Bedes Eclesiastical History

Bede was well acquainted with genre categories and§their delimitations. Yet, in his History he decided§to use a variety of literary types for making his§arguments more persuasive. The study isolates and§discusses more than thirty genres employed in the§Ecclesiastical History. It also demonstrates how§Bede's work promotes Christian and national unity,§serving edifying and critical functions, wrapped up§in a miscellany of hagiographic and other genres. His§work connects the Anglo-Saxon tribes both externally§and internally. Externally it relates them to the§universal Church and the Greco-Roman civilization,§both personified in Rome and the papacy, and§internally it unifies them with each other. Bede§draws a number of parallels associating the§Anglo-Saxon Church and people with biblical§prototypes and is anxious to prove that the spread of§Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons is accompanied by§the same portents as in the early Church. He teaches§the laws of history to the rulers, and discovers§divine providence in every event. Anyone interested§in Bede's literary techniques, concepts, designs and§visionary ideas, often hidden behind quaint stories,§should consult this research.