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THE POWER OF ORATORY: REREADING THE WHITBY LIBER BEATI GREGORII

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2021

CELIA CHAZELLE
CELIA CHAZELLE*
Affiliation:
The College of New Jersey
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

This article offers a new perspective on the anonymous Liber beati et laudabilis viri Gregorii. The oldest extant life of Pope Gregory the Great, the Liber was composed at the double monastery of Strænæshalch, conventionally known as Whitby, under Abbess Ælfflæd probably between ca. 704 and 714. A principal concern of my article is the function, within the Liber, of its report of Gregory's encounter with a group of Deiran Angles in Rome, and that story's relation to the emphasis throughout the Liber on orality: the transmission of knowledge miraculously from heaven and through earthly channels by means of speech and other sounds. The Liber survives in an early ninth-century redaction, part of St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 567 (pp. 75–110). After discussing some issues that pertain to the modern edition and translation made by Bertram Colgrave from this manuscript, I compare the legend of Gregory and the Deirans in the Liber with the version in Bede's Ecclesiastical History. I then review the larger hagiographical narrative in which the Whitby author frames this episode, and I examine the story and other distinctive thematic as well as stylistic aspects of the Liber in the light of the following circumstances: seventh- to eighth-century regional developments that affected Whitby; conditions of teaching at this monastery, a major early English educational center; the documented interest at Whitby under Ælfflæd, as under her predecessor Hild, in heaven-inspired or miraculous forms of oratory; and liturgy and commemoration of the dead. Of interest for analyzing all these topics, but especially the last two mentioned, is Whitby's status as a female-led institution.

Keywords

Gregory the GreatWhitby (Strænæshalch)ÆlfflædEdwinBedeoralityNorthumbrian monasticism
Type
Research Article
Information
Traditio , Volume 76 , 2021 , pp. 29 - 77
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fordham University

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Footnotes

I am very grateful to Drs. Mildred Budny, Leslie French, Stephen Jaeger, Éric Palazzo, and Nicholas Watson, to unidentified Traditio reviewers, and to the journal editors for their valuable comments, criticisms, and advice regarding earlier drafts of this article. I have tried to take their suggestions into account here. My thanks also to Dr. Scott G. Bruce and his fellow Traditio editors for their careful proofreading and corrections.

References

1 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum 2.1, in Venerabilis Baedae Historiam ecclesiasticam gentis Anglorum, Historiam abbatum, Epistolam ad Ecgberctum una cum Historia abbatum auctore anonymo 1, ed. Charles Plummer (Oxford, 1896), 79–81 (henceforth cited as HE from this edition). The HE is also edited in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969). The facing-page translation in this edition is by Colgrave. See Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. with introduction and notes by Judith McClure and Roger Collins (Oxford, 1994), xx–xxi.

2 This article is part of a larger monograph project to trace the story's transmission and changes in its interpretation from the eighth century to the present: Gregory the Great and the Construction of English “Whiteness,” in preparation.

3 St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 567, pp. 75–110, at pp. 84–85; digitized facsimile available at https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/csg/0567/75 (accessed 21 June 2021). The full title (p. 75) is Liber beati et laudabilis viri Gregorii pap[a]e urbis Rom[a]e de vita atque eius virtutibus. The principal modern edition to date is The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great by an Anonymous Monk of Whitby, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave (Lawrence, KS, 1968) (henceforth cited as Earliest Life). A new critical edition and translation are in preparation by Dr. Sian Foster for Oxford Medieval Texts. My thanks to an anonymous reviewer for this information. On Oswiu, see D. J. Craig, “Oswiu,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (henceforth cited as ODNB; online at https://www.oxforddnb.com/).

4 Foot, Sarah, Monastic Life in Anglo-Saxon England, c. 600–900 (Cambridge, 2006), 174–76Google Scholar. On Whitby and its location: P. S. Barnwell, L. A. S. Butler, and C. J. Dunn, “The Confusion of Conversion: Strænæshalch, Strensall and Whitby and the Northumbrian Church,” in The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300–1300, ed. Martin Carver (York, 2003), 311–26.

5 Alan Thacker, “Hild,” ODNB; Alan Thacker, “Eanflæd,” ODNB; and Rosemary Cramp, “Eadwine [St. Eadwine, Edwin],” ODNB. See also Christine E. Fell, “Hild, Abbess of Streonæshalch,” in Hagiography and Medieval Literature: A Symposium, ed. Hans Bekker-Nielsen et al. (Odense, 1981), 76–99; and Catherine E. Karkov, “Whitby, Jarrow and the Commemoration of Death in Northumbria,” in Northumbria's Golden Age, ed. Jane Hawkes and Susan Mills (Stroud, 1999), 126–35.

6 Alan Thacker, “Ælfflæd,” ODNB; and Barnwell et al. “Confusion of Conversion,” 313–15.

7 See HE 4.12 and 4.24 (26), ed. Plummer, 229 and 267–68; and Anonymous, Vita Cuthberti 1.3, in Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert, A Life by an Anonymous Monk of Lindisfarne and Bede's Prose Life: Texts, Translations, and Notes, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1940), 64 and 311 (henceforth cited as VCA from this edition).

8 HE 3.24, 4.21 (23), 4.22 (24), and 4.24 (26), ed. Plummer, 178–79, 252–58, 260, and 267–68; Stephen, Vita Wilfridi 54, 59, and 60, in The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus: Text, Translation, and Notes, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1927), 116 and 128–32 (henceforth cited as VW from this edition); VCA 3.6 and 4.10, ed. Colgrave, 102–4 and 126–28; Bede, Vita Cuthberti 23, 24, and 34, in Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert, A Life by an Anonymous Monk of Lindisfarne and Bede's Prose Life: Texts, Translations, and Notes, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1940), 230–38 and 260–64 (henceforth cited as VCP from this edition); and Earliest Life 18, ed. Colgrave, 102. See Colgrave, Earliest Life, 34–35. Alan Thacker has described Whitby as “a double monastery ruled by an abbess and comprising a group of high-born nuns served by a group of male chaplains”: Thacker, “Ælfflæd,” ODNB.

9 HE 4.21 (23), ed. Plummer, 254; and VW 54 and 59–60, ed. Colgrave, 116 and 128–32.

10 Colgrave, Earliest Life, 45–49. Colgrave's dating is widely accepted.

11 Earliest Life 18, ed. Colgrave, 102. Arguments on behalf of female authorship have been advanced by Andrew Breeze, “Did a Woman Write the Whitby Life of St. Gregory?,” Northern History 49 (2012): 345–50.

12 Epistola 8, in S. Bonifacii et Lulli Epistolae, MGH, Epistolae Merovingici et Karolini Aevi 1, ed. Ernst Dümmler (Berlin, 1892), 248–49.

13 Bertram Colgrave, “The Earliest Life of St. Gregory the Great, Written by a Whitby Monk,” in Celt and Saxon: Studies in the Early British Border, ed. Kenneth Jackson et al. (Cambridge, 1963), 119–37, at 136; quoted in Breeze, “Did a Woman Write the Whitby Life,” 346.

14 For example, Walter Goffart, The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon (Princeton, 1988), 264; and Scharer, Anton, “The Gregorian Tradition in Early England,” in St. Augustine and the Conversion of England, ed. Gameson, Richard (Stroud, 1999), 187–201Google Scholar, at 188.

