The book under review is another installment in the Cambridge University Press "Companion to" series. This series comes with certain guidelines in place, especially an intended audience of undergraduates and non-specialists. The volume under review is a collection of essays, organized into three sections: "Bede's life and context," "Bede's Writings," and "Reception and Influence."
Scott DeGregorio is to be commended for bringing together this collection of essays from men and women who are truly experts in the field. He charged his panel of experts to write for students and non- specialists, and as such they were limited "to received paradigms of understanding rather than new points of view" (xvi). The general impression is that the scholars have indeed remained faithful to this editorial charge. However, a reader who has not been familiar with Bedan scholarship of the past twenty years will find much that is new, challenging, and striking in the essays. This volume should also be seen in light of a continued effort of Bedan scholars to present the 'new Bede.' [1] The editor has highlighted this concern in his preface and gives an appropriate warning to readers who see Bede in terms of his Ecclesiastical History (HE) alone. The view of the 'new Bede,' as presented by this volume, is one which seeks an inclusive perspective on Bede, factoring in all of his writings. The contributors, however, have recognized that the HE remains important to many students and scholars, and as such their essays often include small sections about the relevance of their subject matter to the HE. The prefatory material concludes with a sparse, but handy, timeline of important dates and five maps of relevance to the following essays.
Part I, "Bede's Life and Context," begins with a contribution by Michelle Brown on the essentials of Bede's biography, the rhythm of his life, and his physical realities. Brown is to be commended for her efficiency in presenting the overall sketch of Bede's life and from what sources this information comes. Of particular value is her effort to place Bede into the context of the scribal culture of Northumbria. One word of caution is that occasionally Brown presents reasonable conjectures as certainties, such as Bede playing a leading role in the scribal production of the three pandect Bibles.
James Campbell was given the daunting task of placing Bede into his secular and political contexts. Throughout his essay Campbell often takes a maximalist position with regard to his sources, but he always informs the reader when he is doing so. For example, Campbell presents the opinion that Bede was of noble birth, but affirms that this position is ultimately impossible to prove. He successfully navigates the difficulties of Northumbrian and early-Anglo-Saxon political realities and presents his conclusions in a concisely readable manner. The overall success of this essay is to present the interconnectedness of Christianity and society, an interconnectedness which is often downplayed by Bede.
In the next contribution, Rosalind Love situates Bede in the context of his intellectual heritage, in the context of the Late Antique, sixth century, and insular authors on whom Bede drew. Everything in this essay is useful to someone unfamiliar with the western intellectual tradition before Bede, but of great use is her comparison between Bede and Aldhelm. Through this comparison Love is able to show the varying responses of the insular world to the received intellectual tradition discussed in the first part of her essay. The essay successfully places Bede in his intellectual context and demonstrates his contribution to Latin culture at a moment of transition.
Sarah Foot adroitly sketches the ecclesiastical and diocesan structures relevant to Bede. The main focus of her essay is a comparison between Bede's monastery and others in Northumbria at the time. Her central goal is to evaluate other Northumbrian monasteries from all possible sources while using Bede cautiously, due to what she perceives as his bias based on his own experience at Wearmouth-Jarrow (WJ). Foote argues that Bede's WJ and his ideals may have been more the ideal than reality in Northumbria, and that the more typical Northumbrian houses would have been very connected to the secular world.
Clare Stancliffe's essay is a lesson in studied skepticism. In her piece she evaluates Bede's varying treatment of the Irish and the British, seeking to show how his attitudes may have influenced his presentation of the connections between these people and the English. While there is a wealth of information and perspective in this essay, two notable arguments are as follows: 1) while Wilfrid and Theodore pugnaciously sought to cast out all things British and Irish, Bede retained this rejection only for the British and he should be considered part of the 'middle party' of the Northumbrian Church that accepted the Roman Easter but did not reject the Irish contribution wholesale; and 2) the Irish greatly influenced both Northumbrian Christianity, e.g. desire for pilgrimage and learning, and Bede himself, e.g. his use of Irish sources and the 'Irish' training of his teacher Trumberht.
