Alen Novalija

Bede's Ecclesiastical History: Genres, Motifs Andunderlying Beliefs Alen Novalija

Bede was well acquainted with genre categories andtheir delimitations. Yet, in his History he decidedto use a variety of literary types for making hisarguments more persuasive. The study isolates anddiscusses more than thirty genres employed in theEcclesiastical History. It also demonstrates howBede's work promotes Christian and national unity,serving edifying and critical functions, wrapped upin a miscellany of hagiographic and other genres. Hiswork connects the Anglo-Saxon tribes both externallyand internally. Externally it relates them to theuniversal Church and the Greco-Roman civilization,both personified in Rome and the papacy, andinternally it unifies them with each other. Bededraws a number of parallels associating theAnglo-Saxon Church and people with biblicalprototypes and is anxious to prove that the spread ofChristianity among the Anglo-Saxons is accompanied bythe same portents as in the early Church. He teachesthe laws of history to the rulers, and discoversdivine providence in every event. Anyone interestedin Bede's literary techniques, concepts, designs andvisionary ideas, often hidden behind quaint stories,should consult this research.