Literature & Theology, Vol. 17. No. 3, September 2003, pp.

227-243

REASSESSING

EXEGETICAL

INTERPRETATIONS
HISTORIA

OF

BEDE'S

ECCLESIASTICA

GENTIS

ANGLORUM
Sharon

M.

Rowley

Abstract
This
to

essay

exegetical
the

exegetical
and

miracle
Bede's

these

begins

to

example

of how

as an

of Edwin
of Edwin
allow

episodes

world.

the

defy

his

us

to see

its own

properties,

concepts

that are

how

and

to

sense

look

uses

the

of

beyond

miracles

of

this
to

discuss

to

Casdmon's
contrasts

essay

Bede's

question
in

ways

which

at work.

historian,

INTRODUCTION

the

world

indexed

may

then

Bede'S

Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum {HE,

of information

the

intractable.

prove

It can

well

to it.'1

sources

about

also

Bede

of Oswald

of history

Bede's

discussion

to work,

ought

as an

Bede,

to
should

a brief

account

as a saint-king,

I.

'Having

After

miracles

with

construction

scholars

understand

better

the

Bede's
according

modem

analysis,

paradigm

in

miracles

reading

understand

account

presentation

of miracles

role

while

history

engage

the

explores
that,

argue

settlement

and

Bede
was a monk
(673-735)
England.2
Northumbria. According to the short account

731)

is one

of our primary

conversion

of Anglo-Saxon

of

in
Wearmouth-Jarrow,
of his life that he includes at

the end of the HE, his kinsmen gave him into the care of the monastery at the
age of seven.3 He lived the hfe of a scholar monk, devoting himself to learning,
teaching, and writing. In addition to the HE, which Peter Hunter Blair and
M.L.W.
Laistner agree is 'by universal consent "the supreme example of
Bede's

Bede

genius"

also

wrote

textbooks

on

natural

history

and

the

of Easter, a history of the abbots of Wearmouth-Jarrow, homilies,

and an extensive collection of exegetical works.4 According to Sir Frank

calculation

Stenton, Bede's
information'

greatness derives from his ability to coordinate

from

many

sources,

so

that,

'in

an

age

when

little

'fragments of
was

attempted

Literatlire& Theology 17/3

Oxford University Press 2003; all rights reserved.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

228

BEDE'S

HISTORIA

ECCLESIASTICA

GENTIS

ANGLORUM

beyond the registration of fact, [Bede] had reached the conception of history'.'^
has been
Dorothy Whitelock
points out that Bede's sense of evidence
described as modern, and that his 'historical work has been read continuously
ever since it was written, and it has formed a model for later writers'.6
Bede's inclusion of miracle stories, however, remains one of the key
dilemmas for modem readers. From Charles Plummers
1896 edition of the
Jones and Bertram Colgrave in the mid-twentieth
century, scholars rejected Bede's miracles, often suggesting that Bede himself
knew that they were false.7 More recently, scholars have discussed the
miraculous elements as a part of Bede's medieval Christian world view.8
HE

to the work of C.W.

Within Bede's ideology, miracles provide unequivocal

evidence of God's
active role in human history. As such, miracles constitute the interpretive
cornerstone of the exegetical historiography with which he attempts to
For Bede,
explain all events in history, whether miraculous or mundane.
the status of the English as a chosen people,
whose
to Christianity earns them sovereignty of the island of Britain.
English history, in this framework, is a progression towards the unification of
the island, and the incorporation of the English church and people into the
Church. Flowever, while 'exegetical
larger unity of the universal Roman
miracles

confirm

conversion

an authentically

reading is ...

HE

of the

interpretations

and the unity of Bede's

the

Using

of

to work

supposed
Bede's

miracle

medieval

tend

to

of

mode

of understanding',
on

narrowly

the

exegetical
of miracles

meaning

text within that paradigm.9

as

Caedmon

a concise

with

history,

of

example

this essay explores

in the HE,

construction

focus

focus

primary

miracles

how

are

the role of miracles

on

the

conversion

in
of

King Edwin. I argue that with Casdmon's miracle, as with Oswald's kingship
and relics, Bede presents positive models for the function of the miraculous
and

the interpretation

relation

to

Bede's

of history in the HE.

sense

Augustinian

of

I discuss
and

grace,

in

these miracles

contrast

to

his

in

account

of King Edwin, especially the absence of miracles surrounding his relics in

the HE. Comparing Bede's account of Edwin with the miraculous account
in

the

presentation
these

Earliest

anonymous

of Edwin
allow

episodes

us

Life

of

the

Gregory

Great,

as a saint-king in order to discuss the ways in which

to

see

Bede,

as an

at work.10

historian,

the function of miracles beyond

the exegetical

paradigm

we

historiography

and

can

see

the

seams

of

Bede's

he uses miracles in the HE

II.

Bede's

question

to engage

EXEGETICAL

better

and understand

READINGS

OF

THE

By

exploring

in these episodes,
understand

how

the world.

HE

Robert

Hanning provides one of the earlier and more insightful readings of

the HE as exegetical history in The Vision of History in Early Britain. Flanning

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

SHARON
articulates

the

connection

between

use of the idea that God

account

of

human

M. ROWLEY
and

exegesis

Western

in

history

Bede's

to man, in the biblical record of Israel, an

'gave

actions

229

which

also

illustrates

and

God's

explains

providence and the purpose of history'.11 Hanning argues that Bede bases
his treatment of miracles in history on the model of Eusebius'
Historia
ecclesiastica, rather than the model of Augustine's City of God. As I argue
below, I see the Eusebian dynamic Hanning articulates as being complicated
by Bede's Augustinian sense of grace. In Eusebius' schema, miracles connect
contemporary history with biblical history, enabling
medieval historiography that represents:
a

of

synthesis

national

interpretation...
of Christianity
of Christian

Such

and
social

and

history

a national

history

its beneficent

biblical

of salvation

effects

and

to envision

Hanning

narrative

with

organised

around

realised

in the

its

exegetical

the

typifying

triumph

personages

heroes.12

of the HE
reflects the extent to which Bede's
description
is
and
historiography
unifying
monologic, with the miracles functioning to
confirm the place of the English as a chosen people.
a