15 Howlett, D. R., British Books in Biblical Style (Dublin, 1997), 1–7Google Scholar and 135–46; and Kate Rambridge, “Doctor Noster Sanctus: The Northumbrians and Pope Gregory,” in Rome and the North: The Early Reception of Gregory the Great in Germanic Europe, ed. Rolf H. Bremmer, Kees Dekker, and David F. Johnson (Paris, 2001), 1–26. Also noteworthy are the studies by Brian Butler: “Doctor of Souls, Doctor of the Body: Whitby Vita Gregorii 23 and Its Exegetical Context,” in Listen, O Isles, unto Me: Studies in Medieval Word and Image in Honour of Jennifer O'Reilly, ed. Elizabeth Mullins and Diarmuid Scully (Cork, 2011), 168–80; idem, “The Whitby Life of Gregory the Great: Exegesis and Hagiography” (Ph.D. diss., University College Cork, 2005); and Colin Ireland, “Some Irish Characteristics of the Whitby Life of Gregory the Great,” in Early Medieval Ireland and Europe: Chronology, Contacts, Scholarship, ed. Pádraic Moran and Immo Warntjes (Turnhout, 2015), 139–78.

16 Uppinder Mehan and David Townsend, “‘Nation’ and the Gaze of the Other in Eighth-Century Northumbria,” Comparative Literature 53 (2001): 1–26, esp. 2 and 13–25. See Kathleen Biddick, The Shock of Medievalism (Durham, NC, 1998), 100–1.

17 HE 2.1: “Nec silentio praetereunda opinio, quae de beato Gregorio traditione maiorum . . . Haec iuxta opinionem, quam ab antiquis accepimus, historiae nostrae ecclesiasticae inserere oportunum duximus,” ed. Plummer, 79 and 81. On the term opinio, see n. 51, below. Throughout the present article, I respect the choices between consonantal “u” and “v” and the punctuation of the modern editions from which Latin texts are quoted. Orthography is also respected except that abbreviated words are generally written in full.

18 Colgrave, Earliest Life, 50–53, esp. 50. Alan Thacker cites further scholarly studies that interpret miracle stories in the Liber as derived from oral tradition: “Memorializing Gregory the Great: The Origin and Transmission of a Papal Cult in the Seventh and Early Eighth Centuries,” Early Medieval Europe 7 (1998): 59–84, at 63, n. 23.

19 Colgrave, Earliest Life, 53–54, 56–59, and 140–65; Michael Richter, “Bede's Angli: Angles or English?,” Peritia 3 (1984): 99–114, at 101–12; and Thacker, “Memorializing Gregory,” esp. 69–71.

20 Ælfric of Eynsham, “IIII. Idus Martii. Sancti Gregorii Pape. Urbis Romane Inclitus,” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, The Second Series: Text, ed. Malcolm Godden (Oxford, 1979), 72–80, at 73–74. See Emily V. Thornbury, “‘Ða Gregorius gamenode mid his wordum’: Old English Versions of Gregory's Bilingual Puns,” Leeds Studies in English 38 (2007): 17–30, esp. 20–22. I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this reference. On the intended audience of Ælfric's homily, see Kathy Lavezzo, “Another Country: Ælfric and the Production of English Identity,” in New Medieval Literatures 3, ed. David Lawton, Wendy Scase, and Rita Copeland (Oxford, 1999), 67–93, at 72–73 and n. 15.

21 There is a vast scholarly literature on the relationship between orality and writing in the ancient and medieval world. The work of Milman Parry and Alfred Lord in the early to mid-twentieth century on ancient Greece was foundational, especially Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, MA, 1960). Also of note were the contributions of Eric Havelock and Walter Ong, the latter, for example, in Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London, 1982). For a useful overview and critique of Havelock's work, see John Halverson, “Havelock on Greek Orality and Literacy,” Journal of the History of Ideas 53 (1992): 148–63. The importance of orality in early medieval Europe is emphasized in Michael Richter, The Formation of the Medieval West: Studies in the Oral Culture of the Barbarians (Dublin, 1994); and idem, The Oral Tradition in the Early Medieval West (Turnhout, 1994). For a survey of and further contribution to the scholarly debates, see Patrick J. Geary, “Oblivion Between Orality and Textuality in the Tenth Century,” in Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography, ed. Gerd Althoff, Johannes Fried, and Patrick J. Geary (Washington DC, 2002), 111–22. My thinking on this matter as it pertains to the Whitby Liber has also been influenced by the following works, among others: Matthew Innes, “Memory, Orality and Literacy in an Early Medieval Society,” Past & Present 158 (1998): 3–36; Alaric Hall, “The Orality of a Silent Age: The Place of Orality in Medieval Studies,” in Methods and the Medievalist: Current Approaches in Medieval Studies, ed. Marko Lamberg et al. (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 2008), 270–90; and Martin Foys, “A Sensual Philology for Anglo-Saxon England,” postmedieval 5 (2014): 456–72. Additional scholarship related to this issue is cited below.

22 On the significance of dialogue as a pedagogical device for engaging medieval audiences of hagiography: Pick, Lucy, “Dialogue in the Monastery: Hagiography as a Pedagogical Model,” Studies in Church History 55 (2019): 35–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Gregory, Moralia in Iob 11.45.61: “Quia omne quod loquimur transit, quod uero scribimus manet . . .” ed. M. Adriaen, CCL 143A (Turnhout, 1979), 620. On the Whitby author's knowledge of at least the introductory letter in the Moralia: Colgrave, Earliest Life, 141 and 158. Gregory's dictum is quoted and discussed in Geary, “Oblivion Between Orality and Textuality,” 112.

24 See n. 3, above.

25 See Colgrave, Earliest Life, 48–49.

26 Brown, George Hardin, A Companion to Bede (Woodbridge, 2009), 102–5Google Scholar; and Williams, Rowan and Ward, Benedicta, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: An Introduction and Selection (London, 2012), 7–24Google Scholar. My thanks to an anonymous reviewer for emphasizing these points.

27 See APA Dictionary of Psychology, “associative thinking”: online at https://dictionary.apa.org/associative-thinking (accessed 21 June 2021); and Charles H. Rowell and Leon Forrest, “Beyond the Hard Work and Discipline: An Interview with Leon Forrest,” Callaloo 20 (1997): 342–56, at 348.

28 Howlett, British Books (n. 15 above), 135–46; and Rambridge, “Doctor Noster Sanctus” (n. 15 above), esp. 25–26.

29 Weiwen Tu, “A Praxis of Oral Homiletics: Preaching from the Heart” (Ph.D. diss., Duquesne University, 2019), 127–28, 137–38, and 147–60, with references to modern scholarly literature and to Augustine, De doctrina Christiana. The dissertation is available online at: https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2782&context=etd (accessed 21 June 2021).

30 See n. 3, above.

31 Catologi bibliothecarum antiqui 22: Coenobium S. Galli 272, ed. Gustav Becker (Bonn, 1885), 49; and Colgrave, Earliest Life, 63–69.

32 Colgrave, Earliest Life, 67–69.

33 I am very grateful to an unidentified reviewer for this observation.

34 Colgrave, Earliest Life, 61–62; and F. A. Gasquet, A Life of Pope Gregory the Great (London, 1904).

35 Ewald, Paul, “Die älteste Biographie Gregors I,” in Historische Aufsätze dem Andenken an Georg Waitz gewidmet, ed. Holder-Egger, Oswald (Hannover, 1886), 17–54Google Scholar, esp. 25–27.

36 Earliest Life, praef., 4–5, ed. Colgrave, 72 and 80.

37 Compare St. Gallen, Cod. Sang. 567, pp. 1–73 (Vita s[an]c[t]i siluestri), where chapter numbers were incorporated: https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/csg/0567/1/0/Sequence-595 (accessed 21 June 2021).

