A background to Augustine's mission to Anglo-Saxon England

Author(s): ROB MEENS

Source: Anglo-Saxon England , 1994, Vol. 23 (1994), pp. 5-17
Published by: Cambridge University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44510234

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to Anglo-Saxon England

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 A background to Augustine's mission to
Anglo-Saxon England
ROB MEENS

As is well known, Bede gives a biased account of the c

Saxon England.1 He highlights the role of the Roman
Pope Gregory the Great and led by Augustine, the first bis
Almost as important in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Ang
made by the Irish to Christianize Northumbria. The Fra
the missionary process, however, is not mentioned at
clerics certainly played an important role in the conver
role is attested by later contacts between England and t
The letters of Gregory the Great relating to the m
moreover, make it clear that this mission also benefit
supplied by the Frankish church.3 The continuity of the
to have been stronger than Bede suggests and his statem
did nothing to convert the Angles and the Saxons shou
overstatement.4 It has been argued recently that Bede left
1 A recent study of the biases in Bede's work is W. Goffart, The Hi
Agenda and Ours', Haskins S oc. Jul 2 (1990), 29-45.
2 J. Campbell, 'The First Century of Christianity in England', in h
History (London and Ronceverte, 1986), pp. 49-67 (originally ptd A
12-29), esp. 53-9; A. Lohaus, Die Merowinger und England , M
Mediävistik und Renaissance-Forschung 19 (Munich, 1974), 5-
'Von der Bekehrung der Angelsachsen bis zu ihrer Missionstäti
SettSpol 32 (1986), 701-34, esp. 715-25; I. Wood, 'The Franks at S
Places in Northern Europe, 500-1600: Essays in Honour of Peter Hayes
Lund (Woodbridge, 1991), pp. 1-14, esp. 6-9; H. Chadwick, 'Gre
Mission to the Anglo-Saxons', Gregorio Magno e il suo tempo:
dell' antichità cristiana in collaborazione con l'École Française de Rome,
Studia Ephemeridis 'Augustiniánům' 33 (Rome, 1991) 1, 199-212,
The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751 (London and New York, 1993)
3 I. Wood, 'The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury to the English',
4 J. Campbell, 'Observations on the Conversion of England', in h
History, pp. 71-3. On the importance of the place-names forme
Thomas, Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500 (London, 1981
request for relics of the holy martyr Sixtus, which is left out of Bed
responsionum but is transmitted in other versions, suggests continui
near Canterbury, as does some archaeological evidence; see N. Broo
the Church of Canterbury : Christ Church from 597 to 1066 (Leicester

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Rob Meens

conversion of the Anglo-Saxons living west and south-west of the Mercians,

the Hwicce, the Magonsaete and the Wreocensaete, not because of a lack of
information, but because of the part the Britons played in it.5
Biased though Bede's account may be, his work remains the cornerstone of
every history of the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England. Fortunately he also
provides us with opportunities to detect other missionary activities in
England, though this has not been fully appreciated yet. Out of reverence for
Gregory the Great, Bede includes several letters written by this pope in his
Historia. These are amply used in historical works treating the conversion of
Anglo-Saxon England. I would like to draw attention to some implications of
one of these letters, the so-called Libellus responsionum , that have gone
unnoticed. This 'booklet' contains a number of questions from Augustine of
Canterbury to the pope concerning problems in the newly converted regions
together with the answers provided by Gregory. The questions asked by
Augustine show that some of the missionary activity in southern England was
not Roman in character.

THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE LIBELLUS RESPONSIONUM

Before tackling this problem, it needs to be said

Libellus responsionum has been a matter of dispu
the authenticity of the work on the grounds th
Lateran collection of the letters of Gregory the Gre
Already in 735 Boniface, suspicious of the judgem
degrees of marriage made in the letter, had mad
looked for in the papal archives, where it could not
of letters of Pope Gregory I.6 Other arguments
5 S. Basset, ťChurch and Diocese in the West Midlands: the
Saxon Control', in Pastoral Care before the Parish , ed. J. Bla
pp. 13-40, esp. 39: Tt was this [ = British] church which conv
missionaries from Canterbury and Iona with little to do here
especially since he notoriously disliked the British chur
Ecclesiastical History as much as he could.' Cf. P. Sims- Wi
Western England, 600-800 , CS ASE 3 (Cambridge, 1990), 7
the plausibility of British missionary activity in this regio
lack of information that led Bede to leave out an account of the conversion of the Hwicce and
the Magonsaete.
6 Ep. xxxiii in Briefe des Bonifatius, Willibalds Leben des Bonifatius, nebst einigen zeitgenössischen
Dokumenten , ed. R. Rau, Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters:
Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe 4B (Darmstadt, 1968), p. 110: 'Similiter et diligenter
obsecro, ut illius epistolae, qua continetur, ut dicunt, interrogationes Augustini pontificis ac
praedicatoris primi Anglorum et responsiones sancti Gregorii papae, exemplar mihi dirigere
curetis, in qua inter cetera capitula continetur, quod in tertia generatione propinquitatis
fidelibus liceat matrimonia copulare, et ut scrupulosa cautella diligenter investigare studeatis,
si illa conscriptio supradicti patris nostri sancti Gregorii esse conprobetur an non, quia in
6