According to Hanning, King Oswald typifies the social hero. Oswald,

whose earthly success is 'a sure sign of his piety', frees England from the rule
of apostates and pagans, then unifies the country.13 'From this episode of
national

significance,'

Hanning

reports,

miracles of the martyred king, now

closeness to God as an individual.'14
nature

of

Oswald's

because,

miracles,

'Bede

Hanning

modem

scholars

have

either

to

structure

of

Bede's

history

accepted

to

this

of Oswald's

to

consider

the

which

schema,

address

the

details

sanctity and place in

account

Hanning's

text as an example of a exegetical historiography,

to the HE.
while Hanning
However,
approach
exegetical

at once

prove his
does not discuss the specific

according

are less significant than their confirmation

divine history.
Most

moves

St Oswaldmiracles

of

Bede's

or have taken a similar

uses
the

his study of the

question

of

Bede's

political agenda in portraying the English as a chosen people in the HE,

other historians tend to treat exegetical meaning as an explanation for and
key to the miracles, which they treat as ahistorical despite their prominence
in the HE.

For example, Roger Ray argues that 'we should in all fairness
interpret typical features of the Historia with [Bede's] own biblical ideals
clearly in mind'.13 These ideals, as Benedicta Ward explains, mark the sole
significance of miracles: all miracles cause wonder and 'the wonder is always
subservient to the main issue, which is salvation'.16 Similarly, Paul Meyvaert
asserts

that

a scholar

hangs his 'doctrinal

need

only

thoughts'

analyse

the

'scriptural

pegs'

on

which

Bede

in order to find the 'real key to the inner

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

BEDE'S

230

HISTORIA

GENTIS

ECCLESIASTICA

ANGEORUM

preoccupations of the writer'.17 This approach presumes not only that Bede's
intentions are transparent, but also that both the scriptural pegs and the
doctrinal thoughts will function in the same way in every situation to which
them. At this level, exegetical historicism reinscribes Bede's
unifying historiography rather than analyses it.
Reading Bede's miracles according to the exegetical paradigm limits the
Bede

applies

reading of the HE by asserting the precedence of biblical ideals over miracles

in Anglo-Saxon
as a form of cultural reproduction
England. By setting
miracles apart as having a separate kind of symbolic meaning from the rest of
the text, exegesis fails to examine the miracles as constitutive elements of
the HE.

Kendall

Calvin

and Gail

Ivy Berlin, for example, emphasise the

of miracles in what Kendall calls 'God's

separate, systematic conventionality

rhetoric'.18 They see miracles as having marked meaning within a 'system of
as signs from God.19 The
events generally and traditionally acknowledged'
biblical precedent of the miracle and ecclesiastical authority of the teller, for
any question of evidence for the medieval thinker, whose
of such authority she considers 'simplistic'.20 Such a view of miracles
in the symbolic structures of precedent,
treats them as signs embedded

Berlin, subsume
view

of fact, and uninfluenced by the thought of the

although Ward notes that Caedmon's story is
Ages. Consequently,
also one about poetry and literary criticism, she subordinates those ideas to
unrelated

to any question

Middle

the importance
goodness

of Caedmon's

towards

Bede's

miracles

culture

and

operate

the

English

often
at

have
a

level

miracle
nation'.21

as 'a splendid
As

Seth

in

significance
reflective

of

Lerer

instance
has

argued,

contemporary

their

...

contemporary

of God's
however,

Anglo-Saxon
context.22

reading miracles according to the exegetical paradigm helps explain

Bede's world view, it also renders miracles ahistorical. If miracles always refer
to salvation and Christian authority, they remain separate from local history,
While

genuinely believed in them. Emphasising

the paradigmatic nature of the miracles
and
interpretive orthodoxy
diffuses any question of the truth-value of miracles and ultimately reasserts
even if we acknowledge

that Bede

Bede's
the

status

of Bede

as an

historian

according

to

post-Enlightenment

standards.

For Bede, the meaning of miracles in both contexts remains crucial.

Miracles connect the specific history of England to the universal history of
the Roman Church and Christian eternity. But England also contributes to
universal history as it becomes a part of it, so that by the end of the HE,
when Bede describes the Holy Land from the point of view of Adamnan,
his account of sites of biblical miracles resonates with their analogues in
English history.23 In Islands of History, Marshall Sahlins provides a way to
think about the relationship between eternity and local history that goes
of fact vs. fiction, and past vs.
beyond the classical Western dichotomies
present. According

to Sahlins, 'culture functions as a synthesis of stability and

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

SHARON
and

change,

past

question

is one

humans
the

use

also

always

the

cultural
of

organ

present,

of

of

and

diachrony
between

dialogue

concepts

to

so

that

tradition',

acts

M. ROWLEY

classification.

acts

the
of

For

synchrony'.24
sense

'engage

231

and

'the

First,

reference
each

However,

reference,

world'.

for

human

time

we

the

Sahlins,
the

that

way

is

eye

seeing

are

subjects

and

recognise

identify an event, we do so according to a cultural concept. But in the act of

engaging that concept, we may also change it.25 The key point here for
reading miracles is the way in which 'history is present in current action',
but current action revises cultural meaning. For Sahlins, 'people embed the
in

present

the

when

past'

they

use

cultural

to

concepts

understand

the

world. With each use, however, 'meaning is risked in a cosmos fully capable
of contradicting the symbolic systems that are presumed to describe it', a
dynamic which we will see in the Edwin episodes.26 When Bede's system
works, as we can see in the Caedmon episode, miracles signify both in terms
of biblical history and in terms of English history. Caedmon's gift is where
the local and the universal, old traditions and new learning, English poetry
and salvation history meet.27

III.

