Episode 5: Getting Medieval on the Song of Creation


You have heard Vox Day talk about how “nation” means a people related by blood, history, language, and religion. But what if a people related by blood, history, and language change their religion? What would induce you to change your ancestral worship for a God you had never heard of until some strangers arrived?

Video with subscription at Unauthorized.tv (History and Logos Channel)

References

 Text

Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), trans. by A. M. Sellar (London: George Bell and Sons, 1907); trans. by Bertram Colgrave, ed. by Judith McClure and Roger Collins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969, 1994)
  • Book I, chapter 25: How Augustine came to Britain and first of all preached to the king of Kent on the island of Thanet; then, after obtaining permission, he went to Kent to preach.
  • Book I, chapter 26: How in Kent he followed both the manner of life and the teaching of the primitive church and how he received an episcopal see in the royal city.
  • Book I, chapter 30: A copy of the letter which Pope Gregory sent to Abbot Mellitus who was on his way to Britain.
  • Book I, chapter 32: How [Pope Gregory] sent letters and gifts to King Aethelbehrt.
  • Book II, chapter 9: About Edwin’s reign and how Paulinus came to preach the gospel to him; how he first administered the sacraments of the Christian faith to Edwin’s daughter as well as to others.
  • Book II, chapter 10: How Pope Boniface sent a letter urging the king to embrace the faith
  • Book II, chapter 11: How he sent a letter to Edwin’s wife urging her to use her best endeavors for his salvation
  • Book II, chapter 13: How [Edwin] took counsel with his chief men about receiving the faith of Christ; and how their chief priest profaned his own altars.
  • Book IV, chapter 22: How there was a brother in [Abbess Hild’s] monastery who received a divine gift of song.
People
Caedmon’s Song
Now let us praise the Creator and Guardian
Of the heavenly kingdom, his power and purpose,
His mind and might, his wondrous works.
He shaped each miraculous beginning,
Each living creature, each earthly kind.
He first made for the children of men
Heaven as a roof. Then our holy Shaper
Crafted middle-earth, a home for mankind:
Our God and Guardian watching over us—
Eternal, almighty—our Lord and King.
—Trans. Craig Williamson, The Complete Old English Poems (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), 1050 
Further reading
  • Henry Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd edition (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991)
  • James Campbell, Eric John, and Patrick Wormald, The Anglo-Saxons (London: Penguin Books, 1991)
Images

Course Study Guide

Comments

  1. FargothJuly 28, 2019 at 6:50 PM

    Was there any kind of split that occurred between Scots who came to America vs the ones who participated in the Jacobite Uprising? Were these groups of similar stock? This is skipping ahead, I know.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unauthorized Professor Rachel Fulton BrownJuly 29, 2019 at 8:34 AM

      That's skipping ahead a lot! Jim Webb's "Born Fighting" would be the best place to start.

      Delete
  2. evenstarinbamaJuly 30, 2019 at 8:40 AM

    Looking forward to more History for the Random Layperson and very curious about your conversion to Catholicism and your worship of Mary.
    Wanda Purvis

    ReplyDelete
  3. evenstarinbamaJuly 30, 2019 at 8:45 AM

    Also, thanks for the reference to Caedmon because one of my favorite Christian artists and musician was in the group Caedmon's Call, Andrew Osenga. Now I get it.
    Another Random Layperson, Wanda Purvis

    ReplyDelete
  4. BelovedNovember 9, 2020 at 3:53 PM

    It's politically incorrect to read History as anything other than a cynnical retelling of the past to manipulate the present and the future.

    Seeing as I'm not a Historian and have no scholarly reputation to defend, I can boldly proclaim my belief that Pope Gregory's mission was prepared by God bedorehand, divinely inspired in the slave market, dutifully careied out by faithful missionary monks, and fulfilled by the song of creation.

    Thank you for sharing this history, Professor Brown. I don't suppose we would agree on much in terms of theology and doctrine, but I know the work of our LORD when I hear it. He got His song!

    ReplyDelete

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