Another Book Endeth

While in Colchester a while back I obtained, at half the £3 price, an aged version of Bede's 'History of the English Church and People.'  £1:50 in my view was a decent price although the original price was six shillings when reprinted in 1960!  Six shillings is worth today Thirty Pence! How come old things are worth more as time passes yet you and I appear to be worth less? From today I am going to wear a price tag!

Bede was born in the year 672 or 3 near the modern day town of Sunderland in England's green and pleasant north east.  At least it was green and pleasant at the time!  It is possible he came from a 'noble' family who wished him to enter the monastery as monks were influential at the time.  Several women, of similar backgrounds became Abbess's and highly influential in the politics of the day.  His life otherwise would have been as a Saxon noble a very fraught lifestyle.  
Bede, who called himself 'Beada' when he wrote, his name being altered to Bede by time and language. He entered the monastery at Monkwearmouth when seven years of age and worked between there and the later monastery at Jarrow for the rest of his life.  He did however travel to York and Lindesfarne and it is possible he travelled further.  The only means at the time being horse, boat or feet!   His life, which he clearly enjoyed, was one of study, teaching, writing, and the monks daily routine.  Bede died on Thursday, 26 May 735 (Ascension Day), aged 62.

Bede was committed to his study and he was certainly in the right place, the library at the monastery contained around two hundred books, an enormous amount for the time, and these covered both religious and classic authors. Bede wrote scientific and historical works as well as theological.  His books also covered music, something that was very important to the monks, grammar and chronology. New music arrived from Rome and this had to be taught to the monks throughout the land.  He knew Greek and wrote is readable Latin
His best known work is of course his 'History.'
There is a slight problem to begin with here, the book is titled 'English Church and People,' but this requires some explanation.  Bede was an Anglo Saxon, an incomer after the Romans had left around the four hundreds.  To Bede these Saxons, divided into several realms, were the 'English.' When he talks of the 'British' he refers to those living in the west, usually Wales.  The 'Scots' are of course Irish and the Scots Christians originate from Iona, an Abbey begun by Columba many years before.  Those from Scotland were of course Picts, a people who have disappeared from sight, although their DNA still hangs about many Scots ('Scots' Scots that is).  The Scots religion is almost identical with the Roman version brought later by Augustine to Canterbury but Bede spends an inordinate amount of time to ensure they get the 'correct' date for Easter!
Simple really when you think about it.

Wiki

Bede is keen to record the Kings who became Christian, that is Roman Catholic. Those that do are praised as noble, those that do not are seen as bad pagans. Bede tends to a bias against Mercia possibly a bias caused by the Mercian's unhappy habit of attacking his people.  The Kings appear to be happy to war with one another whether 'Christian' or not it appears to me.  The job of being King tends to involve a lot of war, and there was a lot of war in Saxon times.  
The 'History' was completed in the year 731 and begins with a geographical account and a history dating from Caesar's invasion.  Christian Roman Britain, St Alban, and Augustine are covered, the latter bringing Christianity to the Anglo Saxons.  Bede covers Penda, Edwin, the Council of Whitby where the Scots (from Ireland) lost out to Rome, and on up to his own day which he leaves tantalisingly as he has no way of knowing what the future will bring for his people.  

Bede's Christianity is very Roman Catholic.  His admiration for Rome, a place he is unlikely to have visited, is clear.  This is surprising as his knowledge was great yet he finds no conflict between being a 'priest' and no such role being found in the New Testament!  His obedience to Rome removes such questions from his mind.  Throughout when he informed of a miracle, some of which are interesting, others somewhat dubious, he appears to accept them without comment.  Possibly he merely adds them as this was what those in his day accepted as fact. These are often accompanied by an explanation that the story originated with someone honest. Some do appear unlikely but for myself I have found such things, moments where God works in the lives of those around us, and why should he not?  At times the narration appears to consist of who was Bishop, when they died and who replaced them.  This can be wearing after a while. The historian will find this useful but it makes for poor reading.  One Bishop looks like any other to me.  The same can be said of the Kings.  Names arise and fall, first in one area then another, some become famous others are soon forgotten.  Those that return to paganism are seen to die soon afterwards, those that stay 'faithful' die glorious deaths or are killed by wicked people.       

I confess this was a disappointing book for me.  It would be wrong to expect a history similar to those published today however the listing of peoples while useful is somewhat drab.  Too much concern for the 'correct' date Easter and almost nothing about the daily lives of the people outside of the monastery walls.  To both nobles and monks the people were the lower orders and their absence except when being preached at tells us something of the separation of the important people from the common. This is not what Christianity should offer!  
For those interested in the 'dark days' of the Anglo Saxons this is a must read. We know so little, although much is being discovered daily, that Bede shines a light into the world later vanquished by the Norman invasion of 1066. The world of monks, often in freezing conditions, writing their books, often wonderful pieces of art, the fields farmed by those possibly on subsistence levels, the wars, the Vikings, the rich jewels of the royalty, and the land.  Land used mostly for farming with the cold North Sea in the background.  Even today the north of Northumbria near Lindisfarne is quite empty and to me always an attractive area.  I wonder however how empty the land was in the seven hundreds?  Small huts would adorn the land, villages and towns would prosper, and many travelled the highways, covering many miles, whatever the weather. Not sufficient tales are told of these people by Bede, most of his tales come from within monastery and Abbey walls.  I feel this is a lack indeed. 

Bede may not have known this but he was recognised for his scholarship in 1899 when he was declared by Rome as a 'Doctor of the Church,' the only 'Englishman' named thus.


Bede  :  Durham Tomb  :  Bede's World

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