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Background to Augustine's mission to Anglo-Saxon 'England

against, the authenticity of the Libellus were based on the lack of formal
characteristics typical of the letters written at the papal chancery and from the
use of concepts and ideas which were not in existence at the time of Gregory
the Great and Augustine. According to Brechter, we are dealing with a text
fabricated by Nothhelm, who provided Bede with most of his 'Gregorian'
material, and hence was included in Bede's Historia ecclesiastical
It is difficult, however, to think of a reason why Nothhelm should have
forged this document.8 It has been argued that we are not dealing with a
forgery, but with a basically authentic work, compiled at a later date by
Nothhelm out of a set of separate responses to separate questions. The
authenticity of each responsio should then be judged on its own terms. Most of
the work can thus be regarded as Gregorian; only responsiones nos. 8 and 9 were
probably derived from the teaching and influence of Archbishop Theodore at
Canterbury, though they may ultimately have been inspired by Gregorian
writing.9
The Łibellus is not only known from its inclusion in Bede's Historia
ecclesiastica ; it is transmitted as a separate tract in over 200 manuscripts. It
survives in three versions, which differ mainly in their formal composition: the
'Letter version', the 'Capitula version' and the 'Question and answer version'.
From an analysis of its textual transmission, it is clear that the text as used by
Bede had already had a long history. From this it follows logically that the text
can be no forgery concocted by Bede or Nothhelm.10 The contents of the
Libellus , moreover, clearly echo the thought of Gregory the Great.11 Study of
the influence of the Old Testament in early medieval Europe shows that at
least some of the questionable concepts and ideas expressed in the Libellus
were in existence in the time of Augustine and Gregory the Great. This also

scrinio Romanae ecclesiae ut adfirmant scriniarii, cum ceteris exemplaribus supradicti

pontificis quaesita non inveniebatur.'
7 S. Brechter, Die Quellen ņur Angelsachsenmisston Gregors des Grossen: eine historiographische Studie,
Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens 22 (Münster,
1941).
8 M. Deanesly and P. Grosjean, 'The Canterbury Edition of the Answers of Pope Gregory I to
St Augustine', JEH 10 (1959), 1-49, esp. 38.
9 Ibid. pp. 38-43.
10 P. Meyvaert, 'Bede's Text of the Libellus Responsionum of Gregory the Great to Augustine of
Canterbury', in his Benedict, Gregory, Bede and others (London, 1977), no. X (originally ptd in
England before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. P.
Clemoes and K. Hughes (Cambridge, 1971)), pp. 15-33. He then knew about 130
manuscripts, by now over 200; see P. Meyvaert, 'Le Libellus Responsionum à Augustin de
Cantorbéry: une oeuvre authentique de Saint Grégoire le Grand', Grégoire le Grand, ed. J..
Fontaine et al. (Paris, 1986), pp. 543-9, esp. 543, n. 1.
11 P. Meyvaert, 'Diversity within Unity, a Gregorian Theme', in his Benedict, Gregory, Bede, no.
VI (originally ptd Heythrop Jnl 4 (1963), 141-62) and Chadwick, 'Gregory the Great and the
Mission', pp. 207-12.
7

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 R ob Meens

holds true for the dubious responses, nos. 8 and 9. 12 A critical edition of the
text will ultimately give us a clear picture of its complicated textual trans-
mission and may finally settle the question of its authenticity, but such an
edition has not yet appeared.13 It nevertheless seems justified to regard the
Libellas as a genuine work of Gregory the Great written in response to
questions posed by Augustine of Canterbury.
In the major historical works dealing with the conversion of Anglo-Saxon
England, the Libellas is indeed treated as a genuine work of that age, which
gives important information on the earliest organization of the Roman church
in England.14 These works, however, tend to devote all their attention to the
questions of church organization or liturgy touched on in this document. The
lengthy discussion of questions of ritual purity are sometimes simply dis-
missed or not mentioned at all. Symptomatic are the words of Peter Hunter
Blair: 'Apart from matters touching ritual purification, no longer of great
interest, Augustine sought advice on various problems concerning the
organization of the new church . . ,'15 These matters are, however, particularly
instructive for the early history of the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England.
Let us first consider which matters of ritual purity are treated in questions 8
and 9 of the Libellas (HE I. 27), before viewing them in their proper historical
context. The central topic was the relationship between holiness and people in

