History of the English People | Venerable Bede

n More details about Bede: Frank A. James III, “When God Came to England” Christian History (2001)

Plot Summary

A generally reliable history of the English people from the invasion of Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. to 730s A.D.

Author and Date

• Venerable Bede
• 730s A.D.
• popularizes use of A.D.

Historical Background

55 B.C. – Julius Caesar conquers England and brings further civ. to Celts

- encounters Druid culture

- Caesar did little more than establish a foothold on the island

43 AD. - Britain officially became a frontier province of the Empire with the invasion of the emperor Claudius' troops

- cities founded

- Roman stone roads

- First century garrison in NW England

o July 8 (AP story): “Fine armor and jewelry and fancy imported tuna fish. Even for soldiers at one of the Roman Empire's most remote outposts, life was apparently not without its luxuries…there was a large jar containing an exotic fish paste made of tuna, dates, honey, vinegar, spices and herbs, a delicacy that Roman officers in particular liked to eat with hard-boiled eggs.”

o “…black-and-white gaming counters which suggest soldiers played a game similar to modern checkers.”

o “…the garrison ate sheep, cattle, pigs, deer and birds. Plant remains show that dill and coriander were also on the Roman menu.”

Celts live in peace for centuries in Ireland or Scottish highlands, as RE never gets that far

• Had lived in Galatia, where may have seen and heard St. Paul and his Epistle to the Galatians

R. Empire crumbles and Rom. Legions withdrawn from England

• Had been there almost as long ago as when Columbus discovered America
• Celts thus powerless before Anglo-Saxons and other invaders
• Christianity gained a foothold in Britain by the mid-second century
• Tertullian: Christians in Britain in 208
• St. Alban dies in persecution of Diocletian (r. 284-305)
• British bishops attend Council of Sardica (347)

449 A.D. – Anglo-Saxons from Germans, Denmark, and the Netherlands invade England

- blue eyes

- fair skin

- common language (Anglo-Saxon)

- crush higher Celtic civ.

- Destroy monestaries, etc.

- King Arthur – Celtic king who fights in vain against A-S invaders

- Celts pushed to north and west of island

- A-Ss have lower classes (slaves and peasants) who do most of farming and domestic work

- Upper class men (thanes or free warriors) were king’s consultants and who obey king in times of battle; often relatives or good friends of king

- Loud existence – heavy drinking, disputes, fights, braggarts

- The flyting – bragging contest between two warriors

- A-S warriors are plain-spoken and straightforward

o Like Mainers?

- loyalty to king

597 A.D. – Christian missionaries come to England from Rome and Ireland (which had been Christian for a hundred years thanks to St. Patrick and others)

- Augustine is first Archbishop of Canterbury

- uneven results

- A dominant Anglo-Saxon king in South, Ethelbert, was converted after marrying a German princess

- “officially” Christian by 700 A.D.

- still, large pockets of paganism or Christian veneer

- superstitions, charms, and legends of old heathen gods persist

- monestaries founded and their influence spreads to the populace

o monks start writing in Latin, but then begin writing in English

793 A.D. – A few decades after Bede’s death, the Vikings attack England’s coast

Bede’s Life

• Bede himself tells us virtually all we know about him

• Born 672 or 673 A.D. at “the monastery of the blessed apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, which is at Wearmouth and at Jarrow [in Northumberland]”
• In 686, the plague hits – every monk except Bede and one other die
• “[A]t the age of seven I was, by the care of my relations, given to the most reverend Abbot Benedict [St. Benedict Biscop], and afterwards to Ceolfrid, to be educated.”
• “From that time I have spent the whole of my life within that monastery, devoting all my pains to the study of the Scriptures, and amid the observance of monastic discipline and the daily charge of singing in the Church, it has been ever my delight to learn or teach or write.”
• Probably lived in a small cell
• Met with his fellow monks seven times a day and once a night to sing or read the Scriptures
• Divided his time between work and study of Latin, Greek, Roman law, chant, mathematecial calculation, and the zodiac
• Wrote OT and NT commentaries
• Also books on grammar, computation, and lives of the saints
• Spent many hours copying manuscripts – no printing press at this time
• “In my nineteenth year I was admitted to the diaconate, in my thirtieth to the priesthood, both by the hands of the most reverend Bishop John [St. John of Beverley], and at the bidding of Abbot Ceolfrid.”
• “From the time of my admission to the priesthood to my present fifty-ninth year, I have endeavored for my own use and that of my brethren, to make brief notes upon the holy Scripture, either out of the works of the venerable Fathers or in conformity with their meaning and interpretation.”
• Did occasionally leave the monestary, but not very often
• Died 735 A.D. just as he finished dictating a translation of the Gospel of John
• "I can with truth declare that I never saw with my eyes or heard with my ears anyone return thanks so unceasingly to the living God." – Cuthbert
• Became ‘Venerable’ within two generations after his death

Themes

- Begins with a picture of England as something of a Garden of Eden

- Amazing history of the English people

- Role of monasteries

- Christian missionaries

- Old vs. new beliefs – coexistence or competition?

- The miraculous in the conversion of the continent

- Others?

Home