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The church history of the Anglo-Saxons can only be approached through the lens of a few writers, arguably the greatest of whom is Bede. Bede's writings illuminate an otherwise impoverished landscape of ecclesial development from conversion to established Christian church amongst the Anglo-Saxons. Bede, however, had his own agendas - monastic, political, and rhetorical. Reappraising Bede's "Ecclesiastical History", "Lives of the Saints", "History of the Abbots", the "Lesser" and "Greater Chronicles" and the "Martyrology" and the audience for these texts, the author draws out the role played by classical forms of genre and rhetoric in the crafting of his work. She also explores the underlying political influences that caused Bede to write historia as he did. In particular, she notes the role of historia in monastic affairs, especially through the generation of a rhetoric of orthodoxy and the power of the cultural capital afforded by this within the relatively newly constituted Christian community in Northumbria.
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Bede’s Historiae GENRE, RHETORIC, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH HISTORY This book reappraises the impact of Bede’s writings. Focusing on genre and rhetoric, and their respective roles in audience reception and the construction of a narrative of Anglo-Saxon Church history, the author explores Bede’s text and audience from the perspectives of both literacy and textual community, using internal evidence from his writings to illuminate bias and monastic politics. Dr VICKY GUNN is Senior Lecturer, Learning and Teaching Centre, University of Glasgow Bede’s Historiae Genre, Rhetoric, and the Construction of Anglo-Saxon Church History Vicky Gunn THE BOYDELL PRESS © Vicky Gunn 2009 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of Vicky Gunn to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2009 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge ISBN 978 1 84383 465 6 The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library This publication is printed on acid-free paper Printed in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne Contents Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 1 Understanding Bede’s Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2 The Historical and Contemporary Context of Northumbrian Hagiography and Historiae Production . . . . 36 3 Bede’s Agenda Revisited: Monastic Superiority in the Ecclesiastical History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 4 Bede’s Approach to the Genre of Historia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5 A Case of G