THE SILENCE OF BEDE: THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF BRITAIN IN «ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE» AND ALTERNATIVE SOURCES

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Abstract

«Ecclesiastical history of the English People» of Bede the Venerable traditionally serves as a basic source on the history of Britain in the 6th to 8th centuries, including the study of the spread of Christianity during that period among the German-speaking population of the island: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. According to Bede, a key role in this process played Augustine, Paulinus and other missionaries sent to Britain by Pope Gregory I the Great. In contrast, British ecclesiastics refused to preach the word of truth to their English neighbors and confronted the Roman missionaries. In Bede’s work, the Britons appear as a kind of analogue of the New Testament Jews who refused to accept Christ. However, analysis of other sources, including data from archeology and onomastics, indicates that at least in some regions (Kent, West Midlands) there was a continuity of Christianity and church life, despite the ethnic changes. In case of Northumbria there is an alternative to Bede’s story in Welsh historical text, Historia Brittonum and Annales Cambriae. There, it is told that King Edwin was baptized not by Paulinus, but by a Briton, Run, son of Urien, King of Rheged. The British participation in the early Christianization of Northumbria is confirmed by the analysis of the figure of the deacon Jacob, who, according to Bede, was the chief assistant of Paulinus. His name strongly indicates that he not a Roman, Frank or Englishman, but a Briton. The center of his church ministry was Catterick, the place associated in Welsh poetry with King Urien. Thus, Jacob either belonged to the ruling house of Reged, or enjoyed its patronage. Bede’s silence about the relationship between Anglian Northumbria and British Rheged could not have been accidental. As a result, the question is posed about the danger that for a modern researcher conceals in an insufficiently critical perception of images of the past, borrowed even from the most authoritative medieval authors.

About the authors

S. G Mereminskiy

Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences; The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration

Email: mereminskiy@gmail.com
Москва, Россия; Moscow, Russia

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