'sMapping of

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odernhistorians of mappinghave assumeda wide understandingof what 'map' rnight mean. With regardto mcdievaltexts, the idea is undcrstoodto embracea rangeof genresthat includes,for example,rvorld maps,zonal diagrams, land survcys,itineraries, street plans, and architecturaldrawings.r^ At the sametimc, it may refcrto eithervisual or verbaltexts.' Bcde'snamc has been invoked in scholarlydiscussion of medievalmaps in connectionwith his De locis sanctis(On the Hollt Places) and his De temporum ratione (On the Calculalion of Time), but thus far his nxagnunlopus has rcrnainedoutside such discussion. This paper,however, will argue that mapping is central to the meaning of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorunt (Ecclesias/ical History of the English People) and substantiallyinforrns the narrative strucfurewhich advancesthat meaning.l The rcspcctiveassociations of De locis sanctisand De lentporunt ratione with rnappingprovidc a starting-pointfor this

' See CatherineDelano-Srnith and Roger J.P. Dain, EngtishMaps. A History, Studies in Map History2 (London:British Library 1999)l-5; P.D.A.Harvey, Medieval Maps (London: British Library l99l) 7-15. Delano-Smithand Dain (248 n. l) pointout tharthe liberarisation 'map' of thedefinition of wasfonnally initiated by J.B.Harley and David woodward in TheHistory of cartography,I . cartographvin prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediten.anean(Chicago and London:Universiry of ChicagoPress 1987) xvi. ' SeeHarvey, Medieval Maps,7-9. 'All referencesare to Bede'sEcclesiastical History of the Engtishpeople, ed. Bertram colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, oxford Medieval Texts (oxford: clarendon1969) from which botli Latin andEnglish quotations aretaken. l0 DIANE SPEED

argument,since they share relevantdiscourses with the Historia. De locis sanctis had its origins in a pilgrirnage to Jerusalemmade in the late seventhcentury by Arculf, a bishopof Gaul. On his way homehe was blown off course and was receivedfor a time by Adamnan,Abbot of Iona, to whom he describedhis travels. Soon afterrvards,between 686 and 688, basedon the noteshe had taken.Adamnan wrotea guide-bookto the Holy Places,De locissanctis; to illustratethe verbal tcxt he added ground-plansof four particularsites in the Holy Land, copied from sketches Arculf had made for him: the churchat Jacob'swell, the churchat the Placcof the Ascension,the basilicaon Mount Sion,and the building complex on Mount Golgotha. In 702- 03 Bede abridgedAdamnan's text to producehis own De Iocissanclrs, and copiedthe four drawingsinto it. The plans appearin manuscriptsof both works from the ninth century, andare treated as maps in thescholarly literature.a Latcron, in theHisloria, completed in J3l,' Bedeadds to his recordof this encounterbetween Arculf and Adarnnan (V.15)short but preciselydetailed accounts of thesites of the Lord's birth, passion,resurrection, and ascension,and the tombs of the patriarchs(V.16-17). These accountshe

' For tlre primary texts see Adantnan's De Loc'is Sanclis, ed. Denis Mechan, ScriptoresLatini Hiberniae 3 (Dublin: Dublin Institute fbr Advanccd Studies 1958) and lJede,De Locis Sctnclrs,J.-P. Migne ed., PatrologiaCursus Completus,Series Latina (Paris, 1844-91) 94 cols 1119-90. Bede's abridgementalso makes use of material from sources other than Adamnan: Colgrave and Mynors, EcclesiasticalHistory, 506- 'Bede's 07 n. l. Seealso J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Europe,'Jarrow Lecture 1962,in Bede and His World, pref. Michael Lapidge, 2 vols (Aldershot: '16-78: Variorum 1994) l: The Jarrow Lectures I958-1978, David 'Books Parsons, and Buildings:Architectural Description Before and After Bede,' Jarrow Lecture 1987, in Bede ond His llorld 2: The Jarrow Lecttrres1979-1993,733-39: Delano-Smithand Dain, English Maps,9- 11 and 249 n. ll; Harvey,Medieval Maps, 12-13. Date of Adamnan's text: Delano-Smithand Dain, 9; date of Bede'stext: Delano-Smithand Dain.l0. 5 Date:Bede's Ecclesiastical Historv.xvli. Bede'sMapping of England ll

