After last night’s rant on what is missing from the medieval portions of Y3 readings, I feel like it really should supply a suggested reading list for the revision of EfM materials and reading of current students. I’m not suggesting that EfMers read all this but it is good browsing material. I’ll try to find a variety. If you notice I have left something off, please add it in the comments section below.

Medieval Texts

• Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People
  • Remember that Bede did not see history the way we do so don’t hold him to modern standards. He is writing salvation history like the Old Testament writers. He learned what history is and how to write it from studying the Old Testament.
• Bede, Homilies on the Gospels’ Vol. I and Homilies on the Gospels: Lent to the Dedication of the Church (Vol II) published in modern translation by Cistercian Publications. This would be the most accessible for people unfamiliar with medieaval styles of theology. This was a very popular book among Bede’s contemporaries and for the next couple centuries.
• Bede’s On Genesis Liverpool UP (Translated Texts for Historians) One of his biblical commentaries just published in modern translation within the last couple years. Would be a good comparison considering all the time EfMers spend on Genesis in Y1.
  • He wrote about 18 commentaries on the bible (depending on how you count them) so there are others to choose from. Two of his most original are On the Catholic Epistles (non-Paulinine Epistles) and On Ezra-Nehemiah. He was the first to write commentaries on both of them. On Ezra in particular will give you an understanding of the great depth of his historical knowledge about the ancient world and biblical history.
• Bede The Reckoning of Time. Liverpool UP.Check this one out to get an idea of Bede’s scientific writings. Its quite interesting. It is one of several textbooks that he wrote.
• Farmer, D. (ed).The Age of Bede Penguin
  • Translations of the Life of Cuthbert by Bede, Stephan’s Life of Bishop Wilfrid, History of the Abbots of Wearmouth Jarrow by Bede, History of Ceolfrith, Voyage of Brendan

• Thomas Noble and Thomas Head (eds). Soldiers of Christ: Saints and Saints Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Penn State UP, 2000.
  • Translations of a variety of saints lives including the Life of Martin of Tours, Life of Augustine, Life of Germanus of Auxerre, Life of Boniface, Life of Willibrord and others.
• Cain Adomnan: Old Irish Treatise on the Law of Adomnan and Adomnan’s Life of St. Columba (Penguin Classics)translated by Richard Sharpe.
• Douglas Dales. Christ the Golden-Blossom: A Treasury of Anglo-Saxon Prayer Paulist Press. A collection of Anglo-Saxon prayers.
• Thomas Owen Clancy and Gilbert Markus, The Triumph Tree: Scotland’s Earliest Poetry Ad 550-1350 (Canongate Scottish Classics) Canongate Press, 1995. An anthology of poetry from Scotland about half of which is religious. It includes poetry by and about St. Columba, the Old Englsih Dream of the Rood, the Miracles of St Ninian, and a variety of other religious poems.
• Oliver Douglas and Thomas O’Loughlin (eds) Celtic Spirituality (Classics of Western Spirituality)Paulist Press, 2000. An anthology of many original Irish and Scottish works including the lives of Bridget. An economical choice to read a wide range of Celtic Christian writings.
• Robert Boenig (ed). Anglo-Saxon Spirituality: Selected Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality) Paulist Press. An anthology of Anglo-Saxon Christian writings, many of which are anonymous. An economical choice to read a wide range of sources.
• Janet Fairweather, trans.Liber Eliensis: A History of the Isle of Ely from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth, compiled by a Monk of Ely in the Twelfth CenturyBoydell Press, 2005. A history of St. Æthelthryth’s (Audrey) monastery of Ely from the 670s to the death of Thomas Becket. This takes this single monastery through the Norse invasions when the monastery is destroyed through its refounding under the Normans. St Audrey was also a major focus during the Benedictine reform of the 10th century.
• See the Medieval Sourcebook in general for more primary sources.

Secondary Sources

• Barbara Yorke. The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain, 600-800. Pearson-Longman, 2006.
• Thomas O’Loughlin’s Celtic Theology: Humanity, World, and God in Early Irish Writings, Continuum, 2000. [HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]
• Mary Clayton The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England) Cambridge UP.
• Thomas O’Loughlin. Discovering Saint Patrick Paulist Press, 2005. Half a discussion of Patrick and his times, and half new translations of key medieval texts on Patrick.
• Nicholas Brooks.The Early History of the Church at Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066 (Studies in the Early History of Britain)Leicester UP, 1984.