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Thomas Stapleton's edition of Bede's
Ecclesiastical History (1565) |
Recently I’ve been looking into the Roman Catholic
apologist Thomas Stapleton’s translation and publication of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. I’m mainly looking at it for what he, himself,
has to say about the protestant reformers whose writings he was directly attacking. The work of Matthew Parker and his circle in
promoting the Elizabethan church settlement was made all the more difficult
therefore, in 1565 when Stapleton’s publication came to light. Here are a few of my ramblings.
In the sixteenth century Bede’s notoriety as a man
of learning was already well established, but for Protestants his work represented
something of a difficulty. Bede was very
much in support of the Christianisation of England by Augustine, and thus made
for a difficult translation to protestant revisions to their past. Although attempts were made by the likes of John
Foxe and John Bale, they never really managed to place Bede at the centre of
any Protestant history of the Anglo-Saxons.
Foxe, for example, banished Bede to the side lines in favour of other later
and alternative accounts. Bale, meanwhile,
caused scandal and consternation even among other Protestant scholars by
reading into Bede a sexual scandal befitting of a tabloid newspaper headline.
Bale’s approach, in particular, was to prove
fertile ground for Thomas Stapleton’s preface to Bede’s ecclesiastical
history. But, before I go into all of
that, it is worthwhile, I think, recalling a little about the man himself. Stapleton was named by his father after the
famous Lord Chancellor and humanist scholar Sir Thomas More who had at that
time recently been sent to the executors axe.
This gives you some idea of the Stapleton family position on the
emerging reformation, and Thomas himself was not to waver from this
stance. He was trained as a theologian
at Oxford in the 1550s and then ordained as priest in early 1558. His resistance to protestant reforms led to
his exile to Louvain in 1559 and he was never again to set foot in
England. Up until the mid-1560s he wrote
various works in English setting out his disagreement with the Elizabethan
regimes religious policy. All of these
publications were considered controversial in England, and whilst his
translation of Bede was perhaps the least of these, it was inconvenient as far
as Parker’s plans went for establishing a reformed chronicle tradition in England.
At the front of the new edition Stapleton explains
clearly his reasons for undertaking such work; so that the Queen might clearly
see “the misse information of a fewe for displacing the auncient and right
Christian faith”. Indeed, the claim of
misinformation by Bale, Foxe and others is exactly what Stapleton bases a good
part of his arguments upon. Stapleton accuses
Bale of being like a “venomous spider” in his reading of Bede.
Bale made his accusations in his The Actes of Englysh Votaryes (published
1546), basing it upon a short paragraph in Bede’s ecclesiastical history. Here is the passage from Bede:
"Nor must we pass by in
silence the story of the blessed Gregory, handed down to us by the tradition of
our ancestors, which explains his earnest care for the salvation of our nation.
It is said that one day, when some merchants had lately arrived at Rome, many
things were exposed for sale in the market place, and much people resorted
thither to buy: Gregory himself went with the rest, and saw among other wares
some boys put up for sale, of fair complexion, with pleasing countenances, and
very beautiful hair. When he beheld them, he asked, it is said, from what
region or country they were brought? and was told, from the island of Britain,
and that the inhabitants were like that in appearance. He again inquired
whether those islanders were Christians, or still involved in the errors of
paganism, and was informed that they were pagans. Then fetching a deep sigh
from the bottom of his heart, “Alas! what pity,” said he, “that the author of
darkness should own men of such fair countenances; and that with such grace of
outward form, their minds should be void of inward grace.” He therefore again asked, what was the
name of that nation? and was answered, that they were called Angles. “Right,” said he, “for they have an
angelic face, and it is meet that such should be co-heirs with the Angels in
heaven. What is the name of the province from which they are brought?” It was replied, that the natives of
that province were called Deiri. “Truly are they De ira,” said
he, “saved from
wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ. How is the king of that province called?” They told him his name was Aelli; and he, playing upon the name, said, “Allelujah, the praise
of God the Creator must be sung in those parts.” (Bede, EH, 82-3)
Bale repeated this story making a play on Bede’s
choice of words to suggest that Pope Gregory had sexual desires on the English
boys. Bale notes that Catholic Bishops
have no wives and are thus seeking ‘other spirytuall remedyes’. Whilst the accusation is not direct it is
very obvious from the context and notes that Bale makes just before retelling
the story from Bede. The play on words
enacted by Pope Gregory - Angles, Deiri and Aelli - are transformed in the Votaryes as signs that he and the other
Bishops were lusting after these slave boys with angelic faces and beautiful
hair:
“So how curyose these
fathers were, in the wele eyenge of their wares. Here was no cyrcumstaunce unloked to,
perteynynge to the sale” (Votaryes, 20)
It is therefore no surprise that Stapleton sought
to attack Bale as ‘filthy and uncleane’ and that he had ‘sucketh out a poisoned
sence and meaning’ when reading Bede ‘charging that holy man [Gregory I] with a
most outrageous vice and not to be named’.