introducesas extractsfrom Adamnan'stext, althoughtheir immediatesource is in fact his own earlier abridgement.o Adamnan's text he recommendsas a useful resourcefor thosewho can know about such distantplaces only frorn books(V. 15)- that is, he himselfregards the descriptions of the sites,presented as they might be encounteredby the traveller,as verbalmaps to be visualisedand followed in the mind's eye. In this they have a function similar to the ground-plansin the earliertexts. If Bede'sawareness of the principleof verbalmapping is thus plainly evidentin one part of the Historia, it will a priori be prornising to investigateits presencein otherparts. De temponrmralione, producedin 725, rs a developrncnt of work found in earlierforms in his De natura rerum (On the Nature of Things)and De temporibus(On Times),both from ca 703.' Bede'sDe temporumrationebecame central to a computustradition that flourished during the medicval period. Computustexts are concerned with the mcasurement of time in thecontext of thc cosmos,with specialreference to the calculationof future datesfor Easter. In thc field of cosmology, considerationsof time and spacc are interdependent,and illustrationsin the computus texts sometimestake the form of world maps with relevant indicationsadded. Bede himself supplied no suchvisual aids alongsidehis verbal argument,but they were sometimes introducedinto his work by subsequentcopyists.s The

" Bede'sEcclesiastical Histon 508 n. 2. t -by All thr"e texts are edited Charles W. Jones in Beclae Venerabilis Opera, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina (Turnhout: Brepols): De natura rentm, l23A (1980) 113-231;De temporihus,l23C (1975) 580- 611; De temporum ratione l23B (1977). For dates see see Wesley M. 'Bede's Stevens, ScientificAchievernent,' Jarrow Lecture 1985,Bede and His ll/orld 2, 648. 8 For the illustratedcomputus tradition and Bede's centralitysee Evelyn Edson, Mapping Time and Space:How Medieval Mapmakers Viewedtheir World, British Library Srudiesin Map History I (London: British Library 1997)52-96. For Bede's use of existing materials and his own 'Bede's contributionsee Stevens, ScientificAchievement'. pctssim. l,) 'L DIANE SPEED

potentialfor visualisationin Bede'sverbal descriptions and instructions,that is, was realisedby medievalreaders in acfualmapping, with the implicationthat the verbaltext itself waseffectively verbal mapping. The calculationof Easteremerges as a majordiscourse in the Histctria, and this is discussedbelow as it is arguably relatedto Bede'smapping of England. The immediateand obviousmanifestation of computusmapping in the Historia, however,comes at the very beginning. Book I, chapter 1, openswith an explanationof the island'sposition in the world with referenceto mainland Europe,on the one hand,and the oceansbeyond, on the other:

BRITTANIA Oceani insula, cui quondam Albion nomenfuit, inter septentrionemet occidentemlocata est,Germaniae Galliae Hispaniae, maximis Europae partibus,multo interualloaduersa.

(BRITAIN, oncc called Albion, is an island of the ocean and lies to the north-r.vest,being opposite Germany,Gaul, and Spain,which form the greater part of Europe, though at a considerabledistance from thcm.)

This is followed by u note on the length,breadth, and circumferenceof Britain,followed in turn by an indicationof the points where Britain and Europemost nearly approach each other: to the south lies Belgic Gaul, from which the shortestjourney, of fifty miles,is betweenGaul's Boulogne (Gessoricaum),in the land of the Morini, and Britain's Richborough(Rutubi Portus). The explanationof Britain in tennsof its facing the continentthen givesway to a note of whatlies on theother side of theisland: la Bede'sMapping of England IJ

A tergoautem, unde Oceano infinito patet, Orcadas insulashabet.

(Behind the island,where it lies open to the boundlessocean, are the Orkney islands.)