12 R. Kottje, Studien ņum Einfluss des Alten Testamentes auf Recht und Liturgie des früheren
Mittelalters (6.-8. Jahrhundert ), 2nd ed., Bonner Historische Forschungen (Bonn, 1970), pp.
110-16.
13 A critical edition with a list of manuscripts and a study of the contents of the Libellus is at
present being prepared by Paul Meyvaert: see his 'Le Libellus Responsionum à Augustin de
Cantorbéry', p. 543, n. 1.
14 See, e.g., F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England , 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1971), pp. 106-8; J. Godfrey,
The Church in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge, 1962), pp. 80-6; M. Deanesly, The Pre-
Conquest Church in England , 2nd ed. (London, 1963); P. Hunter Blair, The World of Bede, 2nd ed.
(Cambridge, 1991), pp. 64-5; Prinz, 'Von der Bekehrung der Angelsachsen', pp. 707-8,
though rather sceptical on the authenticity of the work as a whole; H. Mayr-Harting, The
Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England , 3rd ed. (London, 1991) does not use it in his
account of the Gregorian mission, but treats it on p. 249 as a genuine document; the
authenticity is also accepted by J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Bede' s Ecclesiastical History of the
English People: a Historical Commentary (Oxford, 1988), p. 38. Only G. Jenal, 'Gregor d.
Grosse und die Anfänge der Angelsachsenmission (596-604)', SettSpol 32 (1986), 793-849, at
810, leaves out a discussion of this text because of the doubts raised about its authenticity.
15 Hunter Blair, The World of Bede, p. 64. Cf. Godfrey, The Church tn Anglo-Saxon England , p. 86:
'Both of these questions [ = nos. 8 and 9] are concerned with the subject of ritual defilement,
and though the answers are of considerable length, they are of no importance to the modern
reader.' See also the superficial treatment of these questions in M. Deanesly, Augustine of
Canterbury (London, 1964), pp. 71-2, compared to the detailed analysis of the other topics
raised by this document on pp. 63-71 . Cf., however, the detailed treatment of these questions
in A. G. Weiler, Willibrords missie: Christendom en cultuur in de Revende en achtste eeuw ( met een
vertaling van de voornaamste liter aire bronnen door P. Bange) (Hilversum, 1989), pp. 35-42.
8

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Background to Augustine's mission to Anglo-Saxon England
a certain state of impurity. It is implied that a certain sense of impurity was
inherent in basic states of the human condition: giving birth, menstruation
and sexual activity. Giving birth gave rise to a whole range of questions. Can a
pregnant woman be baptized? How long should a woman refrain from
attending church after delivery? When can a new-born child be baptized?
When can a man resume sexual relations with his wife after the delivery?
Impurity inherent in menstruation gave rise to the question of whether a
menstruating woman could enter the church and receive holy communion.
The impurity resulting from sexual activities led to such questions as: can a
man, after having had sexual intercourse with his wife but without having
washed, enter church and approach holy communion? Or can a man, after
having had a sexual emission during his sleep, receive the body of the Lord,
and, if he is a priest, can he celebrate the holy mysteries?16
According to Brechter these questions were anachronistic for the era of
Gregory the Great and could only have arisen after the introduction of Greek
rules on purity and impurity articulated by Archbishop Theodore, who was
born in the Greek-speaking world, and was sent from Rome to Canterbury by
Pope Vitalian.17 It has been shown, however, that at least some of Augustine's
questions show striking similarities with matters raised in texts from Ireland
and Britain written from the sixth to the early eighth centuries: the Excerpta
quedam de libro Dauidis (Wales, c. s. vi), the Irish Liber ex lege Moysis (s. viiex), the
penitentials of Finnian and Cummean (Ireland, s. vi and vii respectively), and
the Collect io Hibernensis (c. 690-725). 18

16 Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People , ed. B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, rev. ed.
(Oxford, 1992), pp. 88-103.
17 Brechter, Die Quellen %ur Angelsachsenmission , pp. 98, 100-3 and 289; Deanesly and Grosjean,
The Canterbury Edition', pp. 10-12 and 43. On Theodore, see Stenton, Anglo-Saxon
England , pp. 130-42; Mayr- Harting, The Coming of Christianity , pp. 121-2 and passim-, M.
Lapidge, The School of Theodore and Hadrian', ASE 15 (1986), 45-72; and Brooks, Early
History , pp. 71-6 and 94-9.
18 Kottje, Studien ī(um Einfluss , pp. 1 12-14. On the Excerpta quedam de libro Davidis, see The Irish
Penitentials , ed. L. Bieler, 2nd ed., Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 5 (Dublin, 1975), 3; for the
penitentials of Finnian and Cummean, see ibid. pp. 2-7. Körntgen recently discovered that
the P. Ambrosianum , formerly thought to be a continental work based on Irish texts, is in fact
a very old penitential written in the Irish or British church that was the main source for
Cummean's penitential: L. Körntgen, Studien %u den Quellen der frühmittelalterlichen Bußbücher ,
Quellen und Forschungen zum Recht im Mittelalter 7 (Sigmaringen, 1993), 7-86. The Irish
origin of Finnian and his penitential has lately been called into question, and both a Breton
and a Brittonic origin have been suggested: see R. Meens, The Penitential of Finnian and the
Textual Witness of the Paenitentiale Lindobonense B', MS 55 (1993), 243-55, esp. 245-7. On the
Liber ex lege Moysis , see R. Kottje, 'Der Liber ex lege Moysis', Irland und die Christenheit :
Bibelstudien und Mission I Ireland and Christendom: The Bible and the Missions , ed. P. Ní Cháthain
and M. Richter (Stuttgart, 1987), pp. 59-69. For the Collectio Hibernensis , see M. Enright, Iona,'
Tara and Soissons: the Origin of the Royal Anointing Ritual , Arbeiten zur Frühmitterlalterfor-
schung 17 (Berlin and New York, 1985), 44-8.
9