38 Parkes, Malcolm B., Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West (Aldershot, UK, 1992), 301–7Google Scholar. Standard typesetting practices in the 1960s did not readily permit Colgrave to emulate the punctuation of the St. Gallen manuscript, even had he wanted to do this. My thanks to Mildred Budny for this insight.

39 To give examples: Earliest Life 6, 10, 11, 22, and 25, ed. Colgrave, 82–83, 90–91, 92–93, 110–11, and 118–19.

40 See nn. 1, 7, and 8, above.

41 Earliest Life 9: “Quod omnino non est tegendum silentio, quam spiritaliter ad Deum quomodoque cordis incomparabili speculo oculorum nostrum providendo propagavit ad Deum conversionem. Est igitur narratio fidelium, ante predictum eius pontificatum, Romam [Colgrave: Roman] venisse quidam de nostra natione forma et crinibus candidati albis. Quos cum audisset venisse, iam dilexit vidisse eosque alme mentis intuitu sibi adscitos, recenti speci[a]e inconsueta suspensus et, quod maximum est, Deo intus admonente, cuius gentis fuissent, inquisivit. Quos quidam pulchros fuisse pueros dicunt et quidam vero crispos iuvenes et decoros. Cumque responderent, ‘Anguli dicuntur, illi de quibus sumus,’ ille dixit, ‘Angeli Dei.’ Deinde dixit, ‘Rex gentis illius, quomodo nominatur?’ Et dixerunt, ‘Aelli.’ Et ille ait, ‘Alleluia. Laus enim Dei esse debet illic.’ Tribus quoque illius nomen de qua erant propri[a]e requisivit. Et dixerunt, ‘Deir[a]e.’ Et ille dixit, ‘De ira Dei confugientes ad fidem’,” ed. Colgrave, 90. Colgrave translated iuvenes as “youths,” but the term commonly refers to an age between about 22 and 42 years old: juvenis, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin From British Sources, ed. R. K. Ashdowne et al. (Oxford, 2018) (henceforth cited as DMLBS), online at https://logeion.uchicago.edu/ (accessed 21 June 2021).

42 HE 2.1: “Nec silentio praetereunda opinio, quae de beato Gregorio traditione maiorum ad nos usque perlata est; qua uidelicet ex causa admonitus tam sedulam erga salutem nostrae gentis curam gesserit. Dicunt, quia die quadam cum, aduenientibus nuper mercatoribus, multa uenalia in forum fuissent conlata multi ad emendum confluxissent, et ipsum Gregorium inter alios aduenisse, ac uidisse inter alia pueros uenales positos candidi corporis, ac uenusti uultus, capillorum quoque forma egregia. Quos cum aspiceret, interrogauit, ut aiunt, de qua regione uel terra essent adlati. Dictumque est, quia de Brittania insula, cuius incolae talis essent aspectus. Rursus interrogauit, utrum idem insulani Christiani, an paganis adhuc erroribus essent inplicati. Dictum est, quod essent pagani. At ille, intimo ex corde longa trahens suspiria: ‘Heu, pro dolor!’ inquit, ‘quod tam lucidi uultus homines tenebrarum auctor possidet, tantaque gratia frontispicii mentem ab interna gratia uacuam gestat!’ Rursus ergo interrogauit, quod esset uocabulum gentis illius. Responsum est, quod Angli uocarentur. At ille: ‘Bene,’ inquit; ‘nam et angelicam habent faciem, et tales angelorum in caelis decet esse coheredes. Quod habet nomen ipsa prouincia, de qua isti sunt adlati?’ Responsum est, quod Deiri uocarentur idem prouinciales. At ille: ‘Bene,’ inquit, ‘Deiri; de ira eruti, et ad misericordiam Christi uocati. Rex prouinciae illius quomodo appellatur?’ Responsum est, quod Aelli diceretur. At ille adludens ad nomen ait: ‘Alleluia, laudem Dei Creatoris illis in partibus oportet cantari’,” ed. Plummer, 79–80.

43 Compare candidus and albus in DMLBS. See also Harris, Stephen J., “Bede and Gregory's Allusive Angles,” Criticism 44 (2002): 271–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 274–75.

44 Earliest Life 12, 17, and 26, ed. Colgrave, 94, 100, and 122.

45 Heng, Geraldine, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2018), 182CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Abundant recent scholarly literature analyzes these themes. Besides Geraldine Heng's magisterial study, to cite only a few works relevant to the concerns of the present essay: Benjamin Isaac, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton, 2004), esp. 55–168; James Dee, “Black Odysseus, White Caesar: When Did ‘White People’ Become ‘White’?,” The Classical Journal 99 (2003/04): 157–67; and Dorothy Verkerk, “Black Servant, Black Demon: Color Ideology in the Ashburnham Pentateuch,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31 (2001): 57–77, with a survey of late antique thought about skin color. On somatic whiteness in medieval thought: Madeline Caviness, “From the Self-Invention of the Whiteman in the Thirteenth Century to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art 1 (2008): 1–33. Older, but still useful: Frank Snowden, “Misconceptions about African Blacks in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Specialists and Afrocentrists,” Arion 4 (1997): 28–50. Bede alludes to the binary in writings besides the HE. See, for example, Bede, In primam partem Samuhelis libri IIII 2.10, ed. David Hurst, CCL 119 (Turnhout, 1962), 92–93; and Expositio Actuum Apostolorum 8.26–27, ed. M. L. W. Laistner, CCL 121 (Turnhout, 1983), 41.

47 For example, the mosaics of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (early sixth century); Santi Cosma e Damiano, Rome (ca. 530); and San Venanzio chapel, Lateran basilica (640–42). The somatic darkness of the newly formed Adam, before he receives a soul, contrasts with the light coloring of Christ and angels in the Dome of San Marco, Venice, a mosaic reflecting the fourth-century Cotton Genesis: Verkerk, “Black Servant,” 68 and figs. 3 and 4.

48 For example, Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS 57, fol. 21v (Book of Durrow: Matthew symbol); Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. [58], fols. 7v and 27v (Book of Kells: Virgin and Child with angels and four-symbols page [Matthew symbol]); Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1, fol. 796v (Codex Amiatinus: angels); and St. Gallen, Cod. Sang. 51, pp. 2, 266, and 267 (angels, Matthew symbol, Christ, other heavenly beings).

49 The probably original orthography of the Liber is clearest in the manuscript: St. Gallen 567, pp. 80, 85, 86, and 87 (Earliest Life 6, 9, 12, and 13, ed. Colgrave, 82, 90, and 94). In St. Gallen 567, p. 90 (Earliest Life 16, ed. Colgrave, 98), however, we find Uuestranglorum corrected to Uuestanglorum, and in St. Gallen 567, p. 91 (Earliest Life 18, ed. Colgrave, 102), Sudranglorum changed to Sundaranglorum. Compare “Gregorius (590–604),” Liber pontificalis 1, ed. Louis Duchesne (Paris, 1886), 312–14, at 312 (henceforth cited as LP 1). On Angli/Anguli in Gregory's correspondence, the epitaph, the Liber, and Bede: Richter, “Bede's Angli” (n. 19 above), esp. 99–105 and 108–9.

50 Colgrave, Earliest Life, 146–47.

51 HE 2.1: “Nec silentio praetereunda opinio,” ed. Plummer, 79; and Earliest Life 9: “Quod omnino non est tegendum silentio,” ed. Colgrave, 90. See also HE 2.1, ed. Plummer, 81. My thanks to Stephen Jaeger for emphasizing to me Bede's willingness to include the story. Asserting that Bede must have doubted the tale: Patrick Wormald, “Bede, Bretwaldas and the Origins of the Gens Anglorum,” in Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society: Studies Presented to J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, ed. Patrick Wormald with Donald Bullough and Roger Collins (Oxford, 1983), 99–129, at 124. For meanings of opinio in early medieval British texts, see DMLBS.

