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Bede’s Notes on Genesis and the Training of the Anglo-Saxon Clergy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

Judith Mcclure
Judith Mcclure*
Affiliation:
Kingswood School, Bath
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Extract

It has long been recognized that the mainspring of Bede’s intellectual work throughout his life was pastoral. Recently it has become increasingly apparent that his dedication to the continuing demands of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was stimulated and informed by the ideas of Gregory the Great. What is less clear is the relationship between the great bulk of Bede’s exegetical writings and his conception of the precise needs of those priests and monks whom he was seeking to prepare for pastoral responsibility. He had a certain amount of immediate personal experience of the range of technical problems involved in communicating the essentials of Christian doctrine and liturgy to an illiterate people who were ignorant of Latin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 4: The Bible in the Medieval World , 1985 , pp. 17 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1985 

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References

1 Most recently, Thacker, A., ‘Bede’s Ideal of Reform’ in Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society: Studies presented to J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, ed. Wormald, P. with Bullough, D. and Collins, R. (Oxford, 1983), pp. 130–53.Google Scholar

2 Letter to Egbert, 5: Plummer, Bede, i, pp. 408-9.

3 Whitelock, D., ‘Bede and his Teachers and Friends’ in Bonner, G., ed., Famulus Christi (London, 1976), pp. 26–7.Google Scholar

4 Mayr-Harting, H., The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1972), pp. 191–219, especially pp. 216–19, 240–8.Google Scholar

5 HE, v, 24: Plummer, Bede, i, p. 357.

6 Jenkins, C., ‘Bede as Exegete and Theologian’ in Thompson, A. Hamilton, ed., Bede: His Life, Times and Writings (Oxford, 1935), pp. 170–3Google Scholar; Jones, C.W., ‘Some Introductory Remarks on Bede’s Commentary on Genesis’, Sacris Erudiri, xix (1969-70), pp. 115–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Meyvaert, P., ‘Bede the Scholar’, Famulus Christi, pp. 52–3.Google Scholar

7 Smalley, Bible, p. 36; Sparks, H.F., ‘Jerome as Biblical Scholar’, CHB, i, pp. 510–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kelly, J.N.D., St Jerome. His Life, Writings and Controversies (London, 1975). pp. 144–52, 220–5, 290–5Google Scholar; McClure, J., ‘Gregory the Great: Exegesis and Audience’ (unpublished D. Phil., Oxford, 1978), pp. xix–xx.Google Scholar

8 Bede, In Genesim, CC, cxviiiA, ed. C.W. Jones, Introduction, pp. vii-viii, Praefatio, pp. 1-2; In Lucae Evangetium Expositio, CC, cxx, ed. D. Hurst, Prologus, p. 5; Expositio Actuum Apostolorum et Retractatio, ed. M.L.W. Laistner (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1939), p. 3.

9 Kelly, Jerome, pp. 144-52.

10 Despite Jones’s unwillingness to distinguish between Bede’s conception of homily and that of exegesis, Gatch is surely right to stress the need for a detailed consideration of the different categories of preaching: In Genesim, Introduction, p. viii; Gatch, M. McC., Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England: Aelfric and Wulfstan (Toronto and Buffalo, 1977), p. 31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 In Lucae Evangetium, p. 6, ‘Ipse mihi dictator simut notarius et librarius existerem’.

12 In Genesim, Introduction, pp. iii-ix.

13 Ibid., Praefatio, p. 1, ‘…quae rudem adhuc possent instituere lectorem, quibus eruditus ad altiorem disceret fortioremque maiorum ascendere lectionem’.

14 Laistner, M.L.W., A Hand-list of Bede Manuscripts (Ithaca, New York, 1943), p. 41.Google Scholar

15 In Genesim, Introduction, pp. vii-ix; Jones, ‘Bede’s Commentary’, p. 115.

16 Laistner, Hand-list, p. 41; In Genesim, Introduction, p. vi.

17 In Genesim, Praefatio, p. 2.

18 Ibid., Introduction, pp. ix-x.

19 Sullivan, R.E., ‘The Carolingian Missionary and the Pagan’, Speculum, xxviii (1953). pp. 705–40, especially pp. 715–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Palmer, R.B., ‘Bede as Textbook Writer: A Study of his De Arte Metrica ’, Speculum, xxxiv (1959), pp. 573–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on Bede’s didactic writings and his educational influence, Jones, C.W., Preface to Opera Didascalica, CC, cxxiiiA, pp. v–xviGoogle Scholar; Kendall, C.B., Introduction to De Arte Metrica et De Schematibus et Tropis, p. 74.Google Scholar

21 Wiles, M.F., ‘Origen as Biblical Scholar,’ CHB, i, pp. 454–89.Google Scholar

22 In Genesim, I, i, 5, p. 9; Augustine, De Genesi Contra Manichaeos, I, ix, 15, PL xxxiv, 180.

23 Genesis, i. 4-5.

24 In Genesim, p. 9, ‘Sed apud Deum purus intellectus est sine strepitu et diversitate linguarum’. Bede seems to have changed Augustine’s vocavit to appellavit, no doubt to match his text: otherwise he abridged Augustine accurately, even adding from further on another example to explain the passive usage.

25 McClure, ‘Gregory the Great’, pp. xii-xvii, xxii, xxiv-xxvii.

26 Moralia in lob, Letter of Dedication, III, PL lxxv, 513.

27 McClure, ‘Gregory the Great’, pp. 2-4, 7-9, 20-1.

28 In Genesim, II, iv, 3-4, p. 81; II, vi, 16, p. 108; II, viii, 15-18, p. 126; III, xi, 8-9, p. 157; IV, xxi, 9-10, p. 240.

