Everything about Ecclesiastical History Of The English People totally explained
The
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (in
English:
Ecclesiastical History of the English People) is a work in
Latin by the
Venerable Bede on the history of the Church in
England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between
Roman and
Celtic Christianity.
It is considered to be one of the most important original references on
Anglo-Saxon history. It is believed to have been completed in
731, when Bede was approximately 60 years old.
Scope
Divided into five books (about 400 pages), the
Historia covers the history of England, ecclesiastical and political, from the time of
Julius Caesar to the date of its completion (731). The first twenty-one chapters, covering the period before the mission of
Augustine, are compiled from earlier writers such as
Orosius,
Gildas,
Prosper of Aquitaine, the letters of
Pope Gregory I, and others, with the insertion of legends and traditions.
After AD 596, documentary sources, which Bede took pains to obtain throughout England and from
Rome, are used, as well as oral testimony, which he employed along with critical consideration of its authenticity.
The
Historia, like other
historical writing from this period has a lower degree of
objectivity than modern historical writings. It is a mixture of fact, legend and literature. For example, Bede took liberties by making up fictional quotations from people who were not his contemporaries.
Contents
The History of the English Church and People has a clear polemical and didactic purpose. Bede sets out, not just to tell the story of the English, but to advance his views on politics and religion.
In political terms he's a partisan of his native
Northumbria, amplifying its role in English history over and above that of
Mercia, its great southern rival. He takes greater pains in describing events of the seventh century, when Northumbria was the dominant Anglo-Saxon power, than the eighth, when it was not. The only criticism he ventures of his native Northumbria comes in writing about the death of
King Ecgfrith in fighting the Picts at
Nechtansmere in 685.
Bede attributes this defeat to God's vengeance for the Northumbrian attack on the Irish in the previous year. For while Bede is loyal to Northumbria he shows an even greater attachment to the Irish and the Irish Celtic missionaries, whom he considers to be far more effective and dedicated than their rather complacent English counterparts.
His final preoccupation is over the precise date of Easter, which he writes about at length. It is here, and only here, that he ventures some criticism of
St Cuthbert and the Irish missionaries, who celebrated the event, according to Bede, at the wrong time. In the end he's pleased to note that the Irish Church was saved from error by accepting the correct date for Easter.
Editions
- 1475: printed in Germany
- 1563: "basic edition" (incomplete)
- 1643: first edition printed in England
- 1688: "Cologne edition"
- 1742: Smith
- 1884: Giles, reprinted in Patrologia Latina
- 1896 C. Plummer, Oxford
- 1969: Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, Oxford, Clarendon Press, reprint with corrections 1992
- 2005: Michael Lapidge, Paris
Translations
Bede's
Ecclesiastical History was translated into
Old English at the insistence of
Alfred the Great, in the
890s.
1565: T. Stapleton, Antwerp
1866: M. M. Wilden, Schaffhausen
1903: L.C. Jane, Temple Classics.
1907: A. M. Sellar, London, George Bell & Sons.
1955: Leo Sherley-Price, Penguin, reprinted with revisions 1965, revised 1968, revised 1990
1969: Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, Oxford, Clarendon Press, reprint with corrections 1992
1997: Günter Spitzbart, Darmstadt.
2005: Pierre Monat, Philippe Robin, Paris
2008: Hirosi Takahashi, Kodansha
Literature
Jones, P. A., A Concordance to the Historia ecclesiastica of Bede, Cambridge 1919
Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., Bede's Ecclesiastical history of the English people : a historical commentary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York : Oxford University Press, 1988.Further Information
Get more info on 'Ecclesiastical History Of The English People'.
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