Ian Wood's contribution challenges the presentation of WJ as a single monastery in two places by weighing the sources against each other and by giving ear to the underlying tensions in the sources. He sketches the foundations of each monastery in turn and thus sheds new light on the history of each house. For example he develops a perspective on Jarrow that is very much related to Ecgfrith and Ceolfrith, but not Benedict. He then concludes with speculation about how the two separate houses, as he has presented them, came together to form the one monastery in two places, citing the succession of Aldfrith and the time around Benedict's death as two principal reasons. Overall this essay challenges much thinking about WJ and seeks to provide different perspectives on the houses.
Calvin Kendall's contribution begins Part II, "Bede's writings." Kendall gives a clear and even physical picture of education at WJ, rightly emphasizing that Bede's abilities and talents reflect a high level of learning on the part of his teachers. After exploring the sources of Bede's learning he turns to Bede as educator, pointing to his early textbooks as evidence of that role and firmly locates those texts in a Christian context. Kendall highlights Bede's educational legacy and his contribution to redefining the contemplative life away from the hermetical life: "Preaching, writing, teaching, and exegesis- -this was Bede's revised version of the contemplative life" (111).
Faith Wallis concisely shares her many years of studying Bede's 'science'. She explores the underlying principles and texts behind Bede's thought, examining three texts in turn: On the Nature of Things, On Times, and The Reckoning of Time. Wallis shows the remarkable originality of the first two works, and her treatment of The Reckoning of Time delivers her mastery of the technical details of Bede's works to less sophisticated readers. Not only does she lucidly explain the technical difficulties of the work, but she demonstrates how this technical treatise fits into Bede's larger theological and educational programs, a truly outstanding fulfillment of the editorial charge to write for a wider audience and to present an inclusive view of Bede.
One might quibble with choice to divide the section on Bede's exegetical writing into separate sections for the Old and New Testaments, but the division does provide two complementary perspectives on Bede's exegetical program. Scott DeGregorio addresses the Old Testament works, using these texts to challenge the concept that Bede's work was merely derivative of the Church Fathers by highlighting many of the aspects of these works that can only be called original. In addition DeGregorio presents the current consensus about the readership for the commentaries and provides a concise treatment of Bede's exegetical method. He then concludes his essay by showing how the three commentaries, On the Tabernacle, On the Temple, and On Ezra and Nehemiah can be used to shed light on Bede's larger concerns, which also intersect with the HE. Overall this essay is an excellent advertisement for the integration of biblical commentaries into the broader scholarly understanding of Bede and provides an example of what can be achieved by a careful reading of medieval Scriptural exegesis.
Arthur Holder explains Bede's attitudes towards the interrelatedness of the Old and New Testaments and then takes up a brief description of each of Bede's New Testament commentaries in rough chronological order, highlighting the sources on which Bede drew. He treats Bede's exegetical method, focusing not on the levels of meaning, but on the various devices by which Bede unpacked Scripture. Next Holder hones in on five important themes present in Bede's works. Each of the themes is explained with reference to the commentaries and Holder's short accounts of them give much food for thought, especially for readers of the HE.
Lawrence Martin addresses one of the most important preoccupations of Bede: preaching. He underscores the importance of preaching for Bede and unpacks many aspects of Bede's theory of preaching, especially what an ideal preacher should look like. Martin presents many aspects of Bede's ideal preacher drawn from various places in his corpus: commentary, didactic, and historical texts alike. From theory Martin turns to praxis and Bede's Homilies. He lays out the various interpretations for the use of the Gospel homilies, leaning slightly towards a private, non-liturgical use. Then he gives an account of the general technique and rhythm to the homilies, and usefully compares Bede to his patristic models.