29 Ibid., IV, xx, 16, p. 236.

30 Ibid., IV, xix, 31-2, pp. 229-31.

31 Ibid., II, vi, 16; ix, 13-15, pp. 108, 135.

32 Ibid., II, vii, 16-17, p. 117.

33 Ibid., II, ix, 27-9, pp. 140-1.

34 Ibid., I, i, 2, p. 4; I, i, 24, p. 23.

35 Ibid., Praefatio, p. 1.

36 Ibid., I, i, 25, p. 24; III, xi, 8-9, p. 161; IV, xxi, 9-10, p. 239.

37 Ibid., I, i, 25, p. 24.

38 Jones, ‘Bede’s Commentary’, pp. 118-21; Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity, pp. 211-14.

39 In Genesim, II, vi, 14-15, pp. 105-6; II, vii, 11-12, pp. 115-16; III, xiv, 3, p. 183.

40 Ibid., II, vi, 1-2, pp. 99-100; III, xiii, 14-15, p. 180; II, vi, 16, p. no.

41 Ibid., III, xiii, 18, p. 181, ‘Qualia multa in scripturis ab eo addita periti litterarum sanclarum reperiunt’.

42 Ibid., II, iv, 7, p. 75; II, v, 5, p. 94; III, xi, 12, pp. 163-4.

43 Ibid., I, ii, 2, p. 32; I, ii, 8-9, p. 46; II, iv, 24, p. 90 (quoting Jerome, Ep. xxxvi).

44 Ibid., III, x, 32, pp. 151-2; III, xiv, 20, p. 192, ‘Haec de Melchisedech paucis sint dicta prout nostro operi sufficere videbantur. Ceterum qui plene de illo deque eis quae figuravit ille sacramentis scire desiderat, totam ad Hebreos epistolam sedulus legal’; IV, xviii, 1, p. 210, ‘Si quis vero hanc lectionem allius disculere querit, totam spiritales redolere sensus inveniet’.

45 Ibid., I, i, 1-2, p. 4; I, i, 20, p. 22, ‘…ut supra docuimus’; I, i, 26, p. 24, ‘Nunc apparet evidentius’; p. 25, ‘…nunc autem manifestius’; III, xii, 1-2, p. 168, et passim.

46 Ibid., III, xiv, 18-20, p. 189, ‘De cuius expositione versus et sacerdotio ac regno Domini lesu Christi, quod in Melchisedech figuratam est, ideo nostram parvitatem hoc in loco brevissime loqui ac tractare opportet’; IV, xviii, 1—3, pp. 211—12, on the Trinity.

47 Ibid., II, vi, 13-14, pp. 102-5.

48 R.E. Sullivan, ‘The Carolingian Missionary’, pp. 715-16; see Eddius’ account of the preaching of Wilfrid ‘on the wondrous doings of the Lord in the face of idolatry from the beginning of the world’, to the pagans of Selsey: Colgrave, B. (ed.), The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus (Cambridge, 1927), ch. 41, p. 82.Google Scholar

49 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 159, f. 16v. A recension of the Exameron Bedae is followed, at f. 29r, by a Liber Questionum.

50 Laistner, Hand-list, p. 41; Jones, In Genesim, Introduction, pp. i-iii. To the eleven manuscripts listed by Jones, two more should now be added: Gorman, M.M., ‘The Encyclopedic Commentary on Genesis prepared for Charlemagne by Wigbod’, Recherches Augustiniennes, xvii (1982), p. 195 n. 87Google Scholar; pp. 197, 199.

51 McClure, ‘Gregory the Great’, pp. 46-51.

52 Ibid., pp. 162-74; Gatch, Preaching and Theology, pp. 27-32.

53 McClure, ‘Gregory the Great’, pp. 104-30.

54 Libellus Responsionum: HE, i, 27: Plummer, Bede, i, pp. 48-62; Letter to Egbert, 5: ibid., p. 409.

55 For Bede’s translations, see Cuthbert’s Letter to Cuthwine on the death of Bede, Plummer, Bede, i, p. lxxv; Letter to Egbert, 5, ibid., p. 409.

56 Murphy, J.J., Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: A History of Rhetorical Theory from Saint Augustine to the Renaissance (Berkeley, California, 1974), pp. 76–80.Google Scholar

57 Gatch, Preaching and Theology, pp. 32-3; Thacker, ‘Bede’s Ideal of Reform’, pp. 150-1; Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, ed. A.W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, 3 vols (Oxford, 1869-78), iii, pp. 360-76, for the Council of Clofesho on preaching.

58 Bede, Life of Cuthbert, chs. 3, 8, 9: ed. B. Colgrave, Two Lives of St. Cuthbert (Cambridge, 1940), iii, pp. 160-4; viii, pp. 180-4; ix, pp. 184-6; Thacker, ‘Bede’s Ideal of Reform’, pp. 138-42, 144.

59 Campbell, J., ‘Observations on the Conversion of England’, Ampleforth Journal, lxxviii (1973), pp. 12–26.Google Scholar

60 In Ezram et Neemiam, Prologus, ed. D. Hurst, CC, cxixA, p. 237.

61 McClure, ‘Gregory the Great’, pp. 217-249.

62 In Ezram, 1, 359-64, p. 250.

63 Ibid., I, 1446-52, p. 277; I, 1463-71, pp. 277-8; I, 1488-1502, p. 278.

64 Ibid., II, 993-5, p. 312, ‘Obsecro autem ne sit grave lectori breviter textum huius epistolae percurrere et quantum personae christianorum regum conveniat videre’.