The Battle for England Bedes Bias The Ecclesiastical History of the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
The Battle for England Bedes Bias The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) Third-generation Christian Oblate who barely left his monastery Romanist Anglo-Saxon Writes history as a victor Knowledge of
▶ The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) ▶ Third-generation Christian ▶ Oblate who barely left his monastery ▶ Romanist ▶ Anglo-Saxon ▶ Writes history as a victor ▶ Knowledge of popular religion questionable ▶ Downplays British role in Anglo-Saxon Christianization
Figure: Iona Abbey c. 1899 (public domain: source)
▶ 563: Columba founds the monastery of Iona ▶ 634 Aidan of Iona founds the monastery of Lindisfarne
Figure: Iona and Lindisfarne (public domain: source)
Figure: Lindisfarne Castle (CC-BY: source)
Figure: Lindisfarne Priory (CC-BY: source)
Figure: Canterbury Cathedral (CC-BY: source)
▶ Britannia the only remaining pagan province of old Rome ▶ Æthelberht of Kent had married the Frankish Christian Bertha ▶ Frankish rivalry (Childeberht II vs. Bertha’s house)
▶ The sources speak of top-down conversion
▶ Rulers may have been drawn to the Church’s infrastructure
▶ Universal religions favour political consolidation and expansion ▶ Irish Christianity strongly monastic, apolitical, anarchic, personal ▶ Synod of Whitby
▶ Oswiu of Bernicia had lost control over Mercia ▶ His son Alhfrith may have called the synod to ally the Bernician
dynasty with the new Roman bishopric in Mercia and improve his
Figure: Northumbria (public domain: source)
The missionary perspective
▶ Christianity is monolithic ▶ Baptism defines the convert ▶ Radical change of world view
The convert’s perspective?
▶ Christianity is polythetic ▶ Baptism is just a rite ▶ Little to no effect on world
view
The first commanders are said to have been the two brothers Hengist and Horsa. […] They were the sons of Victgilsus, whose father was Vitta, son of Vecta, son of Woden; from whose stock the royal race of many provinces trace their descent. (HE 1.15) ”
Ða wæs agangen fram cristes acennednesse cccc ⁊ xciiii wintra ða cerdic ⁊ cynric his sunu coman upp æt cerdices oran mid v
giwis wiging, Wig freawining, Freawine freoþogaring, Freoþogar branding, Brand bældæging, Bældæg wodening. (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Preface)
Figure: East Anglian Royal Genealogy (public domain: source)
Brooks, Nicholas. “From British to English Christianity: Deconstructing Bede’s Interpretation of the Conversion”. Conversion and Colonization in Anglo-Saxon England. Ed. Catherine E. Karkov and Nicholas Howe. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 318. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006. 1–30. Print. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 318. Cavill, Paul. Anglo-Saxon Christianity: Exploring the Earliest Roots of Christian Spirituality in England. London: Fount, 1999. Print. Chaney, William A. The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970. Print. Dumville, David N. “The Anglian Collection of Royal Genealogies and Regnal Lists”. Anglo-Saxon England 5 (1976): 23–50. Print. Dunn, Marilyn. The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons c. 597–c. 700: Discourses of Life, Death and Afterlife. London: Continuum, 2009. Print.
Higham, N. J. The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997. Print. Markus, R. A. “The Chronology of the Gregorian Mission to England: Bede’s Narrative and Gregory’s Correspondence”. Journal of Ecclesiastical History 14 (1963): 16–30. Print. Niles, John D. “Pagan Survivals and Popular Belief”. The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Ed. Malcolm Godden and Michael Lapidge. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 120–136. Print.