Historia Ecclesiastica Research Articles

„Patriarchen“ oder „Patriarchate“? (Sokrates, h.e. V 8,14)

ABSTRACT Socrates' record (Historia ecclesiastica V 8) of the Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople 381) seems to be influenced by a document forged in favour of the see of Constantinople. In Historia ecclesiastica V 8,14 one should read πατριαρχίας, not πατριάρχας.

Some Notes about Mary Roper Clar(c)ke Bassett and her Translation of Eusebius

Mary Clar(c)ke Bassett (née Roper) was Thomas More granddaughter. From her mother Margaret, she inherited a taste for writing: Mary’s translation of his grandfather’s History of the Passion, included by William Rastell in More’s English works (1557), was the only text by a woman to appear in print during the reign of Mary Tudor. However, this paper will not deal with the aforementioned work, but rather with a less well known text that has also come down to us: a translation of Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica, attributed to “Maria Clarcke” (Harleian MS. 1860) and preserved in the British Museum.

The Old English Bede: English Ideology or Christian Instruction?

The Old English Bede (OEB), a vernacular version of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica (HE), was written sometime before c.900, possibly at King Alfred's behest. It adds little to Bede's text but makes substantial excisions and abbreviations, removing much historical narrative, many quoted documents and most references to theological controversy. It is often argued that Bede provided an ideological blueprint for the creation of a single English kingdom in the tenth century, but the parts of the HE upon which this interpretation depends are among those omitted from the OEB. This is significant, since there are indications that the OEB was more widely known that the HE in the tenth century. It seems that the translator was not concerned with promoting an English ideology. Rather, he appears to have aimed to produce a text focussed on the inculcation of virtue through examples. This interpretation of the OEB has significant implications for our understanding of the significance of ‘Englishness’ and of whether it was believed that the English were a ‘chosen people’ who enjoyed a ‘special relationship’ with God. In turn, this demands reconsideration of the factors underlying the emergence and endurance of the English kingdom.

O’Donnell, Daniel Paul. 2005. <i>Cædmon’s Hymn: A multimedia study, edition and archive</i>. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer. xxii + 261 pages + CD-ROM.

Cædmon’s Hymn is the name given to a poem recorded in Old English in some manuscripts of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, an ecclesiastical history of the English people written in the early eighth century at Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria. It has long received the attention of Anglo-Saxonists for many reasons, but particularly because it is (perhaps) the oldest surviving record of poetry in Old English, it is one of the very few poetic texts from Anglo-Saxon England which survives in multiple copies, and its transmission is unusually complex even for an early medieval text. Despite this interest, however, O’Donnell’s is the most comprehensive study to date.

Historia Ecclesiastica (review)