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Kob Meens

Finnian's penitential states that man and wife should abstain from sexual
activities on Sunday night, explicitly linking this prohibition with the
worthiness to receive the body of the Lord.19 So, like the Libellus , this text
raises the question of receiving holy communion after sexual intercourse.
Cummean's penitential adds a further period of sexual abstinence by stating
that man and wife should abstain when a woman is having her menstrual
period. A ban on sexual activity during this time is mentioned twice in the
Liber ex lege Mojsis.20 The justification for abstinence probably derives from a
belief that a menstruating woman is impure. The same can be said of a woman
who has recently given birth. Cummean's penitential forbids sexual relations
with a new mother for a period of thirty-three days after the birth of a son and
sixty-six after the birth of a daughter; the same prohibition is made in the
Collectio Hibernensis , though as a result of a scribal blunder it prescribes an
abstinence of forty-six days after the birth of a girl. That this apparent state of
impurity could have entailed exclusion from church is borne out by the ban on
a woman entering the temple after having given birth, found in Leviticus and
thence in the Liber ex lege Mojsis 21 The latter text should best be seen as a
juridical collection dealing with questions that were of interest when the text
was composed.22 In the Excerpta quedam de libro Davidis (one of the earliest
penitential documents) a seminal emission during sleep requires penance,
presumably to restore the state of purity.23 Cummean's penitential, further-
more, lays down a penance of one superstitio , a special fast, for someone who
accepts the host after having had 'a nocturnal pollution'.24
From the similar concerns shown by the Irish texts mentioned above and
the questions on ritual purity raised in the Libellus responsionum , we can
conclude that there is no reason to suppose that Augustine's questions could
only have been formulated after exposure to the teachings of Theodore of
Canterbury. In several Irish and British texts from the same period we find
similar restrictions which impose strict segregation between the 'sacred' and

19 Paenitentiale Vinniani , ch. 46 (Irish Penitentials, ed. Bieler, p. 92): 'et in nocte dominica uel
sabbati abstineant se ab inuicem ... Si autem perficerent secundum istam sententiam, tunc
digni sunt Domini corpore.'
20 P. Cummeani 11.30 (Irish Penitentials , ed. Bieler, p. 116); for the Liber ex lege Mojsis , see Kottje,
Studien %um Einfluss , p. 78.
21 P. Cummeant 11.31 (Irish Penitentials , ed. Bieler, p. 116); Collectio Hibernensis XLVI. 11 (Die
irische Kanonensammlung , ed. F. W. H. Wasserschieben, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1885), pp. 187-8).
For the liber ex leve Moysis, see Kottie, Studien zum Einfluss . o. 78.
22 Kottje, 'Der Liber ex lege Mojsis9, pp. 60-1 .
23 Excerpta quedam de libro Davidis , chs. 8-9 (Irish Penitentials , ed. Bieler, p. 70).
24 Excerpta ex libro Davidis chs. 8-9. Cf. Praefatio Gildae de paenitentia eh. 22; Sjnodus Anquilonalis
Britaniae eh. 2 (ibid. pp. 70, 62 and 66); and P. Cummeani (XI) 10 (ibid. p. 130): 'et qui acciperit
sacrificium pollutus nocturno somno, sic peniteat [ = superponat]'. See also Kottje, Studien
%um Einfluss , pp. 77-8 and 112-13.
10

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Background to Augustinus mission to Anglo-Saxon England
the 'impure'. Even more remarkable is the fact that in the Juibellus the same
three physical activities create a state of impurity - childbirth, menstruation
and sexual activity - as those which occur in the Irish and British texts. When
Gregory, answering the question about women entering the church after
childbirth, refers to the Levitical rules regarding entry into the temple, he is
more in agreement with the Irish texts than with Theodore's penitential.
Theodore, apparently in reaction to the Irish texts, prescribes a period of forty
days, whatever the sex of the newborn child, whereas all the Irish texts keep to
the Levitican numbers.25 If we accept the fact that there is no reason to doubt
the authenticity of the Libellus as a whole and of responses nos. 8 and 9 in
particular, what does this mean for the christianization of Anglo-Saxon
England?