In Bede's

GIFTAND

C/DMON'S

THE

OF

QUESTION

GRACE

the gift of song, a secular,

uneducated brother of the Whitby monastery miraculously becomes able to
compose
'extremely delightful and moving poetry, in English'.28 At the
same time Caedmon's
miracle marks the inception of writing Christian
account

of Caedmon's

receiving

history in English, it also provides information about reading history; that is,
about the spiritual significance of interpreting history for Bede. As Caedmon
memorises,

and

ruminates,

verse,

composes

he

Bede's

demonstrates

idea of the transformation of learning into knowl

through the body and leading to spiritual
edge
process
His
metrical
renditions of sacred history not only inspire
enlightenment.29

Benedictine-influenced
as a

enacted

others to despise the world, they tum his teachers into his audience. As they
do so, Caedmon's divinely inspired poems reveal the crucial role of grace in
human

history.

At

the

same

time

that

Caedmon's

gift illustrates

the

power

of

grace, it also marks a tension between the necessity for, but uncertainty of,
and salvation.
Caedmon's
grace in the pursuit of true knowledge
miraculous

in granting
the role of God
recites history, which Bede then records for
of his readers, also calls attention to writing as an act of
as well as to the interplay between
grace and the

enlightenment
That Caedmon

knowledge.
the edification
interpretation,

demonstrates

interpretation of history for Bede.

Because Caedmon's gift allows him to recite accounts
more moving

to his audience

of biblical

than any others has many implications

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

history
about

BEDE'S

232
the

nature

HISTORIA
and

of

power

GENTIS

ECCLESIASTICA
in

grace

the

Bede

text.

ANGLORUM
the

emphasises

role

of

inspiration in his account of Caedmon in such a way as to also mark the

of human study unaided by grace.30 In order to do so, Bede
inadequacy
establishes Caedmon's character to be that of a man uninterested in the study
'had never
of poetry before receiving his gift. He reports that Caedmon
learned

any

and

songs',

that

he

used

to

the harp and sing.31 When Caedmon

melodious and more moving because
It is true
but

that after him

could

none

men

nor

other

a man

through

but

him.
he

the

feast

rather

than

take

up

finally sing, his poetry is more

it is inspired:

Englishmen

with

compare

leave

does

to compose

attempted

For

he

received

did

the

not

learn

gift of song

the

religious

poems,

art of poetry
by the

freely

from
of

grace

God.32

In contrast to many of Bede's healing miracles, which manifest grace in the

health and wholeness of a body, Caedmon's miracle literalises his grace in
language, articulating the relationship between body and soul, as well as
language and meaning in the HE.
body remains instrumental to the production of his miraculous
in
the
same way the body of any monk would, theoretically, be part
poetry
of the process of his study and composition.
Despite his gift, Caedmon
still has to learn history, which he would 'ruminate' over 'like some clean
Caedmon's

animal

cud'.33

the
chewing
Benedictine-influenced

With

this comparison,
Bede
of learning as a process enacted

engages

the

through the
a
animal
the
of
clean
body. Paradoxically, although
image
chewing the cud
an
is an image of complete
it
is
also
physicality,
image of heavenly
and

contemplation

idea

the

search

for

profound

understanding.34

As Jean Leclercq explains in The Love of Learning and the Desire for God,
reading and learning, for the monks, meant reading aloud and meditating on
the

text,

According

to Leclercq,

the fullest

sense

since

mouth

the

intelligence
put

which

process

it into

of the

always

remembering

heart'.

'by

this meant learning in:

expression,

pronounced

which

involved

understands

that is with
it, with

the

its meaning,

one's

whole

body:

memory,

which

and

the

with

will

with

fixes

the body

it, with

which

the

desires

to

practice.35

By beginning at the physical level and moving through the body into the
act of
memory and into the very being of the monk, the wholehearted
becomes
an
enactment
of
the
use
of
the
of
this
world,
reading
proper
things
including history, for spiritual advancement. The thorough reading of a text,
in its ability to lead from the physical to the spiritual, functions, theoretically,
in the same way as a miraculous

healing of a body would

cure the soul.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

M. ROWLEY

SHARON
There

nevertheless

remains

one

233

difference

significant

between

the

physical

practice discussed by LeClerq and Caedmon's gift: the agent. Human agency
or willthe 'desire for god' alonecan
never produce spiritual enlight
enment.

to

According

of study can provide.

is that

study

alone

salvation

Scripture,

No

enough.

which

grace,

matter

how

closely

anyone

imitate Caedmon, that person can never match Caedmon's

his level of enlightenment without grace. Bede's
focus
God

no

amount

a key lesson of the Caedmon's

Consequently,

is not

requires

to the ultimate inadequacy

and salvation without grace.

calls attention

episode
to

attempts

skill nor attain

on

of the human

the gift of
pursuit of

knowledge
Because of Bede's

emphasis on learning through history and the use of the

as
a
means
of
attaining spiritual enlightenment in the HE, Caedmon's
body
the
gift exemplifies
standing tension between grace and free will in Christian
theology. This conflict resurfaces throughout the HE in an underlying
anxiety about the interpretation of events in history. Bede, with Augustine
as a precedent, sees the ability to read correctly as contingent upon, and
reflective of, spiritual enlightenment. The ability to interpret and understand
obscure

of

passages

but

knowledge,

faith and

'the

observes:

Keating

or

Scripture

also

of

senses

events

the

reflects

promise
are

Scripture

not

not

an

just

extensive

only

of salvation.

