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Bede's uera lex historiae explained

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

Walter Goffart
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Extract

Walter Walter Goffart 31 Temple Court New Haven, CT 06511203 787 4120 In closing the preface to the ‘Historia Ecclesiastica’ Bede mentions the possibility of disputed truth, refers to ‘common report’, and invokes the, or a, ‘vera lex historiae’, literally, ‘true law of history’. Oddly, Bede seems to be disclaiming responsibility for his mistakes. These lines continue to be ‘a crux much commented upon’. Bede clarifies the meaning of this ‘law’ in four passages featuring the adverb ‘simpliciter’. They allow us to see that the ‘truth’ he sometimes departs from is not the opposite of ‘error’, but simply reflects an historian's duty to convey what everyone at a particular time believed to be true.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 34 , December 2005 , pp. 111 - 116
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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