Historical Setting: Jarrow, 793 C.E.
I came to Jarrow for this library known to have a notable collection of books including the works of Bede. Bede was a scholar who had lived here since childhood, now revered by the patrons of Lindisfarne for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Wilbert, the now elderly student of Bede, once served him as a scribe. He attended Bede at his death. Today, Wilbert oversees this library and has taken me aside into this anteroom, because of my interest in the collection of Bede’s works. [Footnote]
I came here because I’d heard so much talk at Lindisfarne. The clergy and lay who went back after the Viking raid carried their grief on a sin-seeking pilgrimage. If God allowed ravage and plunder of a monastery how could anyone be safe? Alcuin’s letter offered best practices for avoiding sin and its consequences but not much practical advice about avoiding Vikings.
I’ve seen both the greed of the Norsemen and the display of wealth by the Christians so Alcuin’s emphasis on the material displays of wealth as “sin,” in a pragmatic way, is some protection against greedy pagans. His letter is being read aloud now for the very audience he intended. They came looking for sins of others, to place the blame for God’s wrath somewhere beyond themselves.
The survivors arrived with all their rumors and small talk about Lindisfarne’s sin in burying a sinner among the saints, and Alcuin’s letter simply ignored that. He mentioned their own greed and warned these rich patrons, uncomfortably, against flaunting that wealth. Still, they persisted at laying the blame elsewhere. They were reviewing the old controversy over the proper date for Easter. Some believed that Lindisfarne was always on the wrong side of that one because it was founded by the Irish from Iona.
For me, this is personal, so I’ve come to Jarrow to explore the root of the revival of this old controversy. In another time and place I was a follower of the Irish hermit, Columbanus who came to Gaul with a small band of monks and started communities at Anngray then at Luxeuil under the Celtic Rule. The Roman bishops were relentless in their opposition to the date he used for Easter and in opposing the Celtic tonsure. Columbanus saw these outward differences as less important than the depths of spirituality, so he yielded on these matters but with revisions for a shared Rule. Again, the rift of rule still seems an opened wound here.
[footnote] Bede is known as an early historian. Wilbert is a fictional name here as this blogger found the name of Bede’s attending monk inconclusive.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 