Bede and Gregory's allusive angles - The Venerable Bede and Pope Gregory the Great - Critical Essay

Criticism, Summer, 2002 by Stephen J. Harris

Bede presumably wrote his history in a library whose shelves were stacked with Augustine, Jerome, Origen, Gregory, and others. His HE was written to fit into those shelves, to respond to their order, and to take up or to modify their metaphors and their semantic systems. Stories such as that of Gregory in the marketplace are written in language resonant with Scripture and commentary. If we are to reconstruct how communities--tribes, nations, provinces, churches--were understood by Bede, we must first consider his response to early medieval techniques of reading and writing. The exegetical method and the importance of recurrent symbols in historical narratives point to a way of thinking about a historical community like the gens Anglorum not only as the result of a shared compendium of stories, but more importantly, as a consequence of a common manner of interpreting old books.

Appendix: Gregory and the Anglian Slaves

1. From the anonymous monk of Whitby, The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge University Press, 1968); 90-91; dated by Colgrave to 704 x 714 A.D; translation by Colgrave:

Quod omnino non est tegendum silentio, quam spiritaliter ad Deum quomodoque cordis inconparabili speculo oculorum nostram porovidendo propagavit ad Deum conversionem. Est igitur narratio fidelium, ante predictum eius pontificatum, Roman venisse quidam de nostra natione forma et crinibus candidati albis. Quos cum audisset venisse, iam dilexit vidisse eosque alme [albe] mentis intuitu sibi adscitos, recenti specie inconsueta suspensus et, quod maximum est, Deo intus admonente, cuius gentis fuissent, inquisivit. Quos quidam pulchros fuisse pueros dicunt et quidam vero crispos iuvenes et decoros. Cumque responderent, "Anguli dicuntur, ille de quibus sumus," ille dixit, "Angeli Dei." Deinde dixit, "Rex gentis illius, quomodo nominatur?" Et dixerunt, "Aelli." Et ille ait, "Alleluia. Laus enim Del esse debet illic." Tribus quoque illius nomen de qua erant proprie requisivit. Et dixerunt, "Deire." Et ille dixit, "De ira Dei confugientes ad fidem."

(So we must not pass over in silence how, through the Spirit of God and with the incomparable discernment of his inward eye, he foresaw and made provision for our conversion to God. There is a story told by the faithful that, before he became Pope, there came to Rome certain people of our nation, fair-skinned and light-haired. When he heard of their arrival he was eager to see them; being prompted by a fortunate intuition, being puzzled by their new and unusual appearance, and, above all, being inspired by God, he received them and asked what race they belonged to. (Now some say they were beautiful boys, while others say that they were curly-haired, handsome youths.) They answered, "The people we belong to are called Angles." "Angels of God," he replied. Then he asked further, "What is the name of the king of that people?" They said, "AElli," whereupon he said, "Alleluia, God's praise must be heard there." Then he asked the name of their own tribe, to which they answered "Deire," and he replied, "They shall flee from the wrath of God to the faith.")