Bede on the Plague

In John Maddicott's article "Plague in Seventh Century England" reprinted with slight modification in Plague and the End of Antiquity (2007), he discusses how Bede alone of the writers of the Justinian plague did not see the plague as a curse or punishment from God. Northumbria's Golden Age Maddicott points to Bede's recognition that the...

PW: King Ecgfrith of Northumbria

On May 20th, 685 King Ecgfrith of Northumbria fell deep in Pictland at Dunnichen to King Bridei, who was somehow his cousin. As far as we know, Ecgfrith's death at Dunnichen marked the deepest incursion into Pictland that we know of in the Anglo-Saxon period. Given that Ecgfrith invaded to prevent loosing hegemony, it is...

Jarrow Lectures arrive

As I was working on the recent post on the Codex Amiatinus I got a surprise in the mail, the two newest Jarrow lectures (2004 & 2006) hot off the press. I had forgotten that I had even ordered them. You can set up a standing order with the Church of St. Paul, Jarrow [The...

PW: Cynefrith, Abbot of Gilling

Everything we know of Cynefrith is found in the Anonymous Life of Coelfrith, his brother. Here we learn (indirectly) that both Cynefrith and Coelfrith were kinsmen of King Oswine of Deira. It is clear that, following Irish fashion, Gilling was passed through blood relatives from its first abbot Trumhere, whom Bede describes as a close...

Bede and the Codex Amiatinus

I was reading over Ward's Bede and the Psalter at lunch today and came across one of those scholarly exaggerations that really gets under my skin. It follows the general principle that anything of any worth that came out of Wearmouth-Jarrow must be associated somehow with Bede. She goes beyond implication that Bede worked on...

PW: Trumberht, Bede’s Teacher

"ne of his [Bishop Chad's] brothers named Trumberht, a monk educated in his monastery and under his Rule and one of those who taught me Scriptures, used to tell me about him: if he happened to be reading or doing something else and suddenly a high wind arose, he would at once advoke the mercy...