text. • 1910: Vida Dutton Scudder (London: J.M. Dent) full text. • 1955: Leo Sherley-Price (Penguin, reprinted with revisions 1965, revised 1968, revised 1990) full text. • 1969: Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, reprint with corrections 1992) bilingual full text; English full text. • 1982: Günter Spitzbart (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft). • 1989: Chen Wei-zhen & Zhou Qing-min (Beijing: Commercial Press, 1st ed 1991). • 1995: Philippe Delaveau, Histoire ecclésiastique du peuple anglais (Paris: Gallimard). • 1999: Olivier Szerwiniack, Florence Bourgne, Jacques Elfassi, Mathieu Lescuyer, and Agnès Molinier, Histoire ecclésiastique du peuple anglais (Paris: Les Belles Lettres). • 2003: Vadim Erlikhman, Церковная история народа англов (Saint-Petersburg: Алетейя). • 2005: Pierre Monat and Philippe Robin, Histoire ecclésiastique du peuple anglais, notes by André Crépin, ed. Michael Lapidge (Paris: Cerf). • 2008: Hirosi Takahashi (Tokyo: Kodansha). • 2008: Jaromír Kincl and Magdaléna Moravová, Církevní dějiny národa Anglů (Prague: Argo). • 2009: Paolo Chiesa, Storia degli Inglesi, ed. M. Lapidge (Milan: Fondazione Valla-Arnoldo Mondadori). • 2015: Bogdan Kolar and Miran Sajovic, Cerkvena zgodovina ljudstva Anglov (Celje: Mohorjeva družba). ==See also==