UCC Library and UCC researchers have made this item openly available. Please let us know how this has helped you. Thanks! Title Brides of Christ, royal marriage and the conversion of the English in Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Author(s) MacCarron, Máirín Publication date 2007 Original citation MacCarron, M. 2007. Brides of Christ, royal marriage and the conversion of the English in Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Link to publisher's http://library.ucc.ie/record=b1682490 version Access to the full text of the published version may require a subscription. Rights © 2007, Máirín MacCarron. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Embargo information Not applicable Item downloaded http://hdl.handle.net/10468/6147 from Downloaded on 2021-09-23T15:18:30Z BRIDES OF CHRIST, ROYAL MARRIAGE AND THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH IN BEDE’S HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA by Máirín MacCarron Submitted for the degree of Ph.D., National University of Ireland, Cork, Department of History, December 2007 Head of Department: Prof. Dermot Keogh Supervisor: Dr Jennifer O’Reilly for my parents, with love and thanks Table of Contents Acknowledgements 4 Abbreviations 5 Introduction 6 Bede in Modern Scholarship: - (i) Bede and Women 6 - (ii) Bede’s HE and Bede’s Exegesis 9 - (iii) Bede’s reasons for writing the HE 11 Thesis Outline 15 1. Marriage Imagery in the New Testament, Patristic Thought 17 and the Writings of Bede Christ and the Church in Scripture and Patristic Exegesis: - (i) Marriage Imagery in the New Testament 19 - (ii) Other Pauline Images of Christ and the Church: the temple and the body 23 - (iii) Old Testament Marriage Imagery in Christian Thinking 27 - (iv) Union of Christ and the Church in Augustine’s thought – Psalm 18:6(19:5), ‘and he, as a bridegroom coming out of his bride chamber’ 29 - (v) Christology in the fifth-century Church 33 - (vi) Christology and Ecclesiology post-Chalcedon 38 Ecclesiology and Christology in Bede’s Thought: - (i) Bede’s exegesis 43 - (ii) Bede’s HE 50 2. Edwin and Æthelburh: Royal Marriage and the King’s 54 Conversion Bede’s account of Edwin’s conversion 56 Edwin and Æthelburh’s marriage 59 1 Threat to Æthelburh: - (i) Profanation of the Temple 66 - (ii) Idolatry in Bede 72 - (iii) Rædwald’s apostasy 79 Æthelburh’s role in Edwin’s salvation: 82 - (i) 1 Corinthians 7:14 – ‘the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife’ 84 - (ii) Bede and Æthelburh 89 Conclusion – Bede’s narrative and Pope Boniface V’s letters 93 3. From Æthelburh to Eanflæd: Christianity and the 96 Northumbrian People Paulinus and the Northumbrians: - (i) Paulinus’ mission 96 - (ii) Birth of the Northumbrian Church 101 Ionan mission to Northumbria 108 Oswiu and Eanflæd: - (i) Synod of Whitby 117 - (ii) Eanflæd’s role 123 The Northumbrian Church 132 4. Æthelthryth: Royal Bride to Heavenly Queen 133 Æthelthryth, Bede and recent scholarship: - (i) Æthelthryth in the HE 134 - (ii) Recent interpretations of Bede’s Æthelthryth 137 Virginity and the Bride of Christ in Scripture and Patristic Exegesis 145 Virginity and the Anglo-Saxons: - (i) Aldhelm’s De Virginitate 159 - (ii) Bede and Æthelthryth’s ascetic lifestyle 162 - (iii) Æthelthryth and Wilfrid 165 - (iv) Virginity and Marriage in Bede’s thought 168 Æthelthryth’s necklace: 172 - (i) Dangers of Adornment 173 2 - (ii) Heavenly Adornment 177 - (iii) Adornment in Anglo-Saxon sources 182 - (iv) Æthelthryth’s statement 184 - (v) White and Red 185 Bede’s Hymn for Æthelthryth - HE IV.20(18) 189 5. Handmaids of the Lord: Hild and other holy women in 197 Bede’s HE Hild in the HE 197 Hild and Æthelthryth 200 Hild’s mother’s vision: - (i) Hild as necklace 203 - (ii) Necklace and Light imagery 205 Ascension to Heaven 207 Location of narratives concerning holy women in the HE 210 Bibliography Primary Sources 215 Secondary Sources 225 3 Acknowledgements So many people have been supportive and encouraging during the life of this thesis that even though not all can be named here their many kindnesses are not forgotten. Of those who must be properly acknowledged, my family deservedly come first. My parents have supported this and every endeavour I have undertaken with the same pleasing mixture of pride, bewilderment, encouragement and understanding that allows me to persevere, while keeping everything in perspective. My brothers, Brendan and Pádraig, unfailingly provide unconditional support. My uncle and aunt, Bernard and Heather O’Donoghue, have been a constant source of sound advice throughout this process, and often extended their gracious hospitality on visits to libraries first and family second in Oxford. I am especially grateful to Heather who read a late draft of the thesis and responded very positively to it. Many friends – in academia and beyond – listened, encouraged, supported and talked sense