No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Vernacular and the Propagation of the Faith in Anglo-Saxon Missionary Activity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
Extract
The fundamental problem that every religious conversion process grapples with – at all times and in all areas – is that of finding a linguistic medium, as a suitable means of facilitating an easy communication with pagans. Undoubtedly, to overcome this otherwise almost insuperable language barrier, the use of native tongues seems to be crucial.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2000
References
1 See Sullivan, Richard E., ‘Carolingian missionary theories’, CathHR, 42/3 (1956), pp. 273–95Google Scholar; idem, ‘The Carolingian missionary and the pagan’, Speculum, 28 (1953), pp. 705–40; idem, ‘The papacy and missionary activity in the early Middle Ages’, Mittelalterliche Studien, 17 (Stuttgart, 1955), pp. 46–106; Prinz, Frederick, Klerus und Krieg im früheren Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1971)Google Scholar; McKitterick, Rosamond, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians. 751-987 (London and New York, 1983)Google Scholar; Nelson, Janet L., ‘Kingship and empire in the Carolingian world’, in McKitterick, Rosamond, ed., Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 52–87.Google Scholar
2 Gregory the Great, Registram Epistularum, vi, 60, ed. Dag Norberg, CChr.SL, 140 (Turnhout, 1982), p. 433 (Sacerdotes e uicino: vi, 51, p. 424). The date is 23 July 596.
3 Ibid., vi, 10, p. 378.
4 Anon., Vita Amandi episcopi, eh. 9, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH, SRM, 5 (Hannover and Leipzig, 1910), p. 435: ‘Si quos edam captivos vel pueros transmarinus invenisset, dato pretio redimebat, spiritalique eos regenerans lavacro, litteris affatim imbui praecipiebat, praemissaque libértate, per diversis relinquebat ecclesias, pluresque ex his postea episcopos vel presbeteros seu honoroficos abbates fuisse audivimus.’
5 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, i, 23, ed. Bertram Colgrave and Roger Aubrey Baskerville Mynors (Oxford, 1972), p. 68 [hereafter Bede, HE].
6 Bede, HE, i, 25, p. 72.
7 On the Frankish interpreters, their role and language, see Campbell, James, ‘The first century of Christianity in England’, in idem, ed., Essays in Anglo-Saxon History (London and Ronceverte, 1986), p. 54Google Scholar; Crépin, André, ‘Bede and the vernacular’, in Bonner, Gerald, ed., Famulus Christi: Essays in Commemoration of the Thirteenth Centenary of the Birth of the Venerable Bede (London, 1976), pp. 176–7Google Scholar; Derolez, René, ‘Language problems in Anglo-Saxon England: barbara loquella and barbarismus ’, in Korhammer, Michael et al, eds, Words, Texts and Manuscripts (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 288–9Google Scholar; Gneuss, Helmut, ‘Anglicae linguae interpretation, language contact, lexical borrowing and glossing in Anglo-Saxon England’, PBA, 82 (London, 1992), pp. 131–2.Google Scholar
8 Lass, Roger, Old English (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 13–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 Bede, HE, i, 26, pp. 76–8.
10 Ibid., i, 25, p. 74.
11 Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob, xxvii, II, 21, ed. Marci Adriaen, CChr.SL, 143 B (Turnbout, 1985), p. 1346: ‘Ecce lingua Britanniae, quae nihil aliud nouerai, quam barbarum frendere, iam dudum in diuinis laudibus Hebraeum coepit Alleluia resonare.’ See also Bede, HE, ii, 1, p. 130.
12 Canon three, HS, III, p. 363. There is a thorough discussion of this Council in Cubitt, Catherine, Anglo-Saxon Church Councils c.650-c.850 (London and New York, 1995), pp. 99–152.Google Scholar
13 Canon ten, HS, III, p. 366.
14 The first two sermon-collections compiled in Old English are eighteen homilies for Sundays and Saints’ Days, known as ‘Blickling homilies’ (Titusville, USA, collection of William H. Scheide, s.X/XI), ed. Richard Morris, The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century, EETS (os), 29, 34 (London, 1880, repr. 1953), and twenty-three homilies, preserved in the ‘Vercelli Book’ (Vercelli, Biblioteca capitolare CXVII, s.X2), ed. Donald Scragg, The Vercelli Homilies, EETS (os), 300 (Oxford, New York and Toronto, 1992).