As

Thomas
and

elaborate

fanciful method

of exegesis: literal, moral, allegorical, and anagogical.

manifest
They
ascending levels of faith and consciousness'.36 This ascending
consciousness forms a motif in the HE, as Bede's sense of history remains
entangled with his Augustinian sense of the moral burden of interpretation.
For Augustine and for Bede, all mundane historical events are part of God's
plan and should be, ultimately, as legible as miracles. Like Scripture, however,
events
to

are

hunger

so

'modulated',
and

the

more

that

'the

obscure

more

places

open
may

places

deter

present
disdainful

themselves
attitude'.37

explains, 'to Augustine, God had expressed Himself in the

like
a
consummate
past
stylist in the late Roman manner. He delighted to
talk allusively, in elaborate circumlocutions'.38 Notably, the allusiveness and

As Peter Brown

'language' of events present intentional moral and

of historical events as signs.
visionary barriers to the understanding
to recognise and interpret
sees
the
or
failure
ability
Consequently, Augustine
circumlocutions

of God's

the figurative meaning of events in history correctly as directly related to, and
indicative
inconsistent

of,

the

moral

interpretation

status
of

of
a

the

sign

interpreter.39
or

event

reflects

An

incorrect
an

error

or
of

even

human

understanding, and a lack of, or slipping of, faith that leads to spiritual death.
As the inability to understand and interpret correctly can, in tum, be read as
moral death, the act of interpretation itself becomes a highly charged activity.
With a typical circularity, the unified Christian view asserts itself over any
potential diversity of meaning: the meaning behind the more obscure places,

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

234

BEDE'S

HISTORIA

ECCLESIASTICA

GENTIS

ANGLORUM

remains, for Augustine, the same as in the open places: 'whoever ... thinks that
he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not
build the double love of God and of our neighbour does not understand it at
all'.40 Moreover, if a student persists in following an inconsistent interpretation,
'he will be overcome

by it. "For we walk by faith and not by sight" [2 Cor.

5:7], and faith will stagger if the authority of the Divine Scriptures wavers'.41
The desire for unity of meaning in exegetical interpretation generates an
exclusionary dynamic which denies any interpretation that resists the structures
of the exegetical paradigm. This dynamic supplies Bede with a precedent for
treating problematic events in history as shrouded or obscured, and therefore
still a part of his unified schema. Bede's account of the conversion of King
Edwin manifests this dynamic of resistance and incorporation via shrouding.
However, although Bede treats part of Edwin's conversion as obscured but
legible, the fact that Edwin's
assigns to him never coalesce

acts as king and the symbolic weight that Bede

points not simply toward the inability of Bede's
to describe historical reality. In Bede's account of Edwin, we can

paradigm
see events escaping Bede's interpretive scheme, which permits, I believe, a
meditation on the way that Bede's historiography is both a part of, and an
affront to, our ownboth
literally and conceptually.

IV.
and

Colgrave

Edwin's

THE

attribute

Mynors

OF

CONVERSION
Bede's

KING

EDWIN

'somewhat

confused

account'

of

conversion

to his desire to tell all three circulating versions of the

with
the most popular story of the sparrow flying through
story, culminating
the hall in winter and the desecration of the pagan temple. They suggest
that 'Bede

makes

instances'

in

order

however,

to

suggest

Edwin
to

hesitate to redeem

combine
that

Bede

the

three

'made'

his pledge

stories.42

Edwin

We

hesitate

in the first two

have

to

no

evidence,

incorporate

three

extant stories. Rather, Bede's characterisation of Edwin as 'a man of great

natural sagacity', teamed with his references to 2 Corinthians and his use of
letters

from

Pope

Boniface,

focus

the

account

on

issues

of

revelation,

and grace.43 Such repetition and emphasis suggests that the

knowledge,
internal pressures of Bede's paradigm, and his related discomfort with the
implications of Edwin's hesitation, may allow an alternative reading of these
episodes, one that denies Edwin grace and demonstrates how Bede's desire
to find Christian meaning literalised in Edwin's success and embodied in his
is frustrated by the events and physical fragments he uses as evidence.
The lack of miracles in Edwin's reign leads Bede to seek evidence of

bones

Edwin's

sanctity elsewhere in history. Because Bede works hard to make the

events surrounding King Edwin seem at all Christian or significant, it is
here that Bede's methodology
shows the effect of stress. Indeed, while

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

SHARON
Karl

Lutterkort

everything

him

it actually

of

God

as

concludes

to make

was:

event

a major
factor

in

of Edwin

conversion

He

history.

story in which
the

shaping

that

acknowledges

'other

that Bede:

in English

as a miracle

conversion

a decisive

the

235

he

here,

story

in his power

Edwin's

presenting

miracle

differently'. He

scholars may judge

did

'detects'

M. ROWLEY

form

of

what

to

this aim

by

appear

achieved

the omnipotent

English

power
becomes

history

clear.44

abundandy

the one

On

hand, Lutterkort's reading affirms that Bede deploys miracle

stories as critical pieces of evidence. On the other hand, his language reflects
the problem that Bede has to work the evidence to 'make' this key event
what it is to him, and 'present' it as a miracle story.
Bede's efforts in the account of Edwin reveal more clearly his dependence
on a sense of historical evidence grounded on the unequivocal
evidence of
Within

miracles.
nation

that

signals

salvation.