This accountassumes the reader'sability to understand directionsand distancesvery much as in a visual map, locating the relationshipof the placcs mentionedto cach other on a plan in the mind's eye. The idea that Britain is marginalto continentalEuropc, and that the oceannot only surrounds islands but lies beyond all land, irnrnediately suggestsa typical world map of the so-calledT-O kind, which setsthe threeknown land masseswithin a circre,thc O, whosebounding circumfcrence is thc ocean. The Eastis at the top, Asia occupiesthe upperhalf of the circle,Europe the lower lcft quadrant,and Afiica the lower right quadrant, the threeseparated frorn eachother by bodiesof watcr. The Meditenaneanis, as it were,the upright strokeof the T, the Don is effectively the left horizontal strokc, and the Nile servcsas the right horizontalstroke; Jerusalem often marks the approximatecentre of the world. Britain, ,and othcr furthcr islandsappear near the cdgc of thc lower lcft quadrant.eEnglish exarnples include ti'e Anglo-Saxon,or Cotton,World Mup, from ca 1050,found in a manuscript with computusmaterial, and the large Hereford world Mup, paintedon parchment,from the latethirteenth cenfury.r0

'For tlre tradition of T-o mapssee, for exarnpre,Harvey, Medieval Maps, l8-37; P.D.A. Harvey, Mappa Mundi; The Here.ford Wortd Map (London: British Library 1996)20-39; Edson,Mapping Tirneand Space,4_5. '" For reproductionsof thesemaps, see Harvey, Mappa Mundi,lg and29, respectively;Harvey, Mappa Mundi,28 and facing l, respectively;Edson, Mapping Time and space,8 and PlateVlI, respectivery.Detailed sections of the Hereford world Map, togetherwith text and translationof all the inscriptions,are provided by scott D. westrem, The Hereford Map; a Transcription and Trctnslationof the Legenclswith comm"rti,-y, Tenarum Orbis I (Turnhout:Brepols 2001). t4 DIANE SPEED

Although thereis no extantworld map specificallyfrom Bede's period, those from later periods are thought to representa continuinstradition that went back to Roman times.rr The oldesteitant detailedworld ffi&p,however, is not much laterthan Bede,and it is clearlyrelated to the T-O Upe. This is the Albi sketchffiap, from the secondhalf of the eighth century, produced in Spain or south-western France,and found in a manuscriptcollection of geographical excerpts,where it is placednear the geographicalchapter (I.2) of the early-fifth-cenfuryrvorld history of Orosius, Historiarum adversum pagq(os libri VII (Seven Books oJ' Historyagainst the Pagans).'' The geographicalchapter in Orosius,recognised as an importantinfluence on the developmentof the T-O map,t' is also recognisedas the main source of Bede's opening passagc.r4"It is not impossiblethat Bedewas familiarwith actualT-O mapsas well aswith Orosius,but eitherway it is clearthat his Historia beginswith a substantialverbal map reminisccntof thc T-O type. In repeatingOrosius's advicc on the nearestcontinental port for prospectivetravellers to Britain (transmeantibus),

" Scholars'particularvicws vary, but there seemsto be conscnsusin principle: sec Harvey, MedievalMaps,19-25; Harvey,Mappa Mundi,22- 2f ; Edson,Mapping Timeand Spttce,II. tt Pattli Orosii Historianln adversum Paganos Iibri 14l, ed. C. Zangemeister(Leipzig: Tcubner 1889). For the Albi map see Edson, Mopping Time and Space,32, where the T-O patternis unmistakablebut not so identified;Edson refersto the T-O type later as emergingfrom the Carolinsianrenaissance ( I 64). '' Edro"n,Mapping Tim'eoid Space,3l-35. The ongoing authority of Orosius in rvorld maps is illustratedby the referenceto his history as a sourceon the HerefordMap: Westrem,The Hereford Map,6-7 . 'o Bedealso makes some use of Pliny, Solinus,and Gildasin this chapter: his sourcesare identified in the annotationsand notes to the chapter in VenerabilisBaedae opera historica, ed. CharlesPlummer,2 vols (1896; rpt Oxford: Clarendon 196l) and acceptedby Colgrave and Mynors, Bede's EcclesiasticalHistory, l4-15, and J.M. Wallace-Hadnll, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary, OxfordMedievalTexts (Oxford: Clarendon 1988) 6-10. Bede'sMapping of England l5

