Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English People - Chapter 25

I was reading Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People to learn more about early English medieval history and thought that it might be a good idea to post summaries of what I read and any thoughts I might have about it in my blog. Since I wrote a summary first for chapter 25, I'll start here.

Chapter 25

Saint Augustine and 40 of the men who came from Rome with him arrive on the island of Thanet with Frankish interpreters. He sends messengers to King Aethelberht of Kent to announce that he has come to spread the word about Roman Christianity. As Aethelberht figures out what he should do with them, they are treated well. His Frankish wife, Bertha, was a Christian, so Christianity was not an alien religion to him and perhaps he was courteous to them because of his wife. [What religion did Aethelberht follow? And his people? Obviously they did not all follow Christianity, at least not the type preached in Rome.]

However, when it is time to meet them, he meets them outdoors for fear that "if they practised any magic art, they might deceive him and get the better of him." They preach to him and his men, but Aethelberht does not convert nor force his people to convert as the religion is "new to us and doubtful" and they have their own longstanding religious beliefs.  He believes that they are good people though and gives them a place to live and preach in Canterbury, a major city in his realm.

It is interesting that possibility for magic was taken seriously. Since he is not already a Christian, this shows that superstitious beliefs were accepted even by men of importance and power even before the arrival of Christianity. Many seem to believe that the Christianity made people superstitious and this helps to show that this is not the case.

This chapter also shows that image and music were used by Christians as a way to publicly demonstrate their faith:

"they approached the city in accordance with their custom carrying the holy cross and the image of our great King and Lord, Jesus Christ, they sang this litany in unison"

"bearing as their standard a silver cross and the image of our Lord and Saviour painted on a panel. They changed litanies and uttered prayers to the Lord for their own eternal salvation and the salvation of those for whom and to whom they had come."

Religious statues, images and music are typically found within the walls of a church, but in both instances above, they are used outside of the church. [In what other religions were religion and music popular?]

Moving Forward with My Word Processing Idea

This week, I figured out how to create a data-driven Marimekko chart. An image of it was uploaded to the portfolio section of my business site: pmwordprocessing.com and I also posted my services on craigslist.com with a link to the site so that people can look into it. Maybe someone will contact me or maybe not, but at least I feel like I am making an attempt to move forward with my idea.

I also just added a short description for one of my French stamps, The Apocalypse Tapestry and learned that Revelations was written by John, who may or may not have been the same John as the Gospel writer. I should probably be on the lookout to find more stamps, if there are any, that belong to this collection.

Speaking of things medieval, C also suggested that I do a bit of research into stained glass during one of our conversations on our communal drive to work. I thought that might be a good idea and a good way to segue into an article about some aspect of the medieval period, which will hopefully, be published one day.

Flowers in the Yard

I finally found the packets of seed that I brought this year! Hopefully, it is not too late to start them. So much to do! This coming weekend I plan to divide the catmint, artemesia and yellow daylillies. It seems like the bearded irises near the back door need to be divided too since this year only 3 stalks of flowers have appeared.

The daylilies which I brought from White Flower Farms seem to be doing well in both the front and back of the house. Luckily, I brought an app which helps me to remember to water them, which I've done about once or twice. Mother Nature has also been helping me out by delivering rain these past few days.

I'm not sure how the vincas and lavender are doing, since I haven't been checking on them. Hopefully, they are okay.

It's nice to see that I have some peonies in the garden bed by the mailbox. The previous owner must have planted them there, but they never bloomed because of the shade. Last year, C cut back some of the excess trees, so the extra light encouraged them to bloom. Unfortunately I unknowingly planted an azalea right behind them last fall. I'll have to remember to move that too. The alliums are looking good, though I think I might try a variety with larger flowers for the next time. The daffodils around the mailbox post did not do well at all this season. There were only 3 flowers with heavy droopy heads despite the all the leaves that appeared.