Reviewed by: Historia Ecclesiastica A. P. Martinich Thomas Hobbes . Historia Ecclesiastica. Critical edition by Patricia Springborg, Patricia Stablein, and Paul Wilson. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2008. Pp. 729. Cloth, €130.00. This book in effect consists of two parts. The first part contains seven chapters on Historia Ecclesiastica Carmine and related topics, written by Patricia Springborg over many years. While valuable, they will not be discussed here because these have been previously published. The second part is a critical text and translation, on facing pages, of Historia Ecclesiastica by Springborg, Patricia Stablein, and Paul Wilson, accompanied by extensive explanatory and interpretive notes by the same scholars. The work shows prodigious effort and scholarship. This book, a large part of which, it seems, will also be published in the Collected Works of Thomas Hobbes (Clarendon Press), is a welcome addition to recent scholarship on the works of Hobbes. Hobbes' poem is a selective, static, ill-proportioned, and repetitious history of religious belief, practice, and abuse from the ancient Near East to the Reformation of Martin Luther. Much of the same history appears in the appendix to the Latin Leviathan and in An Historical Narration Concerning History. A problem with Hobbes' views stands out in Historia. On the one hand, he privileges the Bible and criticizes the Church Fathers, Popes, and several emperors for making non-biblical doctrines law. On the other hand, he believes that emperors and anyone else who has the authority can make law any doctrine they please. Arguably, popes sometimes had this authority because emperors allowed it and [End Page 470] the people willed it: in tuto fuit illi tanta Potestas; . . . / Stabat namque super populum fundata volentem ("his immense power was secure; . . . / Indeed, it stood on firm foundation over a willing people") (ll. 2195, 2197; see also ll. 899–901, 1530–40, 1551–67, 1585–90, and 1817–24). He is aghast that the Pope can say about bread, "It is cheese," and his subjects consequently are supposed to say, "It's cheese" (Etsi tu Panem esse putas, si dixerit ille, / Caseus est, dices tu quoque Caseus est). But that follows from his own doctrine. The expansive notes, while usually apposite, sometimes miss their mark by over interpreting, overreaching, or missing the point in some way. Space permits only some random examples. (1) In note 3, the beginning of Hobbes' poem is compared to that of the Aeneid because the action of Hobbes' poem, a dialogue about religion (between the characters Primus and Secundus) takes place during the English Civil War. However, the Aeneid is about war, not religion, and begins with Aeneas's report of past battles. Also, there is no echo of Vergil's opening words and lines arma virumque and so on in Hobbes' opening, Quid fers. (2) The translators say that Hobbes' rendering of the philosophical principle, Quodque Deo tribui debeat id Deus est ("And what ought to be attributed to God is God") (l. 626) echoes Luke 20:25: Reddite ergo quæ sunt Cæsaris, Cæsari: et quæ sunt Dei, Deo ("Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's: and to God the things that are God's"). Not only is the verbal similarity weak, but the point of each passage is significantly different. Hobbes' character Primus is mocking a vacuous or incoherent scholastic Aristotelian proposition ("God is God" or "God is to be predicated of God") (l. 626). About this proposition, Secundus comments, Audio verba, meras sed video tenebras ("I hear words, but I see mere darkness") (l. 629). In contrast, Luke's aphorism is sensible. (3) The translators attribute the principle, "nothing is produced from nothing" to the atomists (l. 651), but this principle is more widely accepted and, according to a standard interpretation, is consistent with creation ex nihilo. (4) Although they see Hobbes alluding to God as Yahweh ("I am") concerning line 1080, the translators do not see the same point being relevant to lines 1311–12. Appreciating the difficulty of producing a translation that will satisfy everyone or even anyone other than the translators, I will note only one example of a possible alternative rendering. The word 'sperandum' in the phrase 'a Christi sperandum morte salutem' is...

Bede on the Britons

This paper addresses the many facets of Bede's portrayal of the Britons in the Historia ecclesiastica, first by illustrating his attempts to cast the Britons generally in the role of usually villainous biblical types and then by examining his often more positive portrayal of certain Britons and British groups independently of those types. His recommendation of certain British Christians as saints to be imitated as well as his conviction that God has not abandoned them to perdition exempts him from the charge of being unqualifiedly anti‐British. Nevertheless, his singular stereotyping of them among all the peoples of Britain reveals an especial virulence not easily explained by his biblically informed world‐view.

Bede on the Papacy

It is clear from Bede's Historia ecclesiastica that England then enjoyed close relations with the Roman Church. Some passages in the work have been seen as reflecting a high doctrine of the papacy, but when carefully read they turn out to be devoid of any understanding of the papacy. The same is true of Bede's discussions of Christ's words to Peter (Matthew xvi.18a, 19) in his writing on the Bible. Yet other English authors of the period had attitudes very different to those of Bede; suggestions are offered as to why Bede took the line he did.

Sacred Words, Anglo-Saxon Piety, and the Origins of the <i>Epistola salvatoris</i> in London, British Library, Royal 2.A.xx