THE LIBELLUS RESPONSIONUM AND MISSIONARY ACTIVITY

Until now attention has focused mainly on the quest

the E ibellus. Who or what provoked Augustine to a
ritual purity has never been satisfactorily considere
assumes that ideas about the uncleanness of women, which led to their
exclusion from communion after giving birth and during their menstrual
periods, were alien to Anglo-Saxon society and were introduced by the
Christian missionaries.26 Stephanie Hollis correctly stresses the importance of
discovering what prompted Augustine to raise these questions. She assumes,
contrary to Mayr-Harting, that it was, at least partly, 'the cultural constructs of
pre-literate Anglo-Saxons' that formed the basis of Augustine's questions. She
supposes, however, that more such questions were asked. It was Augustine's
'own prior cultural construct', trained as he was by reading the early Fathers
and the Bible (including, of course, Leviticus), that made him choose
questions about ritual purity among others, to refer to the pope. His supposed
lack of experience in pastoral care, due to his monastic upbringing, would
have been another factor. Though Hollis thus gives credit to Augustine's own
upbringing and the ecclesiastical traditions behind it, she strongly suggests
that it was Anglo-Saxon attitudes which, like similar Judeo-Christian beliefs,
conspired to prevent 'carnal profanation of the sacred'.27
It is possible that similar ideas existed amongst the Anglo-Saxons, aimed at
protecting the sacred from pollution caused by childbirth, menstruation and
sexual activity. Nevertheless it seems highly unlikely that someone expound-
ing a new faith, and who was, we should therefore suppose, well versed in its

25 See above, n. 21. 26 Mayr-Harting, Coming of Christianity , p. 249.

27 S. Hollis, Anglo-Saxon Women and the Church: Sharing a Common Bate (Woodbridge, 1992), pp.
21-2. A similar suggestion, though by implication, is made by Chadwick, "Gregory the Great
and the Mission', p. 207.
11

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 R ob Meens

tenets, would have to consult the pope for answers. Although there existed a
tendency in Christianity to view sexual activity, menstruation and childbirth
with suspicion, the answers as given by Gregory do not convey the impression
that these views prevailed at the time. Gregory did not want to endorse the
concepts of ritual purity embodied in Augustine's questions. In a very humane
way he avoided any legalistic approach to the subject, and opted, in a
characteristic manner, for a spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament
precepts. His answer to the question when can a woman enter church after
childbirth provides a good example (HE I. 27):

When a woman has been delivered, after how many days ought she to enter the
church? You know by the teaching of the Old Testament that she should keep away
for thirty-three days if the child is a boy and sixty-six days if it is a girl (Lev. XII.4-5).
This, however, must be understood figuratively. For if she enters the church even at
the very hour of her delivery, for the purpose of giving thanks, she is not guilty of any
sin; it is the pleasure of the flesh, not its pain, which is at fault. But it is in the
intercourse of the flesh, that the pleasure lies; for in bringing forth the infant there is
pain. That is why it was said to the first mother of all: ťIn sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children' (Gen. III. 16). So if we forbid a woman who has been delivered to enter the
church, we reckon her punishment as a sin.28

How very different this is from the attitude implicit in the British and Irish
texts! And these words were spoken by a former monk who was well versed in
the early Fathers and the Bible, a man who became 'one of the greatest popes in
History'.29 Would Augustine's attitude in these matters be so different from
Gregory's, who picked him for the important task of bringing Christianity to
the Anglo-Saxons? And would Gregory choose someone without experience
in the pastoral field to accomplish this task? To the contrary, a recent study
stresses the influence of Gregory on Augustine's ideas and missionary
activities.30

Gregory's answers rule out the possibility that Augustine, so impressed by

the similarity between taboos existing among the Anglo-Saxons and contem-
porary Christian thinking, felt obliged to refer these matters to the pope.
Augustine, charged with bringing his faith to a pagan country, muśt have felt
authorized to dispose of native taboos which did not correspond to the
teachings of Christianity. Boniface, in his missionary work amongst the
Germans, only turned to the pope for advice when he met opposition from
other Christians. In his letter to Pope Gregory II he raised several questions
concerning proper Christian conduct, which are, though they address differ-

28 Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 91.