If this was all that Stapleton argues then we
could more or less dismiss it as a simple, but obvious, rebuttal to Bale. In itself, it is not all that interesting or
unexpected. However, Stapleton is making
a larger point here about the nature of Christian faith, belief, and
charity. He asks his readers to:
“gather
honny lyke bees oute of this comfortable history of oure countre, not venim
like spiders. Reade it with charitable
simplicitie, not suspicious curiosite, with virtuous charite, not with wicked
malice.” (Stapleton, Bede, preface)
What is Stapleton trying to say here? Placing this sentence into its wider context
it becomes obvious that Stapleton is making a distinction between Protestant
and Roman Catholic opinion about Christian charity. Stapleton appeals to his readers to read
Bede’s history with a Christian heart and furthermore to note how John Bale has
read it with malicious intent. Surely,
Stapleton argues, “none can think evill of other, which is not evill him
selfe”. By appealing to people’s better
natures, Stapleton has found a weakness in the Protestant arguments that
attempt to portray Catholic activity in the past as seedy, traitorous and
un-Christian. Whilst far from watertight
(Protestants could and did argue that they were only untangling the lies and
deceits of the enemy) it was perhaps enough to make some pause and think.
A second line of attack that Stapleton makes
follows a line that every undergraduate historian should be familiar with: the
primary source vs. the secondary source debate.
He points out that Bede was not only an Englishman but was also alive at
the time or near enough to that of which he wrote about. He is therefore an eyewitness, but also one
who has no knowledge of later arguments, such as those between Protestants and
Catholics, and as such has no agenda.
Whilst Stapleton is wrong to suggest that Bede had no agenda, it
nonetheless works as a powerful statement against those like Foxe, Bale, and
Parker writing some 900 years later.
Through Bede, Stapleton is presenting a genuine voice from the past,
unspoilt by later judgements and arguments.
Thus, in Stapleton’s words:
“There is no suspicion of partes taking, no
prejudice of favouring either side, no feare of affection of missejudgement to
be gathered upon him. We have good cause
to suspect the reports of Bale, of Fox, of Beacon and suche other, whiche are
knowen to maintaine a faction and singular opinion lately spronge up, who
reporte thinges passed many hundred yeares before their dayes. No such suspicion can be made of S. Bede, who
lyved above eight hundred yeares paste, and reporteth the planting of Christen
religion among us Englishmen, partly by that whiche he sawe him selfe, partly
by the reporte of such who either lived at the first coming in of Christendom
to our countre them selves, or were scholers to such.” (Stapleton, Bede,
preface)
In all then, Stapleton’s preface to his
translation of Bede talked about the differences between Protestant and
Catholic faith and charity, and attempted to present Protestant scholars as
horrid men and slanderers. There is much
here for the historian to pick up upon, more than what I have talked about here
even. There are also plenty of quotation
opportunities – Stapleton is not shy about his attacks. What this work does help to show us, however,
is the difficulty protestant scholars had in making the Anglo-Saxons something
respectable in their new world order. Bede’s
writings favoured the Roman Catholics in terms of argument much better than
they ever would for the early reformers.