Sacred Words, Anglo-Saxon Piety, and the Origins of the Epistola salvatoris in London, British Library, Royal 2.A.xx Christopher M. Cain London, British Library (BL), Royal 2.A.xx (Mercia) is a late eighth- or early ninth-century florilegium of Biblical passages, liturgical extracts, apocrypha, and prayers from Anglo-Saxon England. Among the contents of this eclectic book are texts as fundamental as the Pater Noster, the Nicene Creed, and the Magnificat, along with more obscure materials such as an "Oratio Sancti Hygbaldi" and various hymns.1 The manuscript also preserves a version of a text of immense popularity in the Middle Ages, the apocryphal letter of Jesus to Abgar, King of Edessa. The letter purports to be the authentic written words of Jesus, as the incipit of the Royal manuscript version states (fol. 12a): "Incipit epistola salvatoris domini nostri iesu xpisti ad abgarum regem quam dominus manu scripsit et dixit." BL Royal 2.A.xx belongs to a well-studied complex of manuscripts scholarship generally refers to as the "Tiberius" group-all late eighth- or early ninth-century manuscripts of Mercian provenance or manuscripts that exhibit Mercian influence,2 but only the Royal manuscript contains [End Page 168] the apocryphal letter of Jesus to Abgar. Including the Royal manuscript, three other closely related manuscripts of the group-BL Harley 7653, BL Harley 2965 (Book of Nunnaminster), and Cambridge, University Library, Ll.1. 10 (Book of Cerne)-are believed to have been private prayerbooks.3 This study examines the positioning of this well-known apocryphal text within the context of private devotional practices in early medieval Europe (by virtue of its inclusion in a book designed for private rather than public [i.e., liturgical] use) and theorizes the possible origins of the Royal version in Anglo-Saxon England. The first part of this paper briefly sketches the early Christian backgrounds of the Abgar legend, its perpetuation in late antiquity, and its transmission to early medieval Europe. The second, accordingly, turns to knowledge of the legend in Anglo-Saxon England and the earliest extant version of the letter in England, that which is preserved in the Royal manuscript. I. Backgrounds and Early History The story of Abgar comes from the Middle East. It is the source of what might be considered something of a quasi-relic cult in the Middle Ages, inasmuch as the collection and veneration of a material object are associated with the legend. But unlike the veneration of corporeal relics of the saints, for example, objects associated with Jesus' ministry on Earth were mostly non-corporeal, of course, since belief in his physical resurrection precluded the existence of such objects.4 Thus, Jesus' letter to Abgar properly belongs to the cultic veneration of fragments of the True Cross, of the vera icon, of the Mandylion, and later, of the Shroud of Turin.5 The core of the legend's [End Page 169] tradition concerns the epistolary exchange between Jesus and King Abgar V (reigned 4 BCE-7 CE and 13-50 CE) of the ancient city of Edessa, some 450 kilometers north of Damascus.6 The narrative also includes the material texts of two letters: the letter of Abgar to Jesus, in which the king urges Jesus to visit him in Edessa so that he may be healed of a debilitating illness, and Jesus' response to Abgar, in which he declines the king's entreaty-citing the constraints imposed by his mission-but assures him that one of his disciples will make the journey in his place. The origin of the legend is obscure, although Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea and the "father of Church history" (ca. 260-340), describes in his Historia ecclesiastica that "written evidence" ( μαρτυρίαν, 1.13) from the archives in Edessa preserves the correspondence in Syriac, which he then translates in full into Greek.7 The letters were first copied throughout the Afro-Asiatic region, with reproductions surviving not just on parchment but also inscribed on stone and on metal, and the text seems to have had amuletic uses, a fact that is critical to the Royal version of the letter under discussion here.8 The legend [End Page 170] found the widest audience...

Historia Ecclesiastica by Thomas Hobbes (review)