Bede's

status

people's

Edwin

Because

the developing

paradigm,

as chosen

and

The

king's

before

earthly

and

believer

have

but

While

Edwin's

after

recovery

had

power
a share

he held

him,

kingdoms

increased

its progression

his sway

mied

over

towards

the entire island

the whole

like

So,

realm

Britons

he

that

augury

kingdom.

by the

as a

conversion:

as an

in the heavenly

under

those

charts

is the first Bretwalda to unite

Kent), his success reflects his coming

(except

unity of England

was

to become

no other

of Britain,

not

English
only

a
king

English

as well.43

success in his
Oswald,
successor,
grounds his own
Christianity, Edwin does not.46 Rather, Edwin refuses to convert not only
his

from

an

assassin's

poisoned

but

dagger,47

also

after

Paulinus

gives him the sign he had promised to follow during a vision at Raedwald's
In

court.48

miracles,

contrast

Oswald's

to

clear

of

profession

faith,

many

healing

and acting as a translator in order to bring Christianity

Edwin remains without miracles and silent.49

to his

people,
In an attempt to appropriate Edwin's kingly qualities as signs of his innate
wise and thoughtful nature.
Christian virtue, Bede emphasises Edwin's
Rather than being moved to an intuitive acceptance of faith, for example,
Edwin's
He

conversion
himself

periods

being

in silence,

as to what

he

is marked by his careful consideration

a man
but

ought

of great

natural

in his innermost
to do

and

which

would

sagacity

thoughts
religion

he was
he

should

of religions:

often

sit alone

deliberating
adhere

for long

with

himself

to.50

tells us repeatedly that Edwin was predisposed to sit alone, outwardly

silent, and think. In keeping with this characterisation, Bede reports that
Bede

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

BEDE'S

236

consult

As

ECCLESIASTICA

requests that he be allowed

Edwin
to

HISTORIA

with

it

his

echoes

advisors

reflects

his

ANGLORUM

to learn Christianity systematically and

before

Caedmon's

GENTIS

converting.51

silent

chosen

Edwin's
rumination,
thoughtfulness
status.
Edwin's
However,
repeated

potentially
hesitation to recognise the clear validity of Christianity contrasts starkly
with Caedmon's
miraculous
and creates a dilemma
for
enlightenment,
Bede.
In Edwin's
failure (or refusal) to recognise
the connection
and
between
his own
success
as king, he
Christianity
questions
the transparency
creates a pause

of God's
in

active

role

one

could

which

in English history. His hesitation

construe an initial rejection
of

Christianity, despite Bede's

presentation of these events from the first
as clearly indicative of Edwin's place in the history of English conquest
and salvation.
Bede's

narration

of

the

vision

an

of his attempting
example
and
control
the
concepts,
In
the
rhetorically.
episode,

Edwin's

during

to

conversion

events

explain
of
interpretation
Paulinus
gives

according
events
in
Edwin

Edwin

to

comes

Edwin

head,
him

to

reserved

in

will

he

he

is

sitting

HE

of
sign
to remember

the

vision,

The

alone.

stranger
benefits
if

receive

Edwin

As

again.

realise

when

the

and
great power
the
agrees,
stranger lays his right hand
telling him to remember his promise when this sign

that

takes his advice.

on Edwin's

is

Edwin

to

provides
received

the

laying his right hand on the king's head, causing Edwin

a 'vision' he had as an exile at Raedwald's
court. In
stranger comes
assures Edwin

to

that

the

was
to

comparison

the

his

leaves,

stranger

he

spirit.

Bede's

Notably,
of

account

causes

disappearance

Edwin's

account

conversion

in

The

Earliest Life of Gregory the Great. In this anonymous

Life, which
not
Bede
did
that it
know,
although
apparently
Colgrave
argues
has
a
vision
in
a
Edwin
which
predates the HE,
lovely, crowned
man
The

bearing

Christ's

beauty

of

keeping

with

the
the

cross
man

to

comes
in

appearance

the

him

and

account

anonymous
of

extracts

heavenly

messengers

similar
is

promise.52

much
in

more
the

in

Middle

where they usually wear shining white

Ages, and even in the HE,
robes.53 With
the subtlety of this stranger, Bede
this
distinguishes
vision from others in the HE,
which may suggest an unwillingness
to

stray

from

his

sources

even

when

more

wondrous

tradition

may exist. And, although I am arguing that Bede deploys information

in his account of Edwin so as to work Edwin into his historiographical
the contrast between
his account
of this vision and that
paradigm,
of

the

was
to
anonymous
Life may affirm that Bede
unwilling
his
embroider on
sources or fabricate a miracle, even when one would
have suited him.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

M. ROWLEY

SHARON

237

Later in the HE, while hesitating, Edwin recognises the sign that Paulinus
makes as the same as the one that he saw in his vision. But it is Paulinus
who

connects

the

First you

have

secondly

you

third place,
the

faith

earthly

While

your

own

Edwin's

the

raised

visitation

God's
by

keep

and

the

acquired

remember

foes

with

escaped
have

and

of

meaning

from

help

His

gift the
do

promise;

to the honor

hesitation

Edwin's

the

hands

of the

foes

not delay

in fulfilling

who

rescued

earthly

feared;

you
now

desired;

you

of an

success:

earthly

kingdom

of Him

commandments
you

and

it but

you

in the
receive

from

your

kingdom.54

could

reflect doubt, Bede includes Paulinus'

reading of the events to intercept and offset any such interpretation. Instead,
Bede construes Edwin's hesitation as a desire for knowledge and presents the
words of the bishop as confirmation.
In order to account for Edwin's repeated resistance to Paulinus, Bede, like
Augustine, resorts to 2 Corinthians and God's withholding of knowledge.
failure to convert the Northumbrians, Bede explains
that 'The god of this world blinded the minds of them that believed not lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them' (2 Cor.
4:4).55 Rather than allow the idea that Edwin's thought may bring him to
Faced

with Paulinus'

reject Christianity, Bede suggests instead that God withholds knowledge

from Edwin. This way, even Edwin's initial rejection of Christianity fits into
Christian history. By citing this passage, Bede not only enjoins God's power
to veil as well

as reveal knowledge,
he brings into play a notion of the
of
as
well
the
as
transference of that meaning from
physicalisation
meaning
the literal to the figurative that drive his interpretation of English history.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul makes explicit the connection between embodiment
of divine

and

meaning

revealed

'You

knowledge.

show

that

you

are

a letter

from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not in ink but with the spirit of
the

God,

living

not

on

tablets

of stone

(2 Cor.

