Bede’s “Life of Cuthbert:” Preparatory to “The Ecclesiastical History”
Author: Joel T. Rosenthal
Source: The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Oct., 1982), pp. 599-611

The Ecclesiastical History, of course, was the culmination of Bede’s long career as an historical writer. His earlier works were by nature of an apprenticeship, one that he served by dint of productive labor in two separate fields ?chronology or chronography, and hagiography. “At the root of Bede’s historical studies are the science of computing dates and the cult of saints,” and to us, “The Historia Ecclesiastica seems the natural outcome of Bede’s work on saints’ lives and chronology.” By hindsight, at least, this looks obvious enough. However, it would be a grave mistake to view Bede’s ultimate synthetic work as a simple or inevitable step. Before Bede, these two literary veins ran at right angles more frequently than they converged to produce a richer literary product. Chronographie writings -by Bede as well as by his predecessors and mentors- were designed to establish an accurate calendar so that sacred history and human history could fit into the same coherent, universal framework. They had little to do with secular events, at least as they were explained by means of secular causation. Hagiography too had its own purposes. Hagiographie writings, written and read in every Christian community between Syria and the Hebrides, rarely displayed much interest in the specifics of place and/or time. The lives were but individualized bits of a universal genus, the tale of the holy hero, and the biographies were in no way hampered by their wonted neglect of chronological narrative structure or by their independence of the laws of temporal causation. Their central figure is usually depicted as standing pretty much alone, saving his friends and those who believe in him, resisting a host of satanic enemies. He stands successfully, to be sure; he dies gloriously and reposes without bodily corruption. Nevertheless, he is not portrayed as being part of or coming from an instrumental framework of human history or of secular institutions.

View the p. 599 as image.
View the p. 600 as image.
View the p. 601 as image.
View the p. 602 as image.
View the p. 603 as image.
View the p. 604 as image.
View the p. 605 as image.
View the p. 606 as image.
View the p. 607 as image.
View the p. 608 as image.
View the p. 609 as image.
View the p. 610 as image.
View the p. 611 as image.

Rosenthal – Bede's 'Life of Cuthbert' Preparatory to 'the Ecclesiastical History' by novitestamentistudiosus on Scribd

NOTE: Please be aware that the rights of this article belong only and exclusively to The Catholic Historical Review. You must not use this article for any commercial or professional activity without direct and explicit permission of it’s copyright holders. We do not store illegal materials nor promote any illegal activity, and this document is being cited only as a reference widely available through Internet, to help the personal study and investigation of researchers and students, without any kind of commercial/profitable usage.