52 Harris, “Bede and Gregory's Allusive Angles” (n. 43 above), 275; and Stephen J. Harris, Race and Ethnicity in Anglo-Saxon Literature (New York, 2003), 45–51, esp. 49–50. See egregius in DMLBS.

53 Allen J. Frantzen, “Bede and Bawdy Bale: Gregory the Great, Angels, and the ‘Angli’,” in Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity, ed. Allen J. Frantzen and John D. Niles (Gainesville, FL, 1997), 17–39, at 21–25; and John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (Chicago, 1980), 144.

54 See Harris, “Bede and Gregory's Allusive Angles” (n. 43 above), 276; and Harris, Race and Ethnicity, 50–51.

55 Celia Chazelle, The Codex Amiatinus and its “Sister” Bibles: Scripture, Liturgy, and Art in the Milieu of the Venerable Bede (Leiden, 2019), 122–31; and Aaron Kleist, Striving with Grace: Views of Free Will in Anglo-Saxon England (Toronto, 2008), 58–82.

56 Earliest Life 10: “illo dicente, ‘Miserum, tam pulchris vasis infernus debuisse repleri’,” ed. Colgrave, 92.

57 “Grace” (gratia) is identified elsewhere in the Liber (including in some passages discussed below) as a virtue, power, or blessing from God. See, for example, Earliest Life 6, 23, 24, 26, and 28, ed. Colgrave, 82, 114, 118, 120, and 124.

58 See Mehan and Townsend, “Nation and the Gaze” (n. 16 above), 19–20; and Alaric Hall, “Interlinguistic Communication in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum,” in Interfaces Between Language and Culture in Medieval England: A Festschrift for Matti Kilpiö, ed. Alaric Hall et al. (Leiden, 2010), 37–80, at 52–53.

59 See Pick, “Dialogue in the Monastery” (n. 22 above), 37–38.

60 HE 1.23: “Qui diuino admonitus instinctu,” ed. Colgrave, 42.

61 See Rambridge, “Doctor Noster Sanctus” (n. 15 above), 1–26.

62 Howlett, British Books (n. 15 above), 135–46.

63 See n. 27, above.

64 Erin Thomas A. Dailey, “The Vita Gregorii and Ethnogenesis in Anglo-Saxon Britain,” Northern History 47 (2010): 195–207, esp. 198–99. The notion of Gregory as “our teacher” of the English persists in later writings: Scharer, “Gregorian Tradition” (n. 14 above), 194–95.

65 Earliest Life, praef.: “Merito nos quoque nostri mentionem magistri possumus iuxta vires nostras adiuvante Domino facere, describentes quem sanctum Gregorium,” ed. Colgrave, 72.

66 Earliest Life 2: “Unde etiam aptus ad hec qualiter venisset, carptim breviterque eius perfruamur sermone et sensu,” ed. Colgrave, 72.

67 Earliest Life 2, ed. Colgrave, 74–76; and Colgrave, Earliest Life, 141.

68 Earliest Life 3: “De quo librum scribere cupientes cum pauca eius de gestis audivimus signorum,” ed. Colgrave, 76.

69 Earliest Life 4, ed. Colgrave, esp. 78–80; regarding sources, see Colgrave, Earliest Life, 142.

70 Earliest Life 5–8: “De nostro igitur magistro beato Gregorio ea qu[a]e nobiscum ab antiquis fama sanctitatis eius a diversis notavit referamus . . . Inter quos apostolicum nostrum sanctum Gregorium virum prefatum adnumeramus,” ed. Colgrave, 80–90, esp. 80–82. Regarding sources: Colgrave, Earliest Life, 143–44.

71 Earliest Life 5: “Sunt ergo nonnulli, et ut verius dicam, fuere ante nos, qui tanta iam per Spiritum sanctum fulgebant doctrina, ut innumerabiles per mundum illorum inrigati imbribus verborum fructum adferunt in patientia,” ed. Colgrave, 80. See Rambridge, “Doctor Noster Sanctus” (n. 15 above), 10.

72 Earliest Life 6: “Juxta cuius sententiam quando omnes apostoli, suas secum provincias ducentes Domino in die iudicii ostendent, atque singuli gentium doctores, nos ille, id est gentem Angulorum [Colgrave: Anglorum], eo miratius per se gratia Dei credimus edoctam adducere,” ed. Colgrave, 82. Colgrave was unable to identify the source of this sententia of Gregory, but a close echo appears in one of the pope's letters to Reccared. Gregory congratulates the Visigothic king for the conversion of his people (gens) to Catholic Christianity and states that Reccared will lead them to the Judgment. In contrast, Gregory fears that he will come before the tribunal empty-handed, with no gens: Gregory, Registrum epistolarum 9.228, MGH, Epistolae 2, ed. Ludo M. Hartmann (Berlin, 1899), 221–25, at 221–22. I am very grateful to Dr. Gerda Rummel-Heydemann for this reference. Due to COVID restrictions, I have been unable to access the CCL edition of Gregory's Registrum.

73 Earliest Life 6: “Deus qui in beato Gregorio illa iam maiora per sermonem sapienti[a]e et scienti[a]e Christi Iesu declarat . . . Plus igitur nobis Christus per sanctum loquendo proficit Gregorium,” ed. Colgrave, 82–84.

74 Earliest Life 7–8: “Quod sanctus implendo docuit nos Gregorius dicens, ‘Pro inimico nihil postulat, qui pro eo ex caritate non orat,’ ut perfecta ex hoc fiat in nobis Christi caritas . . . ‘Lex veritatis fuit in ore eius, et iniquitas non est inventa in labiis eius,’ et reliqua. Unde eum utique preceptum Domini lucidum inluminans oculos, sic inluminavit ut inter multa ingenii munimina su[a]e in signum sanctitatis ad gratiam proph[a]ete singulari fertur dono de nobis intellegenti[a]e pervenisse,” ed. Colgrave, 84–90, esp. 88–90. On the Liber theme of emulating Christ's humility and love, see Stephanie Hollis, Anglo-Saxon Women and the Church: Sharing a Common Fate (Woodbridge, 1992), 126–27.

75 Earliest Life 10: “Tam itaque spiritali data occasione inflammatus . . .”; “Cuius reversionis prius, Domino in se loquente sancta mente per unam locustam agnovit iterationem . . . E cuius nomine statim quasi sibi diceret, ‘Sta in loco’,” ed. Colgrave, 90–92.

76 Earliest Life 11, ed. Colgrave, 92. This passage is close to the report in “Gregorius,” LP 1:312: Colgrave, Earliest Life, 146–47. Compare HE 1.27, 1.29, and 2.3 and 4, ed. Plummer, 48, 63, 85, and 86.

77 Earliest Life 12: “Per hos igitur regum omnium primus Angulorum Edilbertus rex Cantuariorum ad fidem Christi correctus, eius baptismo dealbatus cum sua enituit natione,” ed. Colgrave, 94.

78 HE 1.23 and 2.14, ed. Plummer, 42–43 and 113–15. Hild was baptized with Edwin when she was thirteen, in 627. Almost certainly she, her student Ælfflæd, and the latter's mother Eanflæd knew that Æthelbert died (in 616) years before Edwin's baptism and before Æthelbert's daughter Æthelburh, Eanflæd's mother, married Edwin in 625. See Thacker, “Hild,” ODNB; Thacker, “Eanflæd,” ODNB; and Dailey, “Vita Gregorii” (n. 64 above), 195–207.

