The Gregorian Mission to Kent in Bede's Ecclesiastical History: Methodology and Sources

ISBN-13: 9781138060814 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 276 str.

Shaw, Richard

Opis

What material lay behind Bede’s narrative in his Ecclesiastical History? What were his sources and were they primary or secondary? This book represents the first systematic attempt to answers these questions, taking as a test case the coherent narrative of the Gregorian mission and the early church in Kent. Through this critique the book is able to catalogue Bede’s sources and assess their origins, provenance and value. The striking paucity of Bede’s primary sources for the period emerges clearly. This study explains the reason why this was the case. At the same time, Bede is shown to have had access to a greater variety of sources, especially documentary, than has previously been realised.

Spis treści

1. Introduction: An Early Medieval Historian at Work  PART ONE Constructing the Narrative of the Gregorian Mission to Kent  2. Gregory and the Mission: HE 1.23-33  3. The Mission Fathers: HE 2.1-11 and 15-20  4. Canterbury before Theodore: HE 3.8, 3.14, 3.20, 3.29 and 4.1  PART TWO Bede’s Sources for Kent before Theodore  5. Bede’s Sources Reconstructed  6. Bede’s ‘Canterbury Tales’  7. Conclusion: Bede’s Methods and Ours  Bibliography

O autorze

Richard Shaw is Associate Professor and Chairman of the History Department at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College. He has published on Antony of Egypt, Cassiodorus, Gregory of Tours, Augustine of Canterbury, Bede, Ælfric of Eynsham, Thomas Aquinas and François de Laval. He was awarded the 2014 Eusebius Essay Prize by the Journal of Ecclesiastical History and was shortlisted for the 2016 Medium Ævum Essay Prize.