Bede makesclear the continental,or Roman,perspective of the narrating voice. Britain as land and text comes into cognisanceon a journey from Gaul, the westernlimit of the Roman Empire before the conquestof Britain itself. The opening sentences have given Britain position and dimension,but it is only oncethe islandis gazedupon by travellers from the continentthat it acquiresmeaning as potentialhuman habitation. This factor, establishedat the outset,remains the assumedposition of the text throughout. The samefactor also framesthe whole text that follows as a kind of traveldiary, or rnemorialitinerary, which will lead the readeras travellerthrough an historicallandscape to the end of the Historia, when he or she will join thc Bedan narratorin the presenttime and place from which he has spoken,frorn memory,all along. Adopting the travellcr's gaze, the reader is shown the nafural resourcesof the land that make human habitation viable,and a summarynote of that habitationis providedin thc commentthat the land usedto havetwenfy-eight noblc citiesand other fortified places. This furtherstrengthens the effectof mappingthe land,for oneway in which world lnaps like the Cottonand HerefordMaps declarc their concernwith the inhabited,and especiallycivilised, world is through miniature drawings of cities or castles at relevant sites. Human expericnceof the land is likewiseassumed in the scientificexplanation of seasonalvariations in daylightthat follows and furtherassociates the rnappingof Britain with contputus. The restof thefirst chapteris concernedwith theposition and propertiesof Irelandand the settlementof Britain by the Britons, Picts, and Irish (Scotti),in turn. No motive is attributed to these Celtic immigrations,and there is no concemfor the lives of theseancient peoples beyond the fact of their settlingthe land. In this sensethe first chaptermay be regardedas pre-history. History properrnay be said to begin in chapter2, as the unspecifiedtravellers of chapter1 are tracedback to one namedRoman generalwho pioneersthe journey to Britain from the land of the Morini which, the readeris reminded, 16 DIANE SPEED

allowsfor the shortestcrossing - the generalinformation of chapteri is now individualisedin his personalexperience. Until the arrival of Julius Caesar,Britain has remained unvisitedand unknown(inaccessa atque incognita). Britain has existed,has even been inhabited,but it is texrually insignificantuntil the adventof the first traveller,this man frorn Rome. The mappingfactor thus constructs the overall narratorialpoint of view; bothactual and textual significance are avarlableonly in termsof Romanperception, which is the assumedinheritance of bothnarrator and reader. The rest of Book I continuesto prescnt Britain as meaningfulonly insofar as it is viewed from the continent. In that siruadonits primary identiry is as the other to an established,fbcal entity, and as such it is largely undifferentiatedwithin. Particularlocations in Britain are mentioned from timc to time Caesar,for example, marchesto the Thames(L2), Alban's marryrdomoccurs at St Albans(I.7: Verulamium),the Britonsbuild defensivewalls in the North (I.12) and later win a victory at Mount Badon (I.16),Gregory's missionary Augustine arrives at Thanetin Kent in 597 (I.25)- but Britainis essentiallyone Britain, inhabitedby the Britishcollectively, and other to Rome;the Pictsand the Irishare relegated to outlyingareas, where they arc geographicallyand culturally marginalto the central space inhabited by the Britons. The treatmentof time rcinforcesthe treatmentof place: the narrativeof Book I moves across six hundred years or so at a great rush, speciSringbut scarcely realising meaningful intervals of time, even as the spaceof the land is scarcelydistinguished in its parts. In thecourse of Book I Britainis colonisedfrom Romein two senses,first by the Empire,then by the Church,which retrospectivelydefines the Empire as secular, and the narrativetravels back and forth betweenthe secularand the religious in this Book as it does through the rest of the Historia. In Book I the onenessof Britain is articulated underboth formsof colonisation. Christianifyfirst comesto the land in the time of a British king, Lucius: he writes to the pope asking to be made a Bede'sMapping of England t7