3:3). The idea of'writing'

requires

the

of

transference

the difference between

meaning

the Old

but

on

the

tablets

of the

human

heart'

on the human heart rather than in stone

from

Covenant

literal

to

metaphorical.

and the New

For

Covenant

Paul,

is the

of meaning in Christthe
humanisation
of historywhich
the 'veil' from the minds of men and allows them to perceive the
'Lord's glory'. The removal of the veil with the Incarnation, is at once,
of meaning and the requirement to
paradoxically, both the embodiment
revelation
removes

transfer meaning
Covenant

is literally

from the literal to the figurative.

written

on

the

hearts

of men

but

For Paul,

always

more

the New
importantly

remains of the spirit, 'for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life' (2 Cor. 3:6).
As Bede evokes this passage, he evokes the paradoxical
relationship
between grace and free will, body and soul that we see in the Casdmon

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

BEDE'S

238

HISTORIA

the

without

However,

episode.

ECCLESIASTICA

ANGEORUM
of

evidence

transparent

in the Edwin

remains opaque

GENTIS

Bede

miracles,

meaning

echoes

Virgil, 'caeco carperetur

to depict Edwin's inner

episode.
with an inner fire'], in order
igni' ['consumed
turmoil and to control the opacity of Edwin's heart.56 While caecus also has
connotations
of 'having no light, opaque,
blind', this particular reference
from
of
comes
the beginning
Book IV, as Dido, 'consumed with an inner

fire', and madly in love with Aeneas, discloses her feelings to her sister.57
At the same time Bede refers to the inaccessibility of Edwin's heart, he also
refers to a moment of revelation and the ultimate legibility of a famous
reference to blindness and sight also sets up Edwin as the
blind
man, ready to be enlightened by grace.
stereotypical
Bede also uses a letter from Pope Boniface to authorise his reading of the
Edwin episodes as obscured but legible. Boniface attempts to convert Edwin
and explain the mysteries of Christianity by describing the sublimity of
secret. Bede's

and the inability of men to comprehend

God

Human

speech

it does

in its own

can

can

of the

pours

into

Boniface's

explain

heart

the

sense

so

of

how

that

human

He

heart

the

the power

of the most

and

unsearchable,

or express

comprehend

doors

never

invisible,

great

Himself

eternal

and

enter,

may

inspiration:
God,

high

as

consisting

so that no wisdom

greatness,

in His

it is. Yet

a revelation

He

goodness,
by His

secret

opens

the

inspiration

of Himself.58

of

inadequacy

him without

human

which

speech,

be

could

sublimity, resonates with Edwin's

sits silently, debating which religion to follow, he
becomes symbolic of Bede's own interpretive dilemma. Boniface's emphasis
on the secrecy of the inner heart and the invisibility of divine meaning also
construed

as a formulaic statement about

hesitation.

as

serves

As Edwin

reminder

of

the

of

opacity

the

signs,

internal

nature

of

the

new covenant, and the spiritual significance of interpretation. While Bede's

rumination allows him to read Caedmon's
historical
image of Caedmon's
verse as a sign of his body's transparent reflection of his grace, Edwin's
meditation

resists

such

reading.

Bede's

draws on the authority of Boniface

however,
of Edwin's

refusal

to

convert

references

Bede's

as part

of

God's

to

Even

degree

of

anxiety

with Edwin's

great

and

surrounding

eventual

the

conversion,

the

silent
letter,

papal

to reinforce his interpretation

inspiration
repeated
serve as a reminder of interpretation
knowledge
suggest

of

inclusion

reading

scheme.

the

In

this

context,

divine

obscuring of
as a spiritual activity and
of

these

events.

not all the parts of his kingship

fall neatly into Bede's paradigm. While his reign brings unprecedented peace
to England, Edwin falls in battle six years after his conversion to Caedwalla,
King of the Mercians. These kings, one a
pagan, one a Christian 'barbarian who was even more cruel than a heathen',
King

of the Britons and Penda,

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

M. ROWLEY

SHARON
forces to defeat both

join
BedeOswald.51
Oswald

at the

restraint

becomes

andeven

and

In

of apostates
a

239
more

for

problematically
refrains from interpreting the defeat of Edwin

Bede
hands

Edwin

marked

pagans.

the

While

absence.

context

he

of the
the

reports

and
such

HE,
torture

of

the English people and the destruction of their land, he makes no active
connection to a slipping of faith or failure to leam from history, as he does
with the Britons. Indeed, unlike his account of the defeat of the Britons in
Book I, in which he interprets their defeat as divine retribution for the sins
of

the

Bede

nation,

makes

no

setbacks for the English.60

year

of

rule

from

the

observations

as

to

the

moral

nature

of

these

Instead, he strikes the year of Caedwalla's

calendar

and

focuses

on

Oswald's

miracles

one

rather

than

his defeat.61
In his attempt to equate Edwin and Oswald as saint-kings representative
of the promise of salvation for the English, Bede composes parallel accounts
of their deaths. However, Bede's focus on the continued proof of the kings'
sanctity calls attention to the difference between the efficacy of their relics.
Upon Edwin's death, Bede reports that 'the head of King Edwin was
brought to York and ... placed in the church of the apostle St. Peter'.62
Later, Bede

reports that Edwin

was buried

at Whitby. As Colgrave and

Mynors observe, however, '[Bede] does not refer again to the missing head',
although it is his body that had been missing.63 Such an oversight is striking
for Bede, who reports in detail how Oswald's head was separated from the
rest of his body, then buried at Lindisfarne.64 The rest of Oswald's relics later
themselves when left outside hallowed ground overnight, and are
eventually properly buried in Lindsey.65 Finally, Oswald's arm, which had

reveal

been blessed by Aidan, was cut off after his death and enshrined in St. Peter's
in

Church

where

Bamburgh,

it remained,

in

uncorrupted,

Bede's

time.66

all of the pieces of Oswald, and even shards of the cross he erected
at Heavenfield, or dirt from the place he died, manifest Oswald's sanctity
and the truth of Christian history, the fragments of Edwin do not.67
While

the separation of his head and body generates the opportunity for

Although
accounts

Bede's

of

in

both

places,

miracles

don't

least

happenat

not

in

Again, The Earliest Life of St Gregory includes an account of

relics that reflects the existence of at least one miracle tradition

account.

