The World of Bede

The impact of the Anglo-Saxon migration upon England’s socio-religious history is undisputed. What is perhaps surprising in the Anglo-Saxon case is how rapidly their religious conversion took place. We hear from the Venerable Bede (c.672-735), writing shortly after the Northumbrian conversion, how when King Edwin (son of Ælle) converted in 625, a pagan priest named Coifi rushed off to desecrate his own temple by throwing a spear into it. Indeed, the Anglo-Saxons appeared only too eager at times to take up the religion they so often defeated.

Bede was the father of English history. He gives us the history of his people; we see the life of Cuthbert, the Synod of Whitby, the life of Aidan, letters from Gregory to the new mission in Kent headed by Augustine; indeed Bede exposes for us dates and names, primary sources of current events. His accuracy is astounding, his learning triumphal. In the preface to his celebrated work the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, he warns that “should the reader discover any inaccuracies in what I have written, I humbly beg that he will not impute them to me, because, as the true law of history requires, I have laboured honestly to transmit whatever I could ascertain from common report for the instruction of posterity.” This preface, notes Donald Logan, “has almost a modern ring to it.” It is sincere to a scientific method, surprising in the current early medieval atmosphere.

While residing at Biscop’s monastery in Jarrow, Bede had access to a phenomenal body of work which he used to write his Ecclesiastical History and numerous other scholarly, historical works. It was in Jarrow that Bede lived the bulk of his life, and it was there that he popularized the anno Domini system of dating, ending the older Diocletian reference which was outdated, as it established time from a point of persecution. “It is one measure of Bede’s greatness that he was the first writer to adopt it as the regular chronological basis of a major historical work.” Indeed this system of dating can perhaps be viewed as one of the greatest and most lasting achievements to come out of Jarrow, again because of Bede. The way we consider time influences the way we relate to it; marking zero with the point of Jesus’ birth was likening history itself to the life of one man, or God if you see it that way. It was a constant reminder of the consciousness they shared.

The ‘renaissance’ surrounding Bede’s world was the culmination of numerous factors. Its primary influence was Roman, but the Celtic/Germanic force acted like Wayland himself, forging a new ring out of the gold of nations. This new ring was the prodigious nature of Bede’s work; it was the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. It was the interlaced birds, as Hunter-Blair pointed out, surrounding the illuminated gospels. It was Bede’s life of St. Cuthbert, in 46 chapters, representing a perfected hagiography.

Of course, it wasn't Bede who produced the illuminated manuscript called the Lindisfarne Gospels, but its creator, a monk named Eadfrith, was his contemporary and lived only a few miles north of Jarrow on the isle of Lindisfarne. Here are some sample pages of the text itself.






For more about Bede and the Northumbrian renaissance, check out the work of Bede himself, as he is the primary source for the events of his age. His Life of St. Cuthbert is extremely enjoyable, and is highly recommended.