Alan Thacker's essay sketches Bede's historical method and models, turns to the contents of three out of four of his works (HE, Lives of Cuthbert, and History of the Abbots), and then concludes with some reflections on Bede's purposes. The main thrust of Thacker's piece helps the reader understand that Bede wrote history to serve his agendas, which Thacker situates firmly in Bede's Christian morality. Thacker often argues for a both/and approach when looking at Bede's texts. For example, rather than focusing on one model for Bede, Thacker discusses a variety of models, drawing from each of them themes important in Bede's works. Despite the long list of models, I am puzzled as to why the New Testament, particularly the Acts of the Apostles, did not make the list. [2] Thacker takes the same approach with regard to Bede's purposes and thus is able to show how Bede's texts could achieve a number of objectives. Overall, Thacker has done an admirable job in presenting a view that allows Bede to write with a purpose, indeed many purposes, some sacred and some more secular. Furthermore, by laying out the variety of interpretations at the end of his essay, Thacker is inviting readers, particularly students, to engage with the idea of what does it mean that Bede wrote with a purpose.
The last section of the work turns to the question of "Reception and Influence." David Rollason provides an excellent survey of Bede's status as a saint in the Middle Ages. Overall, Rollason has done a fine job bringing together wide and disparate sources, and his conclusion that Bede's veneration in the Middle Ages was clearly present both on the continent and in England, but on a modest scale, seems just.
Joshua Westgard provides a superb essay drawing on his intimate knowledge of the manuscript tradition of Bede's HE and other texts in order to give a detailed look at the dissemination and popularity of Bede's works. He begins his essay by exploring the various avenues for 'publication' that Bede's works could have gone through at an early date. Through his manuscript work Westgard substantiates the Carolingian interest in and promotion of Bede, but also argues for a resurgence in popularity, based on the copying of texts, of Bede in the twelfth century. What this essay does, in a very empirical way, is cement the view that Bede was highly regarded and long read throughout the Middle Ages, but also hints at some of the ways in which he was important to later readers.
Sharon Rowley provides a convincing survey of the impact of Bede's thought on the late Anglo-Saxon world. She demonstrates that a wide variety of Bede's works became essential to English curriculum in the vernacular, citing especially the efforts of Byrhtferth and Aelfric. She spends some time looking at the Old English translator, demonstrating the translator's skill and speculating about motives. The overall impression gained from the essay is that a wide variety of Bede's texts had an impact, albeit one controlled by his users and translators, on the religious and cultural landscape of later Anglo- Saxon England and an impact that was felt on all levels of society.
In the final essay, Allen Frantzen highlights a number of different ways that Bede and/or his works have been used to construct English identity, from the Norman Conquest down to the present day. A fast- paced and fascinating survey, this essay demonstrates how Bede was reappropriated through the ages, made to fit the ideal promoted by the Normans, the Lollards, the English Protestants, or even early twentieth century scholars. This is a very thought-provoking essay, and should remind scholars of the danger of finding in Bede what they desire to find: ideals they value come to life in the distant Northumbrian past.
The contributors achieve the objectives of the volume clearly and efficiently. I hope the reader of this review will forgive me for going on at great length, for each of these essays is a dense wealth of information and perspective and each is worthy of close and thoughtful reading. This volume on Bede introduces readers to a writer, soundly contextualized, who had sophistication, nuance, and influence. The greatest objection that can be raised against the volume is not against the essays themselves, but what is not treated. One might have hoped for more discussion of Bede's poetical works or his chronicles. Also one might desire richer endnotes, but this appears to be a matter of series practice and the notes do point to the classics in the historiography. Of course not everything can make it into these slender Cambridge volumes. Nevertheless, this text, especially with its excellent further readings and bibliography, should be the first port of call for anyone seeking to engage with Bede or his world.
NOTES
[1] See Scott DeGregorio, ed., Innovation and Tradition in the Writings of the Venerable Bede (Morgantown: West Virgina University Press, 2006).
[2] For one example see Jennifer O'Reilly, "Islands and idols at the ends of the earth: exegesis and conversion in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica," in S. Lebecq, M. Perrin, and O. Szerwiniack, eds., The Venerable Bede: Tradition and Posterity (Villeneuve d'Ascq: CEGES, Université Charles-de-Gaulle, Lille III, 2005).