Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 The Manuscripts and Editions of the OEHE
- 2 Backgrounds, Contexts and the History of Scholarship
- 3 Gentes Names and the Question of ‘National’ Identity in the OEHE
- 4 Rewriting Salvation History
- 5 Who Read Æthelbert's Letter? Translation, Mediation and Authority in the OEHE
- 6 Queen Takes Bishop: Marriage, Conversion and Papal Authority in the OEHE
- 7 Visions of the Otherworld: Endings, Emplacement and Mutability in History
- 8 Anglo-Saxon Signs of Use in Manuscripts O, C and B
- 9 Later-Medieval Signs of Use in Manuscripts Ca and T
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Summary of the Chapters and Chapter-Breaks
- Appendix II Forms of ‘Ongolþeode’ and ‘Angelcyn’ in the OEHE
- Appendix III Glosses in T
- Appendix IV Table of Glosses in T
- Bibliography
- Index
- ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
6 - Queen Takes Bishop: Marriage, Conversion and Papal Authority in the OEHE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 The Manuscripts and Editions of the OEHE
- 2 Backgrounds, Contexts and the History of Scholarship
- 3 Gentes Names and the Question of ‘National’ Identity in the OEHE
- 4 Rewriting Salvation History
- 5 Who Read Æthelbert's Letter? Translation, Mediation and Authority in the OEHE
- 6 Queen Takes Bishop: Marriage, Conversion and Papal Authority in the OEHE
- 7 Visions of the Otherworld: Endings, Emplacement and Mutability in History
- 8 Anglo-Saxon Signs of Use in Manuscripts O, C and B
- 9 Later-Medieval Signs of Use in Manuscripts Ca and T
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Summary of the Chapters and Chapter-Breaks
- Appendix II Forms of ‘Ongolþeode’ and ‘Angelcyn’ in the OEHE
- Appendix III Glosses in T
- Appendix IV Table of Glosses in T
- Bibliography
- Index
- ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
Summary
Marriage, Conversion and Papal Authority in the OEHE
Sanctificatus est enim vir infidelis in muliere fideli et sanctificata est mulier infidelis per virum fidelem alioquin filii vestri inmundi essent nunc autem sancti sunt.
[For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.]
The scenes of conversion shift geographically in Book II of the Historia Ecclesiastica and OEHE, first moving north to the court of Edwin, king of Northumbria (616–33) then to Mercia and Wessex. Notably, Edwin marries Æthelburh, the daughter of Æthelbert and Bertha. Like her mother, Æthelburh travels to the court of a pagan king as a bride. Also like her mother, Æthelburh receives a letter from the pope that Bede's main Old English translator omits. Reading the stories of Bertha, Æthelburh and several other women between the lines of the OEHE reveals a pattern of presence and absence operating across the scenes of conversion in the text that centers on the role of brides and marriage in conversion. This pattern raises issues that resonate with some of the concerns in Gregory's Libellus Responsionum, which the OEHE includes, but moves to a position at the end of Book III. This chapter builds on the discussion in the previous chapter to examine the role of brides and marriage in conversion, the way that omitting the papal letters from Book II affects these representations and the repositioning of the Libellus Responsionum in relation to issues of marriage, sexuality and episcopal authority.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Old English Version of Bede's 'Historia Ecclesiastica' , pp. 114 - 133Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011