Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: An Introduction and Selection

184 Pages·2012·0.985 MB·English

by  Rowan Williams, Benedicta Ward

Bede’s ecclesiastical
History of tHe
englisH PeoPle

Bede’s
ecclesiastical
History of tHe
englisH PeoPle
An Introduction and Selection by
rowan williams
and
Benedicta ward slg
First published in Great Britain 2012
Copyright © Rowan Williams and Benedicta Ward
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Dedication
In loving memory of Donald Allchin:
Ante omnia diuinae caritatis igne feruidus,
patientiae uirtute modestus,
orationum deuotioni sollertissime intentus,
adfabilis omnibus qui ad se consolationis gratia ueniebant.
Above all, he was aflame with the fire of divine love,
unassuming in his patience,
eager and practised in his devotion to prayer,
kind and courteous to all who came to him for
spiritual comfort.
Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book IV.26 [28]

contents
Part one
Introduction by Rowan Williams 1
Further reading 33
Part two
Selected texts from The Ecclesiastical History of the English
People, translated by Benedicta Ward SLG 35
Index of Names and Places 171

Part one
introduction
Rowan Williams
1. Bede’s context and purpose
Between 400 and 700ce, the cultural and political complexion
of Western Europe changed dramatically. By 700, there was no
‘superpower’ in the region; the Roman Empire in the West had
dissolved, and no single political unit had replaced it.1 The Emperor
in Constantinople represented a nominal continuity, but he had no
direct political control west of the Adriatic (although he and the
culture he embodied could still exercise a very strong imaginative
pull, as the history of the ninth and tenth centuries in Western
Europe would show). Rome was now above all the city in which the
Pope resided, the focus of Church life in a Europe where Christianity