Christian,his requestis granted,and the Britons receivethe faith as a nationalgroup (I.4). The early Churchin Britain is presentedas simply sharing in the life of the universal Church. It is the generalpersecution of Christiansunder Diocletianthat leadsto the marlyrdomof Alban (I.6-7) and Britain is invadedby the universalArian heresy(I 8). Even when Britain becomesthe sourceof a heresythat spreads through the rest of the world, through the teachingof the Briton Pelagius(I.i0), the British Churchitself is infected from abroadthrough a follower of Pelagiusand has to scek help from the bishopsof Gaul to combatthe heresyin its ranks(I.17). The paganGermanic races who arrivein the fifth century are said to be from spccifictribcs and areasin Gcrmany- the Angles,Saxons, and Jutes - andthc respectiveareas of Britain in which they settleare namcd,thcreby establishing the origin of the scparatekingdorns in thc writer's prescnt; but at this stage the invadersare prescntedas acting in concert,with the one generaleffect of driving the British themselvesto outlyingareas of theland (I. 15). On theeve of the secondcoming of Christianityfrorn Rome- this timc to thepagan English - theBritish pass into thebackground, an undiffercntiatedgroup in the generalisedspacc of the land thatbcars their narne(1.22). The first stageof Augustine'smission takes place in .,Ethelberht'skingdom of Kent,and Augustine's headquarters are establishedin Canterbury(L25). The Kentish,we have been told (I. l5), are descendedfrom the Jutes,yet Pope Gregory makes Augustinearchbishop of the English as a whole (L27: archiepiscopusgenti Anglorum). At this point, the Kentish peopleare metonymousfor the English as a whole, rather than literally constirutingone part of that nation. Augustineis sentthe palliun't as a sign that he has autlrorify to consecrateother bishops (L29), and this foreshadowsthe sequential colonisation of individualparts of the land for the Roman Catholic Church in the ongoing narrative. Britain remains a generally undifferentiated,outlying, areaon a world mapup to the lastchapter of Book L At that l8 DIANE SPEED

point, however, the text swings away from Kent to and its powerful but non-Christianking, Athelfrith (I.34). The introductionof anotherAnglo-Saxon scene retrospectively redefines the Kentish scene as subnationalrather than national. Through the remainingfour booksof the Historia Bedeholds up the idealof oneEngland in whichvarious kings and peoples work togetherin peaceas membersof the nationwideRoman Catholic Church, but he negotiatesa textualjourney through a mix of severaldistinct subnationalagendas. Havingbeen introduced as a subnationalentify, however, Northr-rmbriais temporarilyleft aside at the bcginning of Book II so that a new referential structure may be established.The realmsof Kent,Northumbria, and the rest arenot just racialgroupings with petfykings as their leaders, tlrey are missionary territories to be absorbedinto the centralisedChurch. Thc narrativeopens with a Life of Pope Gregory and an account of his determinationto bring Christianilyto the 'angelic'people of England(II.l: non Angli sed angeli), therebyaffirming papal authorityfor the conversionof thc English and a Roman definition of England'sidentity. The existingBritish Church is now unauthorised,its membersheretical (ILZ perfidi), and it is therebyplaced outsidethe missionaryendeavour as either partneror target. The mainpractice which definesthe British as hereticsis their failure to acceptthe Romanpractice for datingEaster, which becomesthe dorninantcritcrion for tull membershipin the RomanCatholic Church of the Historia; their main crime is their failureto preachChristianify to the pagan English, which necessitatesthe new mission from Romeand givesrise to the textthat follows. The new ecclesiasticalstructure is enacted with the appointmentof bishopsfor the East Saxonsand for Kent itself (IL3) and,when in due courseAugustine is succeeded in Canterburyby Laurence(II.4), the principle of orderly successionis articulated.As appropriatefor an ecclesiastical history, the text marks the progressionof time in part by announcingeach new ecclesiasticalleader of the nation in turn, that is, eachnew archbishopof Canterbury(IL7, II.8, Bede'sMapping of England l9