15 Eddius Stephanus, Vita Wilfridi I episcopi Eboracensis, ch. 60, ed. Wilhelm Levison, MGH, SRM, 6 (Hannover and Lipsia, 1913), p. 255. See also Catherine Cubitt, Councils, pp. 88–9.
16 Bede, HE, iii, 25, pp. 294–308.
17 Ibid., p. 298.
18 Bede, HE, iii, 3, p. 218.
19 Bede, HE, iii, 5, p. 228.
20 Bede, HE, iii, 3, p. 218.
21 Ibid., p. 220.
22 Bede, HE, iii, 7, p. 234.
23 Bede, HE, iii, 29, p. 320.
24 Liudger, Vita Gregorii abhatis Traiectensis, ch. 2, ed. Oswald Holder-Egger, MGH, SS, 15 (Hannover, 1887/8), p. 68: ‘Sanctus autem doctor prosecutus eum secundum ordinem rationis, ait: <<Dic mihi, quomodo intelligis quae legis>>. Ipse vero repetebat ab exordio lectionem suam et coepit iterum legere velle sicut prius. Egregius ergo praeceptor paululum eum distulit et dixit: <<Non ita, fili, quaero, ut mihi dicas modo lectionem mam, sed secundum proprietatem linguae tuae et naturalem parentum tuorum locutionem edissere mihi lectionem tuam>>.’
25 Anon., Vita secunda sancii Liudgeri, i, 16, ed. Wilhelm Diekamp, Geschichtsquellen des Bisthums Muenster, 4 (Münster, 1881), pp. 61–2: ‘His quoque temporibus orientalis Frisiae quinque pagi cum und insula, que dicitur Band, Francorum regno se subdiderunt prominentes fidem Christianam se suscepturos, si erudiendis eis aliquis daretur, cuius loquelam intelligere possent. Porro imperator hoc gratanter accipiens Liudgero opus istud commendavit.’
26 See above, n. 6.
27 Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis, iii, prologue, PL 77, p. 49: ‘Quia igitur qualis esse debeat pastor ostendimus, nunc qualiter doceat demonstremus.… Non und eademque cunctis exhortatio congruit, quia nee cunctos par morum qualitas astringit…. Pro qualitate igitur audientium formari debet sermo doctorum, ut et ad sua singulis congruat, et tamen a communis aedificationis arte numquam recedat.… Unde et doctor quisque, ut in und cunctos virtute charitatis aedificet, ex und doctrina, non und eademque exhortatione tangere corda audientium debet.’
28 The first mention of the ‘school’ is in Bede, HE, iv, 2. For discussion of the whole matter, see Bischoff, Bernard and Lapidge, Michael, eds, Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian (Cambridge, 1994)Google Scholar. See also Pheifer, J. D., ‘The Canterbury Bible glosses: facts and problems’, in Lapidge, Michael, ed., Archbishop Theodore (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 281–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29 For example, Old English cesaring, pending for Latin solidus; Old English lopustrae for Latin locustae; Old English hupupa for Latin opupa; Old English uuf for Latin bubo; Old English greshoppae for Latin locusta; Old English hod for Latin capellus. See B. Bischoff and M. Lapidge, Biblical Commentaries, p. 588.
30 Bede, HE, iii, 5, p. 228.
31 Bonifatius-Briefe, n.12, ed. Michael Tangl, MGH, Epjel. in usum schol. separ. ed. (Berlin, 1916), pp. 17–18: ‘Praecipimus, ut in verbo gratiae Dei, quo igne salutifero, quem mittere Dominus venit in terram, enitere videris, ad gentes quascumque infidelitatis errore detentas properare Deo comitante potueris, ministerium regni Dei per insinuationem nomini Christi domini dei nostri veritatis suasione designes et per spiritum virtutis et dilectionis ac sobrietatis praedicationem utriusque testamenti mentibus indoctis consona ratione transfundas.’
32 Ibid., p. 40, n. 23.
33 William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum, v, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, RS, 52 (London, 1870), p. 336: ‘Litteris itaque ad plenum instructus, nativae quoque linguae non negligebat carmina.… Populum eo tempore semibarbarum, parum divinis sermonibus intentum, statim, cantatis missis, domos cursitare solitum. Ideo sanctum virum, super pontem qui rura et urbem continuat, abeuntibus se opposuisse obicem, quasi artem cantitandi professum. Eo plusquam facto, plebis favorem et concursum emeritum. Hoc commento sensim ludiera verbis Scripturarum inseritis, cives ad sanitatem reduxisse.’
34 Banniard, Michel, Viva Voce: communication orale et communication écrite en occident latin (IVe-IXe siècle) (Paris, 1992), pp. 38–9.Google Scholar
35 See, for example, Pogatscher, Alois, Zur Lautlehre der griechischen, lateinischen und romanischen Lehnwörter im altenglischen, Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulktur- geschichte der Germanischen Voelker, 64 (Strasburg, 1888)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Funke, Otto, Die gelehrten lateinischen Lehn- und Fremdwörter in der altenglischen Literatur von der Mitte des X. Jahrhunderts bis zumjahr 1066 (Halle, 1914)Google Scholar; Serjantson, Mary, A History of Foreign Words in English (London, 1935)Google Scholar; Campbell, Alistair, Old English Grammar (Oxford, 1954), pp. 199–219Google Scholar; Gneuss, Helmut, Lehnbildungen und Lehnbedeutungen im altenglischen (Berlin, 1955)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Some problems and principles of the lexicography of Old English’, in Dick, E. S. and Jankowsky, K. R., eds, Festschrift für Karl Schneider (Amsterdam, 1982), pp. 153–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Anglicae linguae interpretatio’, pp. 107–48; idem, ‘Latin loans in Old English: a note on their inflexional morphology’, in Gneuss, Helmut, ed., Language and History in Early England (Variorum, 1996), ch. 6, pp. 1–12Google Scholar; Wollmann, Alfred, Untersuchungett zu den frühen Lehnwbrtern im altenglischen. Phonologie und Datierung, Texte und Untersuchungen zur Englischen Philologie, 15 (München, 1990)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Lateinisch-altenglische Lehnbeziehungen im 5. und 6. Jahrhundert’, in Bammesberger, Alfred and Wollmann, Alfred, eds, Britain 400-600: Language and History (Heidelberg, 1990), pp. 373–96Google Scholar; idem, ‘Early Latin loan-words in Old English’, in Anglo-Saxon England, 22 (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 1–26; idem, ‘Early Christian loan-words in Old English’, in Hofstra, Tette, Houwen, Luuk A. J. R. and MacDonald, Alasdair A., eds, Pagans and Christians, Germania latina, II (Groningen, 1995), pp. 175–210.Google Scholar
36 Helmut Gneuss, ‘Latin loans in Old English’, p. 6.
37 Ibid., p. 8.
38 A few examples are Old English crice < Latin kyricón < Greek kuriakón; Old English deofol < Latin diabolus < Greek diábolos; Old English engel < Latin angelus < Greek ággelo?, Old English mæsse < Latin missa. For a list, see Wollmann, ‘Early Christian loan-words in Old English’, pp. 178–9.
39 Wollmann, ‘Early Christian loan-words in Old English’, pp. 177–8.
40 For a detailed list of Christian loanwords borrowed in the early stages of Christianization, see ibid., pp. 177–8, 186-90.
41 Ibid., pp. 186–210; Gneuss, Helmut, ‘Liturgical books in Anglo-Saxon England and their Old English terminology’, in Lapidge, Michael and Gneuss, Helmut, eds, Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England. Studies presented to Peter Clemoes on the occasion of his sixty- fifth birthday (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 91–141Google Scholar; idem, ‘Linguistic borrowing and Old English lexicography: Old English terms for the books of the liturgy’, in Bammesberger, Alfred, ed., Problems of Old English Lexicography. Studies in Memory of Angus Cameron (Regensburg, 1985), pp. 107–29.Google Scholar
42 A comprehensive survey of the question appears in Gneuss, Helmut, ‘The study of language in Anglo-Saxon England’, BJRL (1990), pp. 3–32.Google Scholar
43 See Gneuss, ‘Anglicae linguae interpretatio’, p. 143.
44 Chadwick, Hector Munro, Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions (Cambridge, 1905), pp. 333–54Google Scholar; Reid, Rachel R., ‘Barony and Thanage’, EHR, 35 (1920), pp. 161–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; John, Eric, Orbis Britanniae (Bristol, 1966), pp. 128–53Google Scholar; Loyn, Henry, ‘Gesiths and thegns in Anglo-Saxon England from the seventh to the tenth century’, HER, 70 (1955), pp. 529–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Kings, gesiths and thegns’, in Carver, Martin, ed., The Age of Sutton Hoo (Woodbridge, 1992), pp. 75–9.Google Scholar