29 Mayr-Harting, Coming of Christianity , p. 51.
30 Wood, The Mission of Augustine .
12

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Background to Augustine's mission to Anglo-Saxon England
ent topics, comparable to Augustine's questions.31 They concern mainly
Christian subjects: marriage and affinity, baptism, mass, liturgical practices. It
is clear whose practices prompted Boniface's questions, for he referred to
'adulterous and unworthy priests' and to 'priests and bishops entangled in
many vices, whose life stains the priestly office'.32 Boniface, then, during his
missionary work, came across other Christian priests and bishops with whose
views he did not agree. These experiences prompted his letter seeking advice
from the pope, not the attitudes of pagan Germans. As in Boniface's letters to
the pope, Augustine of Canterbury in his correspondence with Gregory the
Great addressed explicitly Christian questions. His problems concerned
baptism, holy communion and entering the church. It therefore seems
improbable that these taboos arose from a pagan context.
Yet another analogue is found in the Kesponsa ad consulta Bulgarorum of the
year 866, in which Pope Nicholas I addressed several problems concerning the
conversion of the Bulgarians. He touched on issues similar to those which
Gregory the Great had considered, and made use of arguments advanced by
his predecessor in the Libellus responsionum . This papal guideline for a newly
converted people was also provoked by rival missionary activities, mainly by
the Greeks, but apparently also by Armenians and others.33
Gregory's answers therefore rule out the possibility that the notions of
ritual impurity were alien to Anglo-Saxon society and only introduced by the
Roman missionaries. Rather, it is clear from his answers that beliefs about
ritual purity were alien to Gregory the Great and thus, we may assume, to
Roman Christianity at the time. If we can attribute these ideas neither to
Anglo-Saxon attitudes nor to Roman conventions, then the question arises as
to who raised the concerns which provoked Augustine to appeal to the pope.
It seems reasonable to assume that Augustine would have referred these
matters to the pope only if his authority had been questioned, that is, if the
questions were posed not by pagans, but by Christians, in particular by priests
or bishops.

31 Cf. T. SchiefFer, Winfrid-Bonifatius und die christliche Grundlegung Europas , 2nd ed. (Darmstadt,
1980), p. 153, writing about Boniface's letter: 'Um ein Vorbild zu suchen müßten wir bis auf
den Angelsachsenmissionar Augustinus und Gregor den Großen zurückgreifen.'
32 Ep. xxvi, in Briefe des Bonifatius , ed. Rau, pp. 88-94, esp. 92: 'adulteris et indignis presbiteris'
and 'quidam presbiteri seu episcopi in multis vitiis inretiti, quorum vita in se ipsis
sacerdotium maculať. We know Boniface's letter only from the surviving answer given by
Gregory II. Cf. Ep. xxviii, 1 and lxxxvii {ibid. pp. 96-102, 140-8 and 292-300).
33 See, e.g., ch. 106 (ed. E. Pereis, MGH, Epist. 4, 599): 'quod in patriam vestram multi ex
diversis locis Christiani advenerint, qui prout voluntas eorum existit, multa et varia
loquantur, id est Graeci, Armeni et ex ceteris locis'. On this text, see L. Heiser, Die Kesponsa
ad consulta Bulgarorum des Papstes Nikolaus ( 858-867) (Trier, 1979); Heiser points to the fact
that around the middle of the ninth century Frankish missionaries were also active among the
Bulgārs: ibid. p. 37.
13

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Kob Meens

We have already seen that in Irish texts a similar attitude towards questions
of ritual purity existed, based on the Old Testament. This would make the
Irish plausible candidates to have challenged Augustine. There are some signs
of Irish Christians visiting England before or at about the same time as
Augustine. According to a late tradition, St Columba of Terryglass may have
visited an unnamed English kingdom as early as the middle of the sixth
century. From an ogham inscription at Silchester it can be inferred that two
Irish Christians visited the place around the year 600. Bede himself tells us that
in the first or second decade of the seventh century an Irish bishop called
Dagan visited Kent.34 These Irishmen may have been engaged in missionary
activity, though there is no positive evidence.35 Though it cannot be ruled out
that Augustine came in contact with Irish missionaries, this does not seem
very probable. We should, therefore, look elsewhere for the source of
Austustine's concerns about ritual purity.
Kent was at this time also influenced by Merovingian political power and by
Frankish Christianity.36 Bede tells us that King iEthelberht was married to a
Frankish princess named Berta, who was a Christian. She was accompanied by
a bishop named Liuthard, who may have had missionary intentions (HE
I.25).37 In the Frankish church, as is clear from the writing of Caesarius of
Aries, sexual activities were considered to imply pollution. Hence there was a
ban on sexual activity during certain periods of the liturgical year. The bishop
of Aries also admonished men to abstain from intercourse with their wives
during menstruation, because from such unions deformed children would be
born: lepers, epileptics and those possessed by demons. This suggests that
menstruation implied pollution, though in Caesarius's writings there are no
traces of a ban on women entering the church during menstruation.38 While
Caesarius's attitude corresponds in a way with ideas we encountered in the
Eibellus responsionum , we find no evidence of childbirth being regarded as
pollution in sixth-century Gaul. Furthermore, menstruation does not seem to