II.18,III.20,III.29,IV.1, V.8, V.23), along with theregional bishops;the first archbishopof Canterburyto be obeyedby the whole EnglishChurch is Theodore(IV.1). The secular rulers who most nearly approxirnateto over-kingsare, by contrast, merely listed together,prospectively, when the deathof Athelberhtis noted(II.5). As far as Bede could have known, it would be ecclesiasticalrather than secular powerthat would ultimately hold the English nation together. The point is madetextually as the rnonasticnarrating voice moves frorn one kingdom to another,as if to knit them all togetherin a unifiedvision through the power of thepcn. The convcrsionof the Southwell underway (II.3-8), the narrativcshifts back to the North, recordingthe deathof thc Northumbrianking Athelfrith (IL9). Under the next king, Edwin, Northurnbriais converted(II.9-13), and a sccond archbishopricis establishedat York (lI.l4, 17),so thatthc potentiallyChristian nation is definedas cxtendingsouth to north, from thc Kcntish coastto the Northumbrianbordcrs. Graphicallyspeaking, the restof the conversionprocess is a filling-in of placesin-befween. In Book II, the EastSaxons (II.3) and the EastAngles (II.15) arealso converted. Many peopleare convertedin the courseof Book III - the West Saxons(III.7), the Middle Angles(lII.21), and the Mercians (III.2q.ts The lastpagans are converted in Book IV - the SouthSaxons (IV.l3) andthose on theIsle of Wight(IV.16). The conversionsare punctuated by occasionalapostasies, but thescpass. The paganPicts beyond English territories are alsoconverted (III.4). Conversionon its own,however, does not achieveinstant uniry in the land. Two other factorsemerge as particularly significant: the relationshipbetween ecclesiasticaland secularauthorities, and the acceptanceof one practicefor the datingof Easter.

l5 These groups two are representedas distinct,with Peadaas king of the 'ii"] Middle Angles and Pendaas king of the Merciansand evidentlyover-king ',J lj of the Middle Angles: see Colgrave and Mynors, Bede's Ecclesiastical .i Histortt.278-19n.2. 'li :li ;tc 20 DIANE SPEED

The mapping of the Christiannation is seento involve agreementand mufual assistancebetween Church and State. From the start, co-operationof the secular rvith the ecclesiasticalauthorities is recountedapprovingly. Justas, for example,Athelberht of Kent givesappropriate assistance to Augustine'smission, so Edwin of Northumbriaworks closely with Paulinus(IL14-15), Oswald of Northumbria with Aidan (IIi.3), Cynegislof theWest Saxons with Birinus (III.7),Sigeberht of theEast Anglians with Felix(III.18), and both Sigeberhtof the East Saxonsand Oethelwaldof Northumbriawith Ccdd(IIL22 andIIL23, respectively). The king providesthe bishopwith practicalsupport, the bishop exercisesspirirual direction of the king, and the implication is that the systemworks best when the Church holds the ultirnateauthority. Within thebasically Christian nation, the establishment of the centralisedauthority of the Roman Catholic Church under the popc and his deputies,the bishops,is mapped aboveall in thc progressiveacceptance of the contemporary Romanpractice for the dating of Easter. The altemativeis the Celtic practice,observed amongst the British and the English who come under their influence. Early warnings delivered to the British and thc Irish by thc Roman missionarybishops (II.2 and II.4, respectively)and to the Irishby thepope himself (1I.19) foreshadow a loomingcrisis which is both broughtto a head(III.3) and resolved(III.25) throughthe actionsof Christiankings rvho submit to the Church. It is significantthat the issuecomes to a head texfually in the realm, Northumbria,that lies furthestfrom Canterbury and, likewise, that it should be resolved definitivelyin the samerealm, Northumbria, from which the authoritativenarratorial voice emanates. When Oswald comesto the throne of Northumbria,he asksthe Irish by whom he wasbaptised while in exileto send his Englishsubjects a missionarybishop, and the man sentis Aidan (III.3). Oswald'spious requestis logical enough, given his background,and Aidan carriesout his missionin the most admirablewoy, exceptthat he follows the Celtic practiceof datingEaster (III.17). The issueis finally debated Bede'sMapping of England 2l

