Bede: The Final Analysis

Jacob Philip Hackert. Italian Landscape.
1778. Oil on canvas. Private collection.

Professor Schect explains some background on The Ecclesiastical History of the English People: "Bede devotes much attention to Augustine and also to the visionary who sent Augustine to England, Pope Gregory the Great. Don’t be misled by the title “pope,” for in Gregory’s and Bede’s day that title did not carry the meaning that it has with us today. In fact, today’s notion of “pope” only began to emerge 500 years after Gregory. In Gregory’s day, scores of bishops all over Europe were called “pope” (Latin papa, which simply means “father”), and the bishop of Rome was one bishop among many. Pope Gregory did not see himself as supreme over the other bishops or “popes,” and he welcomed encouragement, correction and admonition from bishops in other cities. He condemned the idea that one bishop wielded authority over the whole church and stressed this point in several letters (Bede does not record these letters, but they are preserved elsewhere). Gregory even claimed that anyone who presumed to have such a lofty status in the church, or who calls himself a “universal” or “ecumenical” priest, is an antichrist. Why, then, did missionaries to England, such as Augustine, hold the popes of Rome in such high regard? Largely because Rome happened to be the place from where these missionaries were sent. When a missionary goes far off into the hinterlands, it’s only natural that he will seek the advice and counsel of the church which sent him out. This is a key reason why it was so natural for the English missionaries to submit themselves to the bishops of Rome the way they did. Of course, widespread respect for the great city of Rome also had something to do with the influence of that city’s bishop: the bishop of Rome was no ordinary bishop, because Rome was no ordinary place."
Agenda: 

1.  Pray
2. Finish Lecture on Book 4
3. Notes on Caedmon's Hymn
4. Lecture on Book 5 and Lindisfarne
5. Review HW:
1. Study notes on Bede for the exam on Friday (10/11). That includes Reading Journals!
2. Be perfect. (Matt. 5:48)