206Women in French Studies thematic and aesthetic complexity, and this despite the upsurge of scientific theories insisting on the biological and intellectual inferiority of women, and attendant backlash against creative women, discussed by Catherine Perry in her richly textured introduction to the period. Both Shapiro's bio-bibliographical notices and texts selected for the poets included in this section flesh out the stunning array of poetic works by women in modern France. For expert readers, however, the absence of Malvina Blanchecotte, Louisa Siefert and Marie Krysinska from the nineteenth century is glaring and the treatment of Louise Ackermann not sufficiently robust to transmit for posterity her strikingly poetic engagement with science. Readers may challenge for various reasons Shapiro's inclusion or exclusion ofparticular poets to represent women's poetic achievements in a given century. One may also question why, in a collection aiming to redress women's poetic history, their accomplishments are often, though not exclusively, situated in relation to their male counterparts, eclipsing resonant poetic developments by women across the centuries. Whether expert or amateur, readers will recognize without question the breadth and depth of Shapiro's superb volume, which offers stirring proof of the exceptional legacy of nearly sixty women whose poetic influence shall continue to shape the way we read and write French literary history. Adrianna M. PaliyenkoColby College Hobbes, Thomas. Historia Ecclesiastica. Ed. and Trans. Patricia Springborg, Patricia Stablein and Paul Wilson. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2008. Pp 729. ISBN 978-2-7453-1577-9. 130€ (Cloth). Thomas Hobbes's ecclesiology has been eclipsed by the magnitude of his political philosophy in his Leviathan and by censorship of his criticism of papal and episcopal power. Published posthumously, his elegiac Latin poem Historia Ecclesiastica has been given little critical attention. An Italian translation of the work was published in 1988 and a French translation is currently in progress, but this edition is the first English translation of an essential part of the Hobbesian corpus. It contributes to Hobbes's principal concerns of the state and civil order. An understanding of this poem and its political, poetical and religious contexts illuminates heretofore unexamined areas of Hobbes's thought. An extensive task with acknowledged contributions from several scholars, the edition gives an excellent account of the poem's composition and publication as well as its reception and historical context. What comes through is Hobbes's preoccupation with heresy and historiography. The ambiguous poem serves as a connection between several other works and can be seen as a summary of the philosopher's thoughts on the history of Christianity and the struggle between ecclesiastical and political authority. The poem details the relationship between Christianity and the rise of European states up to the Book Reviews207 Reformation, covering such diverse topics as Egyptian justice, Constantine, Arianism, Germanic invasions, the Crusades and Martin Luther. Its discursive form (a dialogue between the interlocutors Primus and Secundus) and its mixed genre place it in classical and humanistic traditions, recalling such authors as Thucydides, Horace and Erasmus. A compelling argument is made for the poem as both a clarification ofHobbes's ecclesiology and a literary undertaking. The questions which are brought to fore include Hobbes's place in the humanist and Latin poetic traditions, his fear of the charge of heresy, his connections with Continental thinkers such as Gassendi and Lorenzo Valla and his critique ofthe Nicene Creed. This edition offers a multitude of significant information; all told, the support material amounts to over 400 pages. The introductory chapters help to elucidate a complicated context, and the index ofproper names serves as a guide to a multifaceted text. A first appendix provides a survey of the manuscripts and printed editions while a second offers the entries in the Hardwick Hall Library, a collection which Hobbes himself helped to collect and document. The material is rounded out by extensive bibliographical references and a glossary of pertinent proper names. The remainder of the volume contains the Latin text with a facing English translation, extensive footnotes, manuscript variants and the 1 688 glossary and preface. The translation is meticulously researched and, although there might be the occasional disagreement as to the use of a term, this does not detract...

<i>Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St Æthelthryth in Medieval England, 695-1615</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St Æthelthryth in Medieval England, 695-1615 Juliet Mullins Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St Æthelthryth in Medieval England, 695-1615. By Virginia Blanton. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007. Pp. xvii + 350. 16 illustrations. $65. Although Signs of Devotion is no longer unique in offering a "longitudinal study of an early Anglo-Saxon cult" (p. 5), it is nevertheless a welcome addition to an area which is gaining increased currency in Anglo-Saxon studies. In this monograph, Virginia Blanton emphasizes the multi-disciplinary nature of hagiology and offers an examination of the cult of Æthelthryth that, although primarily concerned with the intersection of textual and visual culture, also places the cult within its historical and liturgical context. The book is chronologically ordered and yet each chapter could be read quite independently; in fact, it is the depth of coverage within each chapter rather than any sense of the chronological development of the cult that is the strength of this study. For this reason, I shall offer a review of each chapter in turn in what follows. As is so often the case with figures from the early Anglo-Saxon church, the story of Æthelthryth begins with Bede, whose account is the focus of the first chapter. In sharp contrast to the other native saints portrayed in the Historia Ecclesiastica, Bede pays little attention to Æthelthryth's success as an abbess or her monastic career; rather, Blanton argues, it is the virgin's control of her body and her successful suppression of all physical desire that draws the interest of her hagiographer. The longest part of the vita is dedicated to the dramatic recounting of Æthelthryth's deathbed scene and the translation that subsequently confirms her saintly status. Blanton highlights the manner in which Bede positions himself at a distance from this account, adopting the stance of the objective historian and allowing [End Page 241] the doctor, Cynefrith, to speak. The first-person narrative is a rare occurrence in the Historia, and, as Blanton points out, therefore worthy of note. Bede allows the doctor to assign meaning to the saint's healed wound and scar, which is perhaps one of the most enduring of the many signs, visual and rhetorical, by which the cult of Æthelthryth is defined. The scar is a mark of identity, a recollection of vanities past, but also an indication of God's present forgiveness: it is the sign of a body tested, punished, and perfected. Blanton suggests, moreover, that the scar is a sign of the sealed body, "of her continued virginity, of what cannot be seen (or what should not be revealed) . . . Literally, it becomes the site of investigation and ultimately the evidence for the abbess" purity (p. 45). Bede's interest in the scar as a visual sign of invisible sanctity is then placed within a wider context: Bede's account of Æthelthryth is compared to Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina, and the enduring importance of Æthelthryth's wound in late medieval iconography is demonstrated. In the subsequent two chapters, Blanton examines the way in which in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, texts and imagery portraying Æthelthryth were adapted so as to suit the needs of a male monastic audience. Under Æthelwold, Æthelthryth-as virgin and abbess-became "the premier female saint of the Benedictine reform" (p. 74). Her position as a link between the universal and native saints, which Blanton notes in the previous chapter when discussing Bede's metrical Life, is developed by Ælfric in his Lives of Saints, where her conjugal chastity links her to established universal saints such as Daria and Chrysanthus and Julian and Basilissa. Likewise, Blanton notes similarities in the Benedictional of Æthelwold between the portrayal of Æthelthryth and the image of Christ that work to place the female saint in the highest echelons of the choir of saints and establish her position in the church hierarchy. The use of a male face for the image of the saint in the Benedictional de-sexualizes and androgynizes Æthelthryth, transforming her from the historical woman, wife, and queen into a symbol or sign of monastic virginity, a...