79 Earliest Life 12: “Post hunc in gente nostra, qu[a]e dicitur Humbrensium, Eduinus, Aelli prefati filius, quem sub vaticinatione alleluiatica laudationis divin[a]e non inmerito meminimus, rex precepit tam sapientia singularis quam etiam sceptro dicionis regi[a]e, a tempore quo gens Angulorum hanc ingreditur insulam,” ed. Colgrave, 94.

80 Harris, “Bede and Gregory's Allusive Angles” (n. 43 above), 276.

81 Earliest Life 13: “Ergo nomen Angulorum, si una e littera addetur, angelorum sonat; pro certo vocabulum quorum proprium est semper omnipotentem Deum in celis laudare, et non deficere, quia non lassescunt in laude. . . Et Aelli duabus compositum est sillabis quarum in priori cum e littera adsumitur et in sequenti pro i ponitur e, alle [Colgrave: all] vocatur, quod in nostra lingua omnes absolute indicat . . . Si regem quoque significat alle Patrem, lu Filium, ia Spiritum Sanctum,” ed. Colgrave, 94–96. The connection between English conversion and Alleluia implied here and in Gregory's pun resonates with a passage from his Moralia quoted in Bede's History. Besides the pun, the Liber author may have had the Moralia text in mind in developing this exposition. See HE 2.1, ed. Plummer, 78; Gregory, Moralia 27.11.21, ed. M. Adriaen, CCL 143B (Turnhout, 1985), 1346; Hall, “Interlinguistic Communication” (n. 58 above), 51–53; and Thacker, “Memorializing Gregory” (n. 18 above), 77–78. I am grateful to Mildred Budny for her observations on this matter.

82 Earliest Life 14: “Porro cum in lumbis fortasse cum hoc fuit vaticinatum adhuc patris sui Aelli fuit predestinatum vas misericordi[a]e Deo Eduinus, cuius nomen tribus sillabis constans, recte sibi designat sancte misterium trinitatis, quod ille docebat qui omnes ad se invitat baptizatos in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti. Huius namque Eduini pater in baptismo venerandus fuit Paulinus antistes, unus illorum quos inter nos direxit, ut diximus, Gregorius,” ed. Colgrave, 96.

83 Earliest Life 15: “Tunc omnis multitudo regia qu[a]e adhuc erat in platea populi, audiens avem, stupore ad eam conversa subsistit, quasi illud canticum novum carmen Deo nostro non esset vero futurum in eclesia, sed falso ad nihil utile,” ed. Colgrave, 96–98, at 96.

84 On the incident's date: Colgrave, Earliest Life, 149.

85 Earliest Life 16: “antiquitus traditur . . . Quod non tam condenso quomodo audivimus verbo, sed pro veritate certantes, eo quod credimus factum brevi replicamus et sensu, licet ab illis minime audivimus famatum qui eius plura pre ceteris sciebant. Nec tamen quod spiritaliter a fidelibus traditur, tegi silentio per totum rectum rimamur, cum etiam sepe fama cuiusque rei, per longa tempora terrarumque spatia, post congesta, diverso modo in aures diversorum perveniet. Hoc igitur multo ante horum omnes qui nunc supersunt, gestum est dies,” ed. Colgrave, 98.

86 HE 2.12: “tandem, ut uerisimile uidetur, didicit in spiritu,” ed. Plummer, 106–11, at 107.

87 Earliest Life 16: “Sed quia regis nostri christianissimi facimus Eduini mentionem, dignum fuit etiam et eius conversionis facere, quomodo antiquitus traditur, illi fuisse premonstrata . . . quadam die quidam pulchr[a]e visionis, cum cruce Christi coronatus apparens . . . respondit, ‘Probabis hoc verum et qui tibi primo cum hac speci[a]e et signo apparebit, illi debes oboedire. Qui te uni Deo qui creavit omnia, vivo et vero docebit obedire, quique Deus daturus est tibi ea que promitto et omnia qu[a]e tibi agenda sunt per illum demonstrabit.’ Sub hac igitur speci[a]e dicunt illi Paulinum prefatum episcopum primo apparuisse,” ed. Colgrave, 98–100.

88 Earliest Life 17, ed. Colgrave, 100.

89 Earliest Life 18: “Fuit igitur frater quidam nostr[a]e gentis nomine Trimma, in quodam monasterio Sudranglorum presbiterii functus officio, diebus Edilredi regis illorum, adhuc in vita monastica vivente, Aeonfleda filia religiosi regis prefati Eduini . . . ‘Debes enim ossa eius exinde tollere tecum ad Streunesalae deducere,’ quod est coenobium famosissimum Aelflede, fili[a]e supradicte regine Eonflede nat[a]e, ut supra diximus, Eduini, femina valde iam religiosa,” ed. Colgrave, 102. On Æthelred: Ann Williams, “Æthelred of Mercia,” ODNB.

90 Earliest Life 19: “In quo nunc honorifice in sancti Petri apostolorum principis ecclesia hec eadem sancta ossa cum ceteris conduntur regibus nostris ad austrum altaris illius, quod beatissimi Petri apostoli est nomine sanctificatum, et ab oriente illius quod in hac ipsa sancto Gregorio est consecrata eclesia,” ed. Colgrave, 104.

91 HE 2.20 and 3.24, ed. Plummer, 125 and 179.

92 Earliest Life 19, ed. Colgrave, 104.

93 Thacker, “Eanflæd,” ODNB.

94 Earliest Life 20: “His igitur peractis relationibus, qu[a]e propri[a]e ad nos pertineat, adhuc ea sequamur quibus, Christo in se quoque loquente vir beatissimus Gregorius signorum est sanctitate famatus nobiscum,” ed. Colgrave, 104.

95 Earliest Life 20: “Nam antiquorum fertur esse narratio” and 21: “Est et altera vetus quoque relatio,” ed. Colgrave, 104 and 108.

96 Colgrave, Earliest Life, 152–63; and Thacker, “Memorializing Gregory” (n. 18 above), 61–71. See Earliest Life 21 and 28, ed. Colgrave, 108–10 and 124; Gregory, Registrum epistolarum 4.30, MGH, Epistolae 1, ed. Paul Ewald and Ludo M. Hartmann (Berlin, 1891), 263–66, esp. 265; Gregory, Dialogues 4.57.8–15, ed. Adalbert de Vogüé, SC 265 (Paris, 1980), 188–94.

97 Earliest Life 23: “H[a]ec igitur sensu in quibusdam proferimus, ne ut ipse de sanctorum ait actibus qu[a]e scripsit, rustice dicentes nil spiritale dicamus,” ed. Colgrave, 116. Compare Colgrave, Earliest Life, 154–55. I am grateful to Stephen Jaeger for his advice on this issue. The Liber author quotes here from Gregory, Dialogues 1, Prol. 10, ed. Adalbert de Vogüé, SC 260 (Paris, 1979), 16–18. This use of rustice may have an analogue in the decree of the Council of Tours (813) that refers to rustica Romana lingua to distinguish the vernacular of oral preaching from written Latin: Concilium Turonense 17, MGH, Concilia 2.1, ed. Albert Werminghoff (Hannover, 1906), 288. See Olga Timofeeva, “Anglo-Latin Bilingualism Before 1066: Prospects and Limitations,” in Interfaces Between Language and Culture (n. 58 above), 1–36, at 2, n. 2.