Edwin's

concerning
to

miracles

a man

them. In the Life, Edwin's

named

Trimma

Whitby.68

Bede

conversion

to

his conversion

reports

Christianity,

in the HE.

forge the link between

of miracles surrounding
Bedeespecially

in

dreams

no

such

relics persistently reveal themselves

until

he

retrieves

miracle.

miracles

never

Because

the bones

and

Despite

confirm

enshrines

Edwin's

Bede's

of Oswald

them

at

eventual

interpretation

of

and other saints

English history and Christian eternity, the lack

Edwin's
relics in the HE is troublesome
for

in light of Edwin's

historical significance.

Although

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

Bede

BEDE'S

240

HISTORIA

ECCLESIASTICA

GENTIS

ANGLORUM

construes

the events surrounding Edwin's reign as signs of his grace and

eventual conversion, Edwin's repeated hesitation, teamed with his final defeat
at the hands of pagans and lack of evidentiary miracles, could be construed
within the terms of Bede's

paradigm as signs of his ultimate lack of grace.

the exegetical paradigm requires every event and every earthly
body to fit into its harmonious totality as testimony to the 'double love of
God and our neighbour', the resistances that surface in the account of Edwin
Because

become

problematic. As the first king to rule over 'all the inhabitants of

Britain, English and Britons alike, except for Kent only', Edwin is a figure
that Bede needs to fit into his unifying historical paradigm.69 But he does so
only with difficulty. While
of

was

pagans

Edwin's

troubled

miracles prove that Oswald's

no

martyrdom,

conversion

miracles

attest

to

death at the hands

Edwin's

sanctity.

resists Bede's

As

that

historiographical paradigm,
resistance demonstrates that reading the HE only according to the exegetical
paradigm cannot fully assess the text. From within the exegetical paradigm,
we must accept Edwin's delayed conversion as a deferral of the grace of
Godbut

this deferral does not contain his death at the hands of pagans and
the absence of miracles surrounding his relics.
Bede's exegetical historiography allows him to synthesise many fragments
of information through a conception
of English history as a story of the
But the events
triumph of Christianity and unification of England.
surrounding Edwin, like the separate parts of his body, remain at once
signs of a longed for historical unity and fragments of history that fall outside
that unity. Now, the miraculous evidence upon which Bede bases his history
falls outside

of our historiography.

Understanding the roles of miracles and

but
exegesis
historiography,
going beyond what they meant to
Bede allows for a reading of the HE that questions not only the exegetical
in Bede's

context and its relationship to the text, but also the theoretical implications
of Bede's miracles on the writing of his history as history. Reading Bede's
miracles not only as he does, as embodiments of divine intention, but also as

cultural concepts through which he understands and seeks to explain the

allows for a dialogue between medieval and modem historiography
that recognises history as a cultural object. Interpreting history as synthesis of

world

past and present, and interrogating the concepts with which Bede explains
events, allows us to read the miracles in the HE not only as irreconcilable
marks
conceptual

of

the

past,

change

but
in

our

as

to

ways
own

and

perceive

construction

of

understand

the

role

history.

Department of English, Christopher Newport University,

Neivport News,

Virginia 23606-2998
sharonrowley@earthlink. net

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

of

M. ROWLEY

SHARON

241

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on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

BEDE'S

242
C.

HISTORIA
'Bede's

Kendall,

The

Medieval

Theories

G.I. Berlin, 'Bede's

of Evidence

UP,

the

English

p. 73.
discusses

the

of Imma

episodes

a Germanic

past

in the HE.

S.

in

way

which

and Caedmon
and

Power

UP,

the

'The

37

p. 144.
use

of

conventional

empirical

contexts

meanings

to practical

in

concepts
the

subjects

cultural

revaluations.'

Sahlins,

p. 145.
Sahlins,
A.

Desire for Origins:

Frantzen,

Language,

Old

Tradition

(New

K.S.

1990);

39

149.

146,

pp.

and

English,

K.

O'Brien

Text

Developing

Overing,
Poets:

'Birthing

Bede,

157-74;

Hild,

the

and

'Orality

Hymn in a

of Caedmon's

and

1-20;

(1987)

Glosses'

(1990)

in Speculum

Context'

Comparative

Caedmon's

Else's

O'Keeffe,

Lees

C.A.

Bishops
and The

the
UP,

Rutgers

'Reading

with Someone
"Hymn"
in
32
Representations

New

Teaching

Brunswick:

Kiernan,

38

62(1)

and

and

G.R.

40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49

Love

of Learning
York:

UP,

'The

Keating,

of

Dynamics

Lectio

in

Word and Spirit 7 (Petersham,

St Bede's
Publications,
1985), p. 81.
also

the

highlights

of grammar

and interpretation

spirituality,

p. 153.
On

Augustine,

Christian

D.W.

Robertson

1958),

2.6, p. 8.

P.

and

Fordham

p. 17.

1982),

T.

well

the Vernacular',

(New

Brown,

UP,
On

Ibid., 1.36,

p. 40.

trans.

Doctrine,

Macmillan,

(Berkeley:

of Hippo
p. 318.

1967),

Augustine,

connection
to monastic

York:

(New

Augustine

California

Christian Doctrine, 3.5, p. 9.

Ibid., 1.37, p. 31.

HE,

i82-3n.

pp.

Ibid., 2.9, p. 167.

Lutterkort,
HE,

p. 99.

p. 94m

2.9, pp.