whenever any of these were required. I am very grateful to all of these but especially indebted to Maeve Bent, Dr Brian Butler, Mary-Teresa Hurley, Dr Elizabeth Mullins and Emer Purcell. The staff of the Boole Library, U.C.C., and especially the wonderful team in Special Collections have been courteous, obliging and good-humoured always. I am grateful to the History Department for awarding me the Michael Joseph McEnery Memorial Scholarship in 2002 and for my receipt of a Teaching Scholarship in the same year. I am particularly thankful to Prof. Dermot Keogh for the various teaching and research opportunities that have come my way since then. Within Medieval History, Dr Damian Bracken and Dr Diarmuid Scully have been supportive and encouraging since I first began studying the subject as an undergraduate. I am grateful to Dr Margaret Clayton for being a remarkably efficient and thorough proof-reader who made many helpful suggestions, and a much valued friend. Finally, I am most grateful to my supervisor, Dr Jennifer O’Reilly, for being a constant provider of advice, encouragement and support throughout this process, and for generously sharing her deep knowledge of her subject, her unpublished research, and her time. 4 Abbreviations ACW Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation, ed. J. Quasten and J.C. Plumpe (The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C.) ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. P. Schaff BMLC Bryn Mawr Latin Commentaries, ed. J. Haig Gaisser and J.J. O’Donnell CCSL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina (Turnhout) FOTC Fathers of the Church: a new translation (The Catholic University of America Press, Washington D.C.) HE Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), ed. C. Plummer, Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica (Oxford 1896, repr. 1969); ed. and tr. B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford 1969, repr. 2001); tr. L. Sherley-Price and rev. R.E. Latham (London 1955, repr. 1965, 1968, 1990) MGH SRM Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum NJBC R.E. Brown, J.A. Fitzmyer, and R.E. Murphy, ed., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (London 1968, repr. 2000) NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1 and 2, ed. P. Schaff ODCC F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition (Oxford 1997) PG Patrologia graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne PL Patrologia latina, ed. J.-P. Migne SC Sources Chrétiennes (Paris) TTH Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool University Press, Liverpool) WSA Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (New York) All Scriptural quotations, unless otherwise specified, are from Douay 1609. 5 Introduction To write a full-length doctoral study on any aspect of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum after decades of scholarship devoted to Bede and his writings may seem a superfluous exercise suggesting great conceit on the part of the candidate. Indeed, when this project was begun such an end product, if it had been considered at all, would have seemed inconceivable. However, after initial study of the theme of conversion in Insular sources in general and the Historia Ecclesiastica in particular, it gradually became apparent that the role of women in the HE, including those whose royal marriages often facilitated the spread of Christianity, would be a worthwhile subject of investigation which might make a contribution to our understanding of Bede’s objectives, sources and techniques in his presentation of the conversion of the Angli. The Introduction will begin by surveying contemporary scholarship on Bede in order to locate the thesis in the current debates. This will focus on three areas that have received much comment in recent years: Bede’s attitude to women and marriage, the relationship between Bede’s HE and his other writings, and Bede’s likely objectives in writing the HE. Bede in modern scholarship (i) Bede and Women While much work has been done in recent years on the position of women and marriage in Anglo-Saxon England, women and marriage in Bede’s HE have not been considered in the context of the work as a whole or in the light of Bede’s intellectual and cultural background. In general surveys the lives of Anglo-Saxon women in the pre-conversion period are often presented very positively with the corresponding argument that the situation for women deteriorated with the arrival of Christianity.1 However, Klinck has persuasively challenged this view in a comprehensive study of law codes from the Anglo-Saxon period. She argues that most women’s rights and their freedom with regard to marriage or entering the 1 See S.C. Dietrich, ‘An Introduction to Women in Anglo-Saxon society (c.600-1066),’ in B. Kanner, ed., The Women of England: From Anglo-Saxon times to the Present (London 1980) 32- 56.