98 Earliest Life 20: “Quod cum fecissent ut docuit,” ed. Colgrave, 106–8.

99 Earliest Life 21, ed. Colgrave, 108–10.

100 Earliest Life 22, ed. Colgrave, 110–14. This story has an internally chiastic structure.

101 Earliest Life 23: “Fuit igitur rex quidam, quem puto Langobardorum fuisse . . . Cui sanctus vir Gregorius obviam factus, eumque in praesentia eorum adlocutus, eius fervidum pectus singularis in se doctrin[a]e divin[a]e sic molle fecit affluentia . . . per quem dedit vocem suam altissimus et mota est terra. Hic igitur rex post h[a]ec egrotavit et misit ad sanctum pontificem prefatum pro sua infirmitate: qui illum sibi magistrum ex predicta eius elegit doctrina . . . Ergo rex iste, cum puer esset, fuit intra Alpes cum pastoribus peccorum et erat lacteo nutritus cybo. Ad quem, secundum viri Dei doctrinam rediens, continuo melius habere coepit,” ed. Colgrave, 114–16.

102 Earliest Life 24: “Huius denique verius inter cetera viri signum sanctitatis, quod maius est mirandum, omnibus quod in scriptis suis tam preclarum inluxit illi c[a]eleste in se Christo, ut prediximus loquente ingenium, sicut in omeliis eius est omnibus conspicuum considerantibus, de quo ipse, ‘Predicate,’ ait, ‘evangelium omni creatur[a]e’,” ed. Colgrave, 116.

103 Earliest Life 24: “Quod tam plene tamque ab eo suscipit sapienter, qui est Dei sapientia in mysterio abscondita, quem predestinavit Deus ante secula in gloriam nostram, ut a gente Romana qu[a]e pre ceteris mundo intonat sublimius propri[a]e de aurea oris eius gratia, os aureum appellatur . . . Quod per hunc virum Domini voce velut viva usque hodie suavitate resonat nobis melliflua,” ed. Colgrave, 116–18.

104 Earliest Life 24–25, ed. Colgrave, 118. The reference is to Gregory's homily on Luke 15:1–10: Colgrave, Earliest Life, 156; and Gregory, Homilia in Evangelia 2.34, ed. Raymond Étaix, CCL 141 (Turnhout, 1999), 299–319, at 304–14. In drawing the contrast with Augustine, the Whitby author may have had De civitate Dei in mind: Colgrave, Earliest Life, 156.

105 Earliest Life 25–26: “Iste igitur ille de quo ait Salvator, ‘Omnis scriba doctus in regno c[a]elorum similis est homini patrifamilias, qui profert de thesauro suo nova et vetera’ . . . Nam in homeliis sancti Ezechielis prophet[a]e, cui iam similiter celi aperti sunt,” ed. Colgrave, 120.

106 Earliest Life 26: “de quo nunc signum fideliter narratum huic nostro pap[a]e c[a]elos aperir[a]e testamur . . . celestis signo claritatis,” ed. Colgrave, 120–22; Gregory, Homilia in Hiezechielem prophetam 1.8.12, ed. M. Adriaen, CCL 142 (Turnhout, 1971), 107–8; and Colgrave, Earliest Life, 156.

107 Earliest Life 27, ed. Colgrave, 122–24.

108 Earliest Life 28, ed. Colgrave, 124; and Gregory, Dial. 4.57.8–15, ed. de Vogüé (n. 96 above), 188–94.

109 Earliest Life 28: “qui candelabri, non solum Romanorum sed etiam totius mundi, lucerna Rom[a]e qu[a]e urbium caput est orbisque domina, sancti Heronimi lugubri ex ea emigrando infidelitate lectionis, qu[a]e Dei lampadem singulari ab eo lumine accensum, quantum in se fuit extinguens, suam idcirco merito a sancto Gregorio meruit obscurari lampadem. Nec inmerito; quia in eo lectionis quoque divine lampas hoc lucissime agendum dilucidavit,” ed. Colgrave, 124–26.

110 Earliest Life 28, ed. Colgrave, 126.

111 Earliest Life 29: “Quidam quoque de nostris dicunt narratum a Romanis, sancti Gregorii lacrimis animam Traiani imperatoris refrigeratam vel baptizatam, quod est dictu mirabile et auditu,” ed. Colgrave, 126.

112 Earliest Life 29: “Nam die quadam transiens per forum Traianum, quod ab eo opere mirifico constructum dicunt, illud considerans repperit opus tam elemosinarium eum fecisse paganum ut Christiani plus quam pagani esse posse videret. . . Unde per eum in se habuit Christum loquentem ad refrigerium anim[a]e eius quid implendo nesciebat, ingrediens ad sanctum Petrum solita direxit lacrimarum fluenta usque dum promeruit sibi divinitus revelatum fuisse exauditum,” ed. Colgrave, 126–28. An analogue of the concept of baptism by tears and a possible clue to Canterbury influence on the Whitby author is found in the “Judgments” of Theodore of Canterbury compiled by the early eighth-century “Humbrian Disciple”: Die Canones Theodori und ihre Überlieferungsformen, “Texte U,” 2.4.4, ed. Paul Willem Finsterwalder (Weimar, 1929), 317. See T. O'Loughlin and H. Conrad-Brian, “The ‘Baptism of Tears’ in Early Anglo-Saxon Sources,” Anglo-Saxon England 22 (1993): 65–83, esp. 68–73; and Thacker, “Memorializing Gregory” (n. 18 above), 77.

113 Earliest Life 30: “nostr[a]e . . . opus diligenti[a]e tanti viri dilectione magis quam scientia extorsum, de qua ipse scripsit quod legitur, ‘Fortis est ut mors dilectio’; ne forte melius fructum facere prevalendo nolens, ipsius Christi securem sibi ad conburendum se, in crura exciso radicitus convertat. Caritas enim urget nos iuxta nostri modulum ingenioli hoc memorie tradere signa, de noc nostro Deo nobis donante doctore . . . Inde etiam scimus sanctorum esse omnia per caritatem corporis Christi, cuius sunt membra communia,” ed. Colgrave, 128–30. See Rambridge, “Doctor Noster Sanctus” (n. 15 above), 21.

114 Earliest Life 30: “quae etiam non ab illis qui viderunt et audierunt per ore didicimus, vulgata tantum habemus, de illo eius etiam esse in magno dubitamus minime, quod iam hic sanctus vir, in sua pr[a]efata sapientia, satis evidenter docet, ut amantium semper in alterutrum fiat quod cernitur in aliis,” ed. Colgrave, 130–32; Gregory, Regula pastoralis 3.10, ed. F. Rommel, SC 382 (Paris, 1992), 308; and Colgrave, Earliest Life, 164.

115 Earliest Life 30: “O quam magna miraque Salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi caritas de qua dixit apostolus, ‘Ostendit autem suam caritatem Deus in nobis,’ qui tantam in beato nostro apostolico Gregorio suam ostendit caritatem cuius cum humilitatem fuisset secutus, certum est quod ex ceterorum eum preceptorum custodia, tanta inluminavit sapientia que ipse est . . . Per hunc quippe inhabitantem spiritum eius quo caritas eius diffusa est in corde suo, qu[a]e finis precepti est de corde puro et conscientia bona et fide non ficta humilitatis sue qua proprie caritatis quiescit, opus explevit mirificum,” ed. Colgrave, 128–34, esp. 132–34; with Colgrave, Earliest Life, 164–65.

116 Earliest Life 31, ed. Colgrave, 134–36; Gregory, Regula pastoralis 1.9, ed. F. Rommel, SC 381 (Paris, 1992), 156–60; Gregory, Regula pastoralis 3, prol., ed. Rommel, 258–60; and Colgrave, Earliest Life, 165. See also n. 143, below.

117 Earliest Life 32: “De fine vero huius vitae viri, quomodo, qualis esset, minime audivimus, quomodo in Deum moritur,” ed. Colgrave, 136–38, esp. 136; and “Gregorius,” LP 1:312.

118 HE 3.24, 3.25, and 4.24 (26), ed. Plummer, 179, 181–89 (mention of Hild at 183), and 267; Craig, “Oswiu,” ODNB; and Alan Thacker, “Wilfrid,” ODNB. On the Easter controversy, with a focus on the doctrinal issues and references to earlier scholarship: Chazelle, Codex Amiatinus (n. 55 above), 47–51 and 110–22.

119 HE 4.21 (23), ed. Plummer, 254–55; Alan Thacker, “Wilfrid, his Cult and his Biographer,” in Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint: Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conferences, ed. N. J. Higham (Donington, UK, 2013), 1–16, at 16; and Peter Hunter Blair, “Whitby as a Centre of Learning in the Seventh Century,” in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. Michael Lapidge and Helmut Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), 3–32, at 28–29.

120 HE 4.21 (23): “Tantae autem erat ipsa prudentiae, ut non solum mediocres quique in necessitatibus suis, sed etiam reges ac principes nonnumquam ab ea consilium quaererent, et inuenirent,” ed. Plummer, 254.

121 VW 54, ed. Colgrave, 116.

122 On Eanflæd and Wilfrid: VW 2–3, ed. Colgrave, 4–8. On Ælfflæd: VW 43, 59–60, ed. Colgrave, 88 and 126–32. See Thacker, “Eanflæd,” ODNB; and Thacker, “Ælfflæd,” ODNB. On John's appointment to Hexham: HE 5.2, ed. Plummer, 282–83.

123 VW 60: “beata Aelfleda abbatissa, semper totius provinciae consolatrix optimaque consiliatrix . . . beatissima Aelfleda abbatissa benedicto ore suo . . . sapientissima virgo Aelfleda,” ed. Colgrave, 128–32. See Dailey, “Vita Gregorii” (n. 64 above), 204–7.

124 HE 5.3, ed. Plummer, 285; and Thacker, “Ælfflæd,” ODNB.

125 Goffart, Narrators of Barbarian History (n. 14 above), 258–71; and VCA, ed. Colgrave.

126 On the girdle: VCP 23, ed. Colgrave, 230–34. Cuthbert's prophecies and vision are discussed below.

127 HE 3.11, ed. Plummer, 147–50; Goffart, Narrators of Barbarian History, 260–61; Scharer, “Gregorian Tradition” (n. 14 above), 188; and Williams, “Æthelred of Mercia,” ODNB.

128 VW 66, ed. Colgrave, 142–44; and Clare Stancliffe, “Dating Wilfrid's Death and Stephen's Life,” in Wilfrid: Abbot, Bishop, Saint, 17–26.

129 At n. 19, above.

130 HE 3.25 and 4.21 (23), ed. Plummer, 183 and 253.

131 HE 3.1 and 3.24, ed. Plummer, 127 and 177–80; Craig, “Oswiu,” ODNB; Craig, “Oswald,” ODNB; and Barnwell et al. “Confusion of Conversion” (n. 4 above), 311–12.

132 See Karkov, “Whitby, Jarrow” (n. 5 above), 134–35; and Ireland, “Some Irish Characteristics” (n. 15 above), 172–73.

133 HE 4.21 (23): “pro insita ei sapientia . . . iustitiae, pietatis, et castimoniae, ceterarumque uirtutum, sed maxime pacis et caritatis custodiam docuit . . . commissum sibi gregem et publice et priuatim docere praetermittebat,” ed. Plummer, 253–54 and 256. My thanks to an anonymous reviewer for emphasizing the biblical foundation of Hild's pedagogy. On education in early English monastic schools: Foot, Monastic Life (n. 4 above), 226–32.

134 HE 4.21 (23), ed. Plummer, 254.

135 HE 3.24 and 4.24 (26): “in quo memorata regis filia primo discipula uitae regularis, deinde etiam magistra extitit . . . deuota Dei doctrix,” ed. Plummer, 179 and 268.

136 HE 4.22 (24): “atque ad abbatissam perductus, iussus est, multis doctioribus uiris praesentibus, indicare somnium, et dicere carmen . . . iussitque illum seriem sacrae historiae doceri. At ipse cuncta, quae audiendo discere poterat, rememorando secum, et quasi mundum animal ruminando, in carmen dulcissimum conuertebat, suauiusque resonando doctores suos uicissim auditores sui faciebat,” ed. Plummer, 258–62, at 260.

137 HE 4.21 (23) and 4.22 (24), ed. Plummer, 252 and 259.

138 Epistola 8: “karissimam fidelissimamque filiam nostram ab annis adoliscentiae,” ed. Dümmler (n. 12 above), 249. The letter survives in correspondence associated with the circle of Boniface of Mainz. On letters to, from, and between women in this collection: Felice Lifshitz, Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia: A Study of Manuscript Transmission and Monastic Culture (New York, 2014), 4; and Christine Fell, “Some Implications of the Boniface Correspondence,” in New Readings on Women in Old English Literature, ed. Helen Damico and Alexandra Hennessey Olsen (Bloomington, 1990), 29–43, esp. 30 and 32.

139 Thacker, “Eanflæd,” ODNB.

140 Michael Lapidge, The Anglo-Saxon Library (Oxford, 2008), 43; Colgrave, Earliest Life, 140–65; and Thacker, “Memorializing Gregory” (n. 18 above), esp. 61–71.

141 Bede gives only a Latin paraphrase of Cædmon's first song, but twenty-one medieval codices with vernacular versions are known. Cambridge, University Library, Kk. 5. 16 and St. Petersburg, National Library of Russia, lat. Q. v. I. 18, both of the eighth century, present the verses in Northumbrian Old English, the language Cædmon would have spoken. See James Overholtzer and Dennis Poupard, “An Introduction to Cædmon (fl. circa 658–80),” Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism 198 (2019): 1–2, at 2; and Daniel Paul O'Donnell, Cædmon's Hymn: A Multimedia Study, Archive and Edition (Woodbridge, UK, 2009).

142 Fell, “Hild” (n. 5 above), 83–85, with reproduction, transcription, and translation of the runes: “d/[æ]usmæus godaluwalu d/oh/e/lipæcy” (“My God, God Almighty, help Cy-”); and Tineke Looijenga, Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions (Leiden, 2003), 273 and 289 (Catalogue, No. 16). More generally on the archaeological finds: Charles Peers and C. A. Ralegh Radford, “The Saxon Monastery of Whitby,” Archaeologia 89 (1943): 27–88; and Rosemary J. Cramp, “Monastic Sites” and “Analysis of the Finds Register and Location Plan of Whitby Abbey,” in The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. David M. Wilson (London, 1976), 201–52, at 223–29, and 453–57, respectively.

143 Earliest Life 31: “‘Non omnibus una eademque exortatio congruit. Pro qualitate igitur audientium formari debet sermo doctorum. Sepe namque aliis officiunt qu[a]e aliis prosunt.’ Hinc etiam diversa humani generis vitia virtutesque publicando, pene omnium hominum enumerando genera, quid, cui, quando, quamdiu vel quomodo esset dicendum, mira exortatione admonuit,” ed. and trans. Colgrave, 136–37 (with modifications). See Gregory, Regula pastoralis 3, prol., ed. Rommel (n. 114 above), 258.