162-3.

Ibid., 3.2, pp. 214-15.

Ibid., 2.9, pp.

164-5.

180-1.

Ibid., pp.
Oswald's

as

activity
Aidan

resonant

of

as

153,

The

Bishop

Fathering

Relations

and

Abbey

John's
p.

the Desire for God

King

p. 47.

1979),

170-92.

pp.

Leclercq,

MA:

present

and Literacy

1991),

FC,
J.

Divina'

5-U-I7

Sahlins,

36

juxtapose

a Christian

Lehrer,

Nebraska

(Lincoln:

See

35

Monastic

Hill

'Bede

Crpin,

Medieval

in

W. Jones, vol. 2

St

Library,

University,

as A.

p. 442.

Lerer

Studies

MN:

Manuscript
and

437.

Heroes:

(Collegeville,

p. 162.

in Old

74 (1990)

and

Culture in Honor of Charles

Stories: Notions

and Authority

ANGLORUM

GENTIS
Scholars,

Rhetoric

1978),

Miracle

Neophilologus

Ward,

HE,

in

Studies

Eloquence:

California

History',

ecclesiastica:

in J.J. Murphy

Practice of Medieval

and

(Berkeley:

Berlin,

Historia

of Faith'

Rhetoric

(ed.),

ECCLESIASTICA

makes
in

figure

translator

him
the

an

for

especially

context

of

the

and faith in Christianity.

6 (1994)

focus on language

3565

Oswald

HE,

Rule

his people, he also translates it and renders

it understandable.
In this sense he stands

Cultural

Production',

Exemplaria

4.24, pp. 414-15.

influence of the Benedictine

On

and Benedict

Bede

'The

Mayr-Harting,
The

Rule

of

St.

on

in an

see H.M.R.E.

Biscop,

Venerable

Benedict,

and

Bede,

For

Social

3.2,

Class', JL I, p. 413.
Ward,
HE,

50

p. 72.

4.24,

pp. 414-15.

Ibid.
Ibid., pp. 418-19.
See M. King,
of

Bede's

King

and

even

Grammatical
Stevens

Curriculum'
(eds),

in
Saints,

starker

2.10,

have

alone

hours

for

51

his

Later,

said,

within

with

to

Edwin.
see

acting

HE,
as

at

Bede

[Edwin]
a

himself
religion

time,
what

repeats

used

to sit

earnestly
he

he should

ought
follow',

p. 181.

HE,

2.12,

HE,

2.9, pp.

3.3, pp. 220-1.

166-7.

pp.

that 'as we

'Word'

miracles,

for

see HE,

the

contrast

healing

to do and what

Mystica: A Study

brings

214-19;

pp.

translator,
HE,

only

Oswald's

debating

'Grammatica

W.M.

not

166-7;

HE,

2.13,

pp.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

182-3.

M. ROWLEY

SHARON
B. Colgrave

(ed. and trans.), The Earliest Life

of Gregory the Great

pp. 45-9

Bede

identifies

and

2.10,

the defeat of the British at the hands

identifies St Peter, the 'blessed

heathen

executed

of

on

to

him

stop

from

Britain

fleeing

A company

pp. 154-5).

(2.6,

of angels descends,

singing

with

'unspeakable

sweetness'

inform

Chad

of his death

(4.3,

to
341).

p.

the

'the

as the man who comes to Laurence

Oswald's

has

Tortgyth
/Ethelburh

(4.9,

the archangel

(5.9,
of

vision

362-3).

pp.

her

sees
in

being

HE,
For
cures

who

simply

appears

to sing, also provides

HE,

2.12,

pp.

Ibid., 2.9, pp.

Ibid.,
C.

2.12,

Pharr

1964),

Caedmon's

and

orders

visitor,
Caedmon

an exception.

p.

179.

(Lexington,

4.1, p. 2.

us

MA:

Aeneid,
D.C.

ed.

Heath,

was

and

opened

in

p. 252m
pp. 246-7.
the site of Oswald's

'when
man,

must

associated
Vergil's

that

in the tomb

with that tomb,

tomb

a traveller's

that

there

164-5.

the

example,

intelligent

180-3.

moved

when

3.11,

confirm

Mynors
was enshrined

Ibid., 3.6, pp. 230-1.

death

pp. 527-9).

and
head

HE,

1827.

white robes', who tells him ofhis upcoming

(5.19,

pp. 204-5.

of Cuthbert,
found

abbess

Wilfrid

'a glorious

Michael,

him

476-9).

pp.

vengeance

for its crimes',

pp. 52-3.

Ibid., 2.20,

Colgrave

times to keep

the

Ibid., p. 204m

teacher

Gaul

states:
of

hands

just

nation

1.1j,

in shining white

to

the

3.2, pp. 214-15.

Egbert's

to him several

the

HE,

guide appears

going

the

by

HE,

pp. 488-99).

from

Bede

tribes,

kindled

God

robes
appears

Germanic

fire

Dryhthelm's
(4.12,

Latin
Press,

pp. 202-3.

of

apostles',

166-7.

pp.

right away, and they are often accompanied

Bede immediately
by light. For example,
prince of the

(eds),

Clarendon

p. 261.

1879),

With

Short

C.

(Oxford:

Ibid., 2.20,

visitors

heavenly

Lewis

HE,

and pp. 56-9.

'Introduction',
usually

see Colgrave's

to Bede,

C.T.

Dictionary

On the date of the

Press, 1985), pp. 98101.

text and relationship

Clarendon

(Oxford:

243

horse.

death

Bede

tells

the

rider,

saw

this, he realised

be

with

sick

some
the

place',

who

was

special
HE,

an
that

sanctity
3.9,

pp.

242-3.
Earliest Life of Gregory the Great, pp.
HE,

2.5, pp.

148-9.

on Sat, 16 May 2015 01:55:23 UTC

101-3.