“Win but do not overwin” – The History of a Proverb from the Sententiae Menandri, and a Classical Allusion in St. Paul′s Epistle to the Romans

Abstract This paper traces the history and meaning of the Greek proverb “Win but do not overwin”, first documented in Maurice′s Strategicon (590s) and cited thereafter in various contexts in Byzantine military and historical literature. The earliest manifestation of this proverb is identified as a verse of iambic trimeters preserved in the Γνῶμαι Μενάνδρου or Sententiae Menandri, witnessed in both the manuscript tradition and a fragmentary specimen inscribed on a fifth-/sixth-century ostracon. Older scholarship denied the antiquity of this monostichos on linguistic and metrical grounds, but it is shown that there is no impediment to a possible origin in Attic drama, even if date and authorship remain elusive. Recognition of an additional prose variant in Socrates′ Historia Ecclesiastica points to a wider proverbial currency by the beginning of the fifth century at the latest. The study concludes with the conjecture that St. Paul may have had this proverb in mind when he wrote Epistle to the Romans, adducing arguments based on eccentric vocabulary and evidence for Paul′s limited acquaintance with moralising pagan literature.

The Testimonium Flavianum in Syriac and Arabic

‘Agapius of Hierapolis’ and Michael the Syrian's versions of the Testimonium Flavianum, a passage about Jesus from Josephus' Jewish Antiquities, both derive from the Syriac translation of Eusebius of Caesarea's Historia Ecclesiastica. Michael's Testimonium is more authentic than Agapius' Testimonium, and it is more authentic than the textus receptus in reading that Jesus was ‘thought to be the Messiah’. Some features of Agapius' Testimonium previously considered to be more authentic than the textus receptus can be explained by distinctive readings in the Syriac text that Agapius used.

Bede, the Firth of Forth, and the Location of Urbs Iudeu

The stronghold of Iudeu, which Bede called urbs Giudi, appears to have been a royal centre held by the seventh-century kings of the Bernician English, and sufficiently prominent to lend its name to the Firth of Forth in the British and Gaelic languages. The name appears not to have survived in any modern place -name, leaving us reliant on Bede's vague description of the site in Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, as well as a few other scraps of circumstantial evidence, in seeking to locate it. The situation naturally encouraged debate among scholars until, in 1959, identification with Stirling was proposed. This article reviews both that hypothesis and the primary evidence relating to Iudeu, and argues that the Stirling identification is far from satisfactory. Two new alternatives – and a third one, discarded in 1947 – are put forward as sites most in keeping with the crucial evidence provided by Bede, but no firm decision between them seems possible in our present state of knowledge.

Eusebius and the Jewish Authors: His Citation Technique in an Apologetic Context. By SABRINA INOWLOCKI.

This is a welcome in-depth treatment of Eusebius of Caesarea's citation and use of non-biblical Greek-language Jewish prose writers in his apologetic magnum opus, the Apodeixis, more commonly known by the titles of its two component parts, Praeparatio Evangelica and Demonstratio Evangelica. The Jewish writers are Aristobulus, Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and the so-called ‘minor’ Jewish authors, who, according to Inowlocki, were known to Eusebius only through the compilation of Alexander Polyhistor. Inowlocki also examines Eusebius’ use of Pseudo-Aristeas, although she notes that Eusebius erroneously believed him to be a pagan. Despite her focus on Jewish authors in the Apodeixis, Inowlocki also makes frequent comparison with Eusebius’ citation of pagan authors in the Apodeixis, and with his citation of Jewish authors in Historia Ecclesiastica and Eclogae Propheticae. Inowlocki's study of Eusebius’ citation technique is prompted by several philological concerns, among which are that he played an important role in the transmission of manuscripts of Philo and Josephus; that he is our sole extant source for some fragments of the minor Jewish authors and some lost works of Philo; and that some manuscripts of Philo and Josephus have been corrected against Eusebius’ quotations of these authors. Inowlocki criticizes scholars who have engaged in the latter process without sufficient philological justification. But she also counsels against excessive focus on narrow philological issues surrounding Eusebius’ faithfulness in citation. Comparing Eusebius’ citation technique to that of other ancient authors, she argues, perhaps controversially, that in antiquity modifications of quoted material did not indicate unfaithfulness on the part of the citing author, and that ‘the talent of an author resides in altering the initial meaning of quoted material’ (p. 7). Thus some earlier characterizations of Eusebius as either duplicitous in citation or an unoriginal editor of quotations are, according to her, unjustified. Inowlocki aims to treat Euseblus’ citation of Jewish authors as a ‘rhetorical process in its own right’ (p. 4) rather than to focus almost exclusively on the citations themselves.

Eusèbe de Césarée face à l'essor de la littérature chrétienne au IIe siècle: Propos pour un commentaire du IVe livre de l'Histoire Ecclésiastique

Abstract The article presents the current work on a commentary about the 4th book of Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica. After presenting the most important editions and bibliographical tools the article proposes the need of a detailed chronicle gathering together all the dates of the Historia Ecclesiastica, the Chronica and of other informations (e.g. about the emperors). For the analysis of language the article shows the rich vocabulary of Eusebius and the high quality of stylistic variation. The use of sources has to be analysed in a very careful manner. So, for example, the Martyrium Polycarpi, is not simply used, but Eusebius mixed two extracts with a kind of paraphrase. The comparison of the Martyrium Polycarpi with the text of book IV shows the “re-écriture” of Eusebius. So the article ends stating the several methods and strategies which should be taken into account for a commentary about Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica.

A survey of the christology of Theodore of Tarsus in the Laterculus Malalianus

Bede's Historia ecclesiastica makes it clear that Theodore of Tarsus, the seventh-century archbishop of Canterbury, is a figure who should command an immense amount of interest. His learning and cosmopolitan formation call upon the scholar to ask what it is that he contributed to the English church in his time and beyond. Yet interest in Theodore as a theologian has been lacking to date, most likely due to the limited amount of material attributable to him. Jane Stevenson's work on the anonymous Laterculus Malalianus in the early 1990s suggested Theodore as the most likely author. That this suggestion has proven consistent with other, cumulative evidence of Theodore's life and work makes the Laterculus an invaluable text for the student investigating his theology. This article seeks to present the theological themes of the text, especially as they relate to the person and work of Christ, and to introduce the reader to Theodore of Tarsus as a figure of interest in the study of early medieval christology.

Histoire ecclésiastique (review)

Reviewed by: Histoire ecclésiastique Jonathan Armstrong Socrate de Constantinople Histoire ecclésiastique Traduction par Pierre Périchon et Pierre MaravalSources chrétiennes 477 [Book I] and 493 [Books II–III]Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2004/2005 Pp. 267/366. €27/30. Socrates Scholasticus, the first of the three famed continuators of Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica, compiled his seven-volume work during the fourth decade of the fifth century. The present French translation follows the critical edition of the Greek text published by Günther Christian Hansen in 1995 (GCS). Pierre Maraval's concise and informative footnotes render the Sources chrétiennes edition worth the additional effort for English readers. Neither of the English translations available, whether the anonymous version of 1844 (Bohn's Ecclesiastical Library) [End Page 124] or the 1890 revision of this translation by A. C. Zenos (NPNF), was based on critical editions. Further, both closely followed the now antiquated notes of Valesius originally published in 1668. Volume I (SC 477) includes a twenty-six page introduction, featuring a biographical sketch of Socrates, an essay outlining his historical project, and a few paragraphs on manuscript transmission. In the footnotes to the main text, Maraval furnishes the reader with ample bibliography, and he painstakingly reconstructs Socrates' use of sources, commenting on his dependence on and divergence from the narratives of Eusebius, Rufinus, Sozomen, Theodoret, Philostorgius, Athanasius, et al. Volume II (SC 493) does not include an independent introduction. Socrates' express purpose in composing his history was to correct Eusebius's presentation of the Arian crisis (I.1.1–2), an episode that all but consumes books I and II of his oeuvre. He at first relied upon Rufinus for his report on the crisis, but after discovering Athanasius's apologies and becoming aware of factual errors in Rufinus's work, Socrates rewrote books I and II completely (II.1.1–4). Socrates' vigilance in guarding the accuracy of his account of the Arian crisis substantiates his claim that he considered it to be of greatest thematic significance for his history. He also criticizes Eusebius's brevity in recounting the rise of Manichaeism (I.22.2). In Eusebius's failure to record the testimony of the Novatian bishop Acesius at the Council of Nicea, Socrates believed himself to have discovered a sinister prejudice against the Novatians (I.10.5). His persistent reporting on sects and heresies alike has led certain scholars to question his orthodoxy, and Maraval recommends Martin Wallraff's proposal that Socrates was in fact a Novatian (Der Kirchenhistoriker Sokrates, 1997). Whereas Eusebius's historiography is oriented towards the development of orthodoxy, Socrates' vision of church history is focused on the divisions among Christians. Maraval even quips that without factions within the church, the church historian would have nothing to write about (I.18.15)! His conclusion merits quotation: "Non peut-être sans quelque anachronisme, on pourrait dire que Socrate veut écrire une histoire du christianisme sous tous ses aspects plutôt qu'une histoire de l'Église, ce qui n'était certainement pas la conception d'Eusèbe, pour lequel il n'y a qu'une Église" (15–16). The first three books of Socrates' history represent a rich source of information concerning Athanasius's dramatic career. Socrates recounts his altercations with Arius, his repeated exiles from Alexandria, and the slanderous and sometimes ridiculous accusations of his politically powerful enemies. The charge that forced Athanasius into exile for the first time, for example, was that he had amputated Arsenius's hand for the purposes of divination (I.27.18). Together with the inspiring accounts of Athanasius's personal courage, Socrates draws up a play-by-play diagram of the councils that anticipates the final victory of Nicene-Constantinopolitan orthodoxy, including the councils of Antioch, Sardica, Sirmium, Milan, Rimini, Seleucia, Constantinople, and Alexandria. His reporting on the councils may lack the luster of modern journalism, but he renders a valuable service to future historians in reproducing the credos achieved at each conclave. One wonders whether Socrates, who viewed "tromperie dialectique" as the true villain of church history (I.18.15), actually intended his reader to be irritated by [End Page 125] the tiresome repetition of the...

Old English Literature in its Manuscript Context (review)

Reviewed by: Old English Literature in its Manuscript Context Pamela O’Neill Lionarons, Joynce Tally, ed., Old English Literature in its Manuscript Context (Medieval European Studies, V), Morgantown, West Virginia University Press, 2004; paperback; pp. vii, 254; 2 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US$45.00; 0937058831. West Virginia University Press's relatively young Medieval European Studies series makes available fresh ideas and thorough scholarship on medieval studies in attractive little books at reasonable prices. The present volume is no exception. It arises from an inspired seminar convened by Paul E Szarmach and Timothy Graham in the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College Cambridge, where a group of researchers shut themselves into a library of original manuscripts and 'worked at a fever pitch' (p. 1) for six weeks. The resulting collection of nine essays is like a breath of fresh air. [End Page 210] The first two essays dissect the scholarly obsession with the archetypal and the orthodox in the context of CCCC Ms 41. Sharon M. Rowley's discussion of the Old English translation of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica urges the reading of this text and the accompanying marginalia as a 'specifically Anglo-Saxon synthesis of interests and textual practices' (p. 13). She very sensibly rejects accusations of heterodoxy, contamination and even wildness in this collection as anachronistic reflections of modern expectations, arguing rather that the manuscript is a valuable source of information about the knowledge and thinking of a particular school of thought at a particular time. Nancy M. Thompson similarly calls for a reappraisal of the material in the manuscript, arguing that interpretations which describe the apocryphal material as heterodox 'misinterpret Ælfric's own religious world view, which left adequate room for many extra-scriptural materials handed down by tradition' (p. 65). Lionarons's own contribution to the book takes a similar position with regard to the text of Wulfstan's De Temporibus Anticristi, providing a fresh edition of the version of the text in Oxford Bodleian Hatton Ms 113, and pointing out the advantages of an approach which treats each manuscript of a work as an authentic and separate text, rather than artificially discriminating between 'authentic' and 'inauthentic' content. A completely new approach to Anglo-Saxon poetry, to the extent of redefining the corpus, is advocated by Thomas A. Bredehoft. He argues convincingly that our distinction between prose and poetry in Old English manuscripts may not reflect the views of the writers of the manuscripts. His careful analysis of the various features used to distinguish poetry from prose reveals that scribes used a variety of markings, ranging from none at all to enlarged capitals, pointing and spacing to mark the beginnings and endings of passages which they apparently considered poetic. His useful table of recognized poetic passages found in prose contexts is a revealing prelude to his conclusions that poetry of 'irregular metre' ought not to be excluded from the corpus, and that we should exercise caution in separating poetry from its prose context. Such detailed examination also underpins Melinda J. Menzer's intriguing analysis of the multilingual glosses on Ælfric's Grammar. Having considered the ways in which such texts are written for audiences of various linguistic backgrounds, she reaches the fascinating conclusion that various Anglo-Norman glossators of the Grammar used it as a tool for teaching or learning either Latin or English, and as a result is able to ask the ground-breaking question of why an Anglo-Norman speaker would wish to learn Anglo-Saxon. [End Page 211] The remaining essays likewise consider the later lives of Old English manuscripts. Paul Acker looks at the original and two subsequent tables of contents in CCCC Ms 178, concluding that each user, from the Anglo-Saxon scribe who sought to present his texts in an orderly manner, through the Middle English glossator who imposed an alternative order, to Matthew Parker, who rearranged and altered the manuscript, sought to use and present the material with an awareness of its heritage value and an urge to draw its usefulness to the attention of his contemporaries. The Exeter Book is the focus of Robert M. Butler's adventurous exploration of the movement of church property in...

Ruling Women: Queenship and Gender in Anglo-Saxon Literature by Stacy S. Klein (review)

STACY S. KLEIN, Ruling Women: Queenship and Gender in Anglo-Saxon Literature. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2006. 296 pp. ISBN: 0-268-03310-2. $30. In Ruling Women, Stacy Klein demonstrates how representations of queens played integral roles in issues that are now recognized as crucial to Anglo-Saxon literature and culture, including 'conversion, social hierarchy, heroism, counsel, idolatry, and lay spirituality'(4). Examining Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, Cynewulf's Elene, Beowulf, and AElfric's biblical translations, Klein shows how Anglo-Saxon writers manipulated the symbolic power of queens to comment upon contemporary social issues. Challenging charges of medieval misogyny, Klein explores 'revisionist possibilities' by analyzing these texts in their broader cultural contexts. In doing so, Klein restores these representations of women to the complex social and literary contexts in which they yield their most valuable insights. She combines feminist theory with cultural studies, historical inquiry, and philology to develop insightful readings of the sociopolitical critiques presented through feminine images and voices. Klein's 'Introduction' analyzes the image of Queen AElfgyfu from the frontispiece of the Liber Vitae. This image captures the spiritual and political centrality of the queen while simultaneously representing her as genetically female. Klein argues that this frees the symbolic meanings of queenship to resonate with contemporary concerns of the Anglo-Saxons, a demonstration which lays the theoretical foundation for the rest of the book. Bede's Historia, as Klein discusses in Chapter 1, 'The Costs of Queenship,' minimizes the role of queens in the process of conversion. Many pagan kings were married to Christian queens, but Bede focuses instead on the influence of bishops and the virtues of Christianity. Klein offers fresh perspective on this familiar material by considering the complex issues that drive Bede to downplay the influences of queens on conversion. The role of queen as proselytizer remains a central issue in Chapter Two, 'Crossing Queens, Pleasing Hierarchies,' which reconsiders Cynewulf's depiction of Helena, mother of Constantine and legendary recoverer of the true Cross. Klein looks more closely at the role of community and Christian submission in the poem, challenging readings that view Helena's deference to her son's authority as misogynistic. Reading these themes in the context of the Benedictine Reform, Klein demonstrates how the poem engages questions of social hierarchy through nostalgia for 'a glorious Roman past' (80). …

Evidence for the Presence of M-Type Manuscripts of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica in Northern England after ca. 800

Evidence for the Presence of M-Type Manuscripts of Bede's <i>Historia ecclesiastica</i> in Northern England after ca. 800