34 Campbell, 'Observations on the Conversion of England', p. 71.

35 See Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England , p. 102: 'there is no trace of any Irish missionary in
England at a date earlier than the coming of Augustine'.
36 See above, n. 2.
37 Bede' s Ecclesiastical History , ed. Colgrave and Mynors, pp. 72-4; Lohaus, Die Merowinger und
England , pp. 11-12 and Prinz, 'Von der Bekehrung der Angelsachsen', p. 717.
38 See Caesarius, S ermo xliv, in Césaire d'Arles: Sermons au peuple , ed. M.- J. Delage, Sources
Chrétiennes 243 (Paris, 1978), 326-43. Cf. J. Brundage, Latu, Sex, and Christian Society in
Medieval Europe (Chicago and London, 1987), pp. 91-2; P. Payer, 'Early Medieval
Regulations concerning Marital Sexual Relations', JMH 6 (1980), 353-76, at 363; and A.
Demyttenaere, 'The Cleric, Women and the Stain: some Beliefs and Ritual Practices
Concerning Women in the early Middle Ages', in Frauen in Spätantike und Frühmittelalter:
Lebensbedingungen -Lebensnormen- Lebensformen, ed. W. Affeldt (Sigmaringen, 1990), pp. 141-
65, at 154-5.
14

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Background to Augustinus mission to Anglo-Saxon England
have prevented women from entering the church or from receiving
communion.

This makes the Frankish church an implausible candidate for spreading

ideas on impurity connected with sexuality, childbirth and menstruation in
Anglo-Saxon England. At the time of Augustine's mission to the Anglo-
Saxons, Frankish Christianity had not yet been influenced by Insular concep-
tions of ritual purity. Columbanus had just left for the Continent and his
writings show no signs of the pre-occupations evident in Augustine's
questions. The earliest evidence for the use of the penitentials of Cummean
and Finnian and of the Collectio Hibernensis in the Frankish realms dates from
the beginning of the eighth century.39 Is this in itself a reason to question the
assumption of Frankish influence on late sixth-century Anglo-Saxon Chris-
tianity? It should be noted, in addition, that the major missionary effort of the
Frankish church came at a later date, when it had been influenced by Tro-
Frankish' monasticism.40

Only the British Church remains as a plausible source for the concerns
about ritual purity expressed by Augustine. We have seen that the Excerpta de
libro Davidis , a text from the British church, prescribes a penance for seminal
emission. This attitude towards ritual purity is similar to those that prompted
Augustine's questions. Moreover, we know that regular contacts existed

39 On the transmission of the Irish penitentials on the Continent, see R. Kottje, 'Überlieferung
und Rezeption der irischen Bußbücher auf dem Kontinent', Die Iren und Europa im früheren
Mittelalter , ed. H. Löwe, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1982) I, 511-24. The earliest evidence of
acquaintance with Irish penitentials on the Continent is provided by the Excarpsus Cummeani ,
dating from the first half of the eighth century and probably composed in northern parts of
Gaul, a text which makes use of the penitential of Cummean; see F.B. Asbach, Das
Poenitentiale Remense und der sogen. Excarpsus Cummeani : Überlieferung, Quellen und Entwicklung
zweier kontinentaler Bußbücher aus der 1. Hälfte des 8. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg, 1975), pp. 125-
30. Asbach takes the P. Remense , which also uses Cummean's work, to be even slightly older,
but this view is not generally accepted. The oldest manuscript of the Excarpsus Cummeani ,
Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek, Ny. Kgl. S. 58 8°, written in the first half of the eighth
century, perhaps in the southern part of France, also contains excerpts from the Collectio
Hibernensis , and is thus the oldest manuscript with this text {ibid. pp. 43-4). On the
manuscripts of the Collectio Hibernensis , see H. Mordek, Kirchenrecht und Reform im Franken-
reich: die Collectio Vetus Gallica , die älteste systematische Kanonessammlung des fränkischen Gallien :
Studien und Edition , Beiträge zur Geschichte und Quellenkunde des Mittelalters 1 (Berlin,
New York, 1975), 255-9. The Eiber ex lege Moysis has come down to us in only four
manuscripts from the ninth and tenth centuries: see Kottje, 'Der Liber ex lege Moysis' p. 62.
40 Prinz, 'Von der Bekehrung', pp. 718-22, and Campbell, 'The First Century', pp. 53-9. For a
critical assessment of the notion 'Iro-Frankish', see A. Dierkens, 'Prolégomènes à une
histoire des relations culturelles entre les îles britanniques et le continent pendant le Haut
Moyen Age: la diffusion du monachisme dit colombanien ou iro-franc dans quelques
monastères de la région parisienne au Vile siècle et la politique religieuse de la reine
Bathilde', La Neustrie: les pays au nord de la Loire de 650 à 850 , ed. H. Atsma, 2 vols., Beihefte der
Francia 16 (Sigmaringen, 1989) II, 371-94.
15

