Texts,topoi and the self: a reading of Alfredian spirituality*

Challenging the allegation that Alfred's spirituality as Asser presents it is no more than a string of textual fictions, this article outlines a context for understanding Alfred's spirituality as a functional process of living texts, or of ‘textualizing’ the self. The discussion first draws support for this view from the history of early medieval spirituality and then demonstrates the theme's relevance both to Asser's representation of Alfred and to the king's own writings. Attention is given especially to the congruence between Alfred's depiction in the Life and Gregory the Great's teachings on the ideal rector as propounded in the Pastoral Care, a text carefully read and famously translated by Alfred himself. The comparison suggests that the main spiritual models for Alfred's kingly piety may be understood to reside in, and to involve assimilation of, this work of Gregory, making it possible to conceptualize the king's self‐presentation in terms of a conscious project to ‘live’ Gregory's text by bringing the ideals of the Gregorian rector to life in his own person. Such an argument helps to explain Alfred's interest in Gregory, to account for his concern to translate the Pastoral Care, and to legitimize the predominant images associated with the king's spirituality as indicative of a kind of functional piety grounded in the reading of texts, rather than simply reflected, perhaps falsely, in Asser’s Life.     

'Nostrorum socordiam temporum': the reforming impulse of Bede's later exegesis

This paper attempts to provide a synoptic view of the thematic development of Bede's exergesis. It examines a selection of his commentaries written at different periods in his career and, by placing them against the social and political background of early eighth–century Northumbria, tries to indicate some important differences amongst them. The core of my argument is that, in contrast to his early commentaries, Bede's mature exegesis is decisively infused by the aims and concerns of his later non–exegetical works such as the Ecclesiastical History and the Letter to Ecgberht. It will be shown, for example, that earlier commentaries such as On the Apocalypse and On Acts devote less attention to pastoral concerns than do such later works as On Ezra and Nehemiah , On the Tabernacle and On the Temple . Further, the earlier commentaries contain fewer topical comments on the social and religious demise of contemporary Northumbria than the later exegesis (especially On Ezra and Nehemiah ), comments whose substance and tone align this later work with the reform program of the Ecgberht letter. By considering these and other related issues, my analysis has a twofold aim: to provide a better sense of the overall shape and development of Bede's commentaries, and to highlight the social investedness and intertextuality of his later writings as a whole.     

The Venerable Bede and Gregory the Great: exegetical connections, spiritual departures

This article revisits the familiar comparison between the thought and writings of Bede and Gregory the Great. Bede was keen to foreground his debt to Gregory and past assessments have illuminated aspects of it, but this investigation offers a more searching analysis of the interface between biblical exegesis and spiritual teaching, a subject that highlights Bede's frequent reliance on Gregory as well as his calculated departures from him. Accordingly, the article first examines the different ways Bede in his commentaries could deploy Gregory's writings as a source, then discusses the more pragmatic, less mystical thrust of Bede's thought that sets him apart from Gregory.