by clergymen representingthe two sides at the Synod of Whitby, in the presenceof King Oswiu and his son Alhfrith, who have beentaught opposing practices. Oswiu is seeking agreementone way or the other, on the groundsthat those who serveone God shouldobserve the one rule, and he eventuallydeclares the Romanpractice best becausehe has beenshown that it is basedon the authorityof St Peterand ultimately Christ himself. The episodedemonstrates the importanceof agreementbetween secular and ecclesiastical authoriryfor the good of the State,while at the salnetirnc it articulatesclearly the precedenceover the Statethat should be accordedthe Roman Catholic Church. Those who choosc to continuc in error physically remove thernselvesfrom Roman Northurnbriaand refum to Ireland (III.26). The importanceof the issueis emphasisedthrough continuing referencesto it, notably concerningthe later acceptanceof the Romanpractice by someof the British (V.15, 18) and Irish (V.22,24),and thc Pictsas a whole(V.21). With his report of this last eventBede reproducesa long letter frorn Ccolfrithdetailing to the Pictishking, Ncchtan,the reasons for the rightnessof the Roman practice. Acceptanceof authoriryprecedes full understandingof its rationale,in a kind of mimesisof faith itself. A comparablearticulation of authorily has been observedabovc, in the way the outer lirnits of the authorisedChurch of England were mapped first, to define the further rnissionary territories thcy contained. Book IV is broadlyconcerned with the consolidationof the Churchin England. Specialefforts are madeto improve leanringin the Church(IV.2, 18),and the threatof heresy from abroad is now resolvedby the English themselves without outside help, in Theodore'ssynod of Hatfield (IV.17). But this Book is especiallyrich in accountsof personal saintlinessand the miraculousexperiences of a numberof men,women, and children,in variousparts of the land (IV.3, 7-11, 74, 19-20, 22-32). These accounts confirm the presenceand illustratethe benefitsof a well- established,living, Church;they expoundand exempliflithe nafureof the earthlyChurch as the collectiveof individual 22 DIANE SPEED

Christians;and they show that this Churchis in communion with the eternalkingdom. In mappingterms, the landand its peoples are identified as the Church, in a kind of foreshadowing of the Apocalyptic union of the new Jerusalemand the Lamb (Revelation2l). One topic thatdistinguishes Book V is missionin a new guise:now it is initiatedby Englishclergy rvho go to work variouslyamongst the Pictsand the Irish who follow wrong paths (V.9) and the still-paganGermanic peoples on the continent(V.9-l 1). In a sense,this representsa reversalof thc perspectiveof the earlier parts of the Historia, where Britainand its peopleshad significance only insofaras they were gazedon successivelyby the continentalEmpire and Church. But Romestill holdsthe key to salvation;it is not only from Romethat authorityis derivedbut alsoto Rome that earnestfaces furn. When Caedwalla,king of the West Saxons,and Cenred,king of Mercia,renounce their thrones and seekthe life of holy men in Romeitself (V.7 andV.19, respectively),the implicationis that they have chosenthe bettcrpart. Having bccomeknown,r6 Britain participatcsactively in the univcrsal life that both unites continentand island without attributionof marginalityto either and invokes awarenessof a further plane of existence,from whosc perspcctiveall else is other,and one. This furtherplane of existenceis the secondtopic that distinguishesBook V, manifest in severaldetailed visions of heaven and hell (V.12-14). Along with the narrator,the readerglimpses the spirirual cosmos beyond the physical cosmos, and understands,if not fully, that England is ultimately significantbecause it rs gazedupon by its Creator. Bede's accountof Adamnan'saccount of Arculf s accountof his pilgrimageto Jerusalem(V.15-17) is a reminderboth of the historical foundation of the Church and of its eternal destination.

r6Cp. Psalm 139.1-6,1 Corinthians 13.12. Bede'sMapping of England 23

The contentsof the whole Historia may now be viewedszrD specieaeternitatis.

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY