of book five. 23 Crucially, Bede sought to show the ‘English’ that they had a new history. 24 He wanted to instruct them in their collective past and show the world the
significance of the ‘English’ as descended from the “innumerable progeny of God”,
hereby putting the ‘English’ in their place in history and proving his conviction of the foreordin ation of the ‘English’ nation’s success. 25
Examining the concept of ‘Englishness’ and religion in Bede’s Historia
requires consideration of the representations of place and people. Regarding the
former, imageries of Britain as the Garden of Eden and Ireland as a Promised land without snakes that “abounds in Milk and Honey” are used. 26 Bede’s description of Albion and the surrounding sea and the islands’ bounties seems to echo the third day of creation where God gathers the waters, creating land and plant life. 27
Similarly, the creation of water life and “fowl that may fly above the earth” is echoed
when Bede speaks of “Land - and waterfowl of various kinds” and “rivers, which abound with fish”. 28 There is also imagery of the Britons’ fall from grace, being cast out and driven to the brink of extinction by God’s new chosen people – the ‘English’. 29 Bede also likens the land of Britain to the Bible when he writes “there are
five languages in Britain, just as the divine law is written in five books…. These are
the English, British, Irish, Pictish as well as the Latin languages; through the study of the scriptures, Latin is in general use among them all.” 30 For Bede, Latin, the language of the Church, was crucial to unifying the ‘English’. 31 Regarding people, Bede’s work is dominated by the idea that the Anglo - Saxons were ethnic and political groups united by Christian “purpose and practice”. 32 He presents a spiritual history of a people that were one in faith, yet many in race. 33 23 Bede, pp. 294-5 24 N. J. Stephens, ‘Bede’s Ecclesiastical History’ in History , Vol. 62, No. 204, (New Jersey: Wiley, 1977), 4-5 25 Stephens, 5- 6; David N. Dumville, ‘Origins of the Kingdom of the English’ in Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England , Ed. Rory Naismith & David A. Woodman, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), p. 72 26 Bede, p. 11; Speed, 150-1 27 Bede, p. 9; Genesis 1:9-13 (KJV), Genesis 1 KJV - In the beginning God created the heaven - Bible
Gateway, [Accessed 25/3/23] 28 Bede, p. 9; Genesis 1:20-23 29 Dumville, p. 74
30 Bede, p. 10 31 Speed, 143 32 Speed, 139 33 Wormold, p. 215
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