144 My discussion of this issue owes its first inspiration to Mehan and Townsend, “Nation and the Gaze” (n. 16 above), esp. 13–25.

145 The letter was redacted for the collection in which it was preserved to remove the name of the carrier; see n. 138 above. Further changes could have also been made.

146 Hall, “Interlinguistic Communication” (n. 58 above), esp. 43–55.

147 See Timofeeva, “Anglo-Latin Bilingualism” (n. 97 above), esp. 5–9, 11–12, 22–23, and 29–32. Bede evidently had a written vernacular translation of John's Gospel in preparation and recited a prayer in English as he was dying: Cuthbert, De obitu Bedae, in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, 580–87, at 580–82. Bede's letter of 734 to Bishop Ecgbert of York comments on the illiteracy of lower-level Northumbrian clergy and urges the bishop to provide them with oral vernacular instruction: Epistola ad Ecgbertum episcopum 5, in Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, ed. and trans. Christopher Grocock and Ian Wood (Oxford, 2013), 125–161, at 130–32.

148 Jonathan Hsy, Trading Tongues: Merchants, Multilingualism, and Medieval Literature (Columbus, OH, 2013), esp. 4–6.

149 See HE 4.22 (24), ed. Plummer, 260–61. For two well-known examples of inscriptions with runes combining Latin and vernacular, see Richard Abels, “What Has Weland to Do with Christ? The Franks Casket and the Acculturation of Christianity in Early Anglo-Saxon England,” Speculum 84 (2009): 549–81, at 562–64 and 568; and (regarding Cuthbert's wood coffin), Martin Findell and Lilla Kopár, “Runes and Commemoration in Anglo-Saxon England,” Fragments 6 (2017): 110–37, esp. 121–25. Writings in the Roman alphabet from later in the pre-Conquest period also show “code-switching” between Latin and vernacular: Timofeeva, “Anglo-Latin Bilingualism” (n. 97 above), esp. 16–21. It is instructive to take account, as well, of the ways in which Latin and other languages mingled in multilingual contexts in antiquity: J. N. Adams, Bilingualism and the Latin Language (Cambridge, 2003). I am grateful to an anonymous reader for directing me to these studies.

150 Earliest Life 9, 13, 14, and 23, ed. Colgrave, 90, 94–96, and 116.

151 As discussed at n. 33, above.

152 Earliest Life 9: “Est igitur narratio fidelium, ante predictum eius pontificatum, Romam [Colgrave: Roman] venisse quidam de nostra natione forma et crinibus candidati albis,” ed. Colgrave, 90; and Mehan and Townsend, “Nation and the Gaze” (n. 16 above), 17–19.

153 Earliest Life 9: “Quos quidam pulchros fuisse pueros dicunt,” ed. Colgrave, 90. For comparisons, see Earliest Life 4 and 6, ed. Colgrave, 78 and 82.

154 HE 4.22 (24), ed. Plummer, 260–61.

155 Epistola 8: “ut sacrosanctis flammigerisque oraculis vestris nos apud almipotentem Dominum defendere dignemini,” ed. Dümmler (n. 12 above), 249. See oraculum in DMLBS.

156 VCA 3.6: “Et post multa uerba prophetica quae omnia sine dubio acciderant,” ed. Colgrave, 104; and VCP 24: “atque ut uerbis eius propheticis per omnia satisfieret,” ed. Colgrave, 238.

157 VCA 4.10: “Fidelissima abbatissa Aelfleda de sancto episcopo aliud scientie spiritalis miraculum mihi reuelauit,” ed. Colgrave, 126.

158 VCA 4.10: “intellegens in eo non solum in hoc prophetiae spiritum,” ed. Colgrave, 126; and VCP 34: “Tunc liquido omnibus patuit, quia multiformis prophetiae spiritus uiri sancti praecordiis inerat,” ed. Colgrave, 264.

159 See Earliest Life 11, 14, and 18, ed. Colgrave, 92, 96, and 102. Paulinus received the archiepiscopal pallium, though the Liber author was perhaps unaware of this. The honor, sent from Rome, may have only reached the bishop of York after he had fled to Rochester: Mario Costambeys, “Paulinus,” ODNB. See HE 2.17, ed. Plummer, 118; compare HE 1.29, ed. Plummer, 63–64.

160 Earliest Life 12 and 14–15, ed. Colgrave, 94 and 96–98.

161 VW 60: “beata Aelfleda abbatissa, semper totius provinciae consolatrix optimaque consiliatrix,” ed. Colgrave, 128–32, esp. 128.

162 See Hollis, Anglo-Saxon Women (n. 74 above), 12 and 125–27.

163 Earliest Life 18–19, ed. Colgrave, 100–4.

164 Earliest Life, praef.: “adiuvante Domino,” 3: “Deo adiuvante,” and 30: “Deo nobis donante,” ed. Colgrave, 72, 76, and 130.

165 Earliest Life 16 and 23, ed. Colgrave, 98 and 116. See Rambridge, “Doctor Noster Sanctus” (n. 15 above), 1–2.

166 For example, Ælfric, “Sancti Gregorii” (n. 20 above), 72–80; Vita sancti Gregorij, in The Early South-English Legendary; or, Lives of Saints. I. Ms. Laud, 108, in the Bodleian Library, ed. Carl Horstmann (London, 1887), 355–59; and In Festo S. Gregorii Pape, in Breviarum ad usum insignis ecclesie eboracensis 2, ed. Stephen Lawley (Durham, UK, 1883), cols. 215–22.

167 Veneration of Paulinus (d. 644), buried at Rochester (HE 3.14, ed. Plummer, 154), is attested in some pre- and post-Conquest English churches: Costambeys, “Paulinus,” ODNB.

168 See Jesse D. Billett, The Divine Office in Anglo-Saxon England, 597–c.1000 (Martlesham, UK, 2014), 20–22 and 78–132; Foot, Monastic Life, 189–205 (n. 4 above); and Chazelle, Codex Amiatinus (n. 55 above), 264–68. My thinking about liturgical contexts for reading of the Liber at Whitby owes much inspiration to studies by Éric Palazzo, esp. Le souffle de Dieu: L’énergie de la liturgie et l'art au Moyen Âge (Paris, 2020); and L'invention chrétienne des cinq sens dans la liturgie et l'art au Moyen Âge (Paris, 2014).

169 Bede, Homelia evangelii 2.25, ed. David Hurst, CCL 122 (Turnhout, 1955), 368–78, at 368, lines 3–6: “. . . ut sicut ornatis studiosius eiusdem ecclesiae parietibus pluribus accensis luminaribus amplificato numero lectionum addita psalmorum melodia laetis noctem uigiliis ex more transegimus . . .” The translation is from Bede the Venerable, Homilies on the Gospels, trans. Lawrence T. Martin and David Hurst (Kalamazoo, MI, 1991), 2:255, with minor emendation.

170 Foot, Monastic Life (n. 4 above), 204.

171 Karkov, “Whitby, Jarrow” (n. 5 above), esp. 126 and 133–34; and Peers and Radford, “Saxon Monastery” (n. 142 above), 27–88.

172 For insightful analyses, concentrating on Carolingian and post-Carolingian societies: Valerie Garver, Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World (Ithaca, 2009), 68–121 (with case studies of two royal female foundations); Matthew Innes, “Keeping it in the Family: Women and Aristocratic Memory, 700–1200,” in Medieval Memories: Men, Women and the Past, 700–1300, ed. Elisabeth Van Houts (Harlow, UK, 2001), 17–35; and Patrick Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium (Princeton, 1994), 48–80.