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Kob Meens

between Irish and British churchmen. Finnian, the author of one of the
penitentials evincing similar concerns about ritual purity, may, as has been
argued recently, have been a Briton who migrated to Ireland later in life.41 The
Irish penitentials developed out of earlier British texts such as the Excerpta de
libro Davidis42 Augustine's successor Laurence wrote about the similarities
between the Irish and the British churches, of which he had gained knowledge
through acquaintance with the Irish bishop Dagan and (though one wonders
in what way) with Columban (HE II.4).43 From all this it is clear that the Irish
and British churches shared some common views, which were alien to the
Roman church. Attitudes toward ritual purity may well have formed part of
these views.
Could it be, then, that Augustine is referring to beliefs held by the British
bishops he encountered in that famous meeting on the borders of Hwicce and
the West Saxons, at a place known in Bede's time as 'Augustine's Oak'? Bede
recalls that the dispute was not only about the Easter controversy, but also
about other British practices that were not in keeping with the unity of the
church (HE II. 2). 44 This meeting took place after Augustine received the
Libellus from the pope.45 If this rules out the possibility that Augustine first
became acquainted with British ideas on ritual purity at this meeting, it
strengthens the case for the view that Augustine's questions referred to British
customs. For Augustine probably had an agenda for this meeting and these
points of différence in ecclesiastical mores may well have been part of it. In that
case it seems only natural that he sought backing from the pope and that the
Eibellus might have been designed and used in preparation for this meeting.46
Augustine's questions in the Eibellus , concerning his attitude towards the
British bishops, fit well into this picture. Gregory's answer on this, moreover,
implies that British ecclesiastical customs were experienced as alien by the
Roman missionaries.47

Augustine, however, does not say that he asks these questions because of a

41 D. Dumville, 'Gildas and Uinniau', in Gildas : New Approaches , ed. M. Lapidge and D.
Dumville, Stud, in Celtic Hist. 5 (Woodbridge, 1984), 207-14. Other contacts between
British and Irish churchmen are discussed in D. Dumville, 'British Missionary Activity in
Ireland', in his Saint Patrick, A.D. 493-1993 , Stud, in Celtic Hist. 13 (Woodbridge, 1993),
133-45. 42 See Irish Penitentials , ed. Bieler, p. 3.
43 Bede's Ecclesiastical History , ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 146.
44 Bede's Ecclesiastical History , ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 136: 'sed et alia plurima unitati
ecclesiasticae contraria faciebanť. 45 Wallace-Hadrill, Commentary , p. 52.
46 A connection between the Eibellus and Augustine's problems with the British bishops is also
suggested by J. W. Lamb, The Archbishopric of Canterbury: from its Foundation to the Norman
Conquest (London, 1971), p. 25.
47 Interrogado 7: 'Brittanniarum uero omnes episcopos tuae fraternitati committimus, ut
indocti doceantur, infirmi persuasione roborentur, peruersi auctoritate corrigantur' ( Bede's
Ecclesiastical History , ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 88).
16

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Background to Augustinus mission to Anglo-Saxon England
dispute with the British, but because of the ignorance of the 'ignorant English
people'.48 There seems to be no reason to doubt Augustine's statement. As has
been argued above, it is hardly conceivable that Augustine would have seen
any necessity to ask the pope for advice if these questions were asked by
pagans. If they were asked by Angli , they were probably Christian Angli who
had received Christianity from the British. For that is the only plausible way
they could have come into contact with such ideas.
The questions raised by British missionary activity among the Angli could
very well have been treated in meetings with British bishops. Accordingly the
Eibellus may well have been conceived as a preparatory work for those
meetings. In that case it is significant that Augustine met the British bishops at
the borders of the Hwicce and the West Saxons, for it was in this region
particularly that the British seem to have played a part in the christianization of
the Anglo-Saxons.49 The Eibellus responsionum can thus be seen as another piece
of evidence of missionary effort by the British church. Though Bede explicitly
denies any missionary activity by the British, his inclusion of the Eibellus in his
Historia ecclesiastica nonetheless offers us the opportunity to detect it. Further-
more, it shows some points of difference between the British and the Roman
churches on matters of ritual purity, differences which Gregory's answers
could not settle.50

48 Bede, HE 1.27: 'Quae omnia rudi Anglorum genti oportet habere conperta' (Bede* s
Ecclesiastical History, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 88). 49 See above, n. 5.
50 Research for this paper was made possible by a generous grant from the Niels Stensen Stichting.
I should like to thank Mayke de Jong and Ian Wood for their helpful suggestions on an
earlier version of this paper. The latter also kindly sent me the text of his article on the
mission of Augustine before publication (see above, n. 3).

17

This content downloaded from

156.26.17.11 on Mon, 24 Apr 2023 23:19:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms