¹ A recent study of the biases in Bede's work is Goffart, W., ‘The Historia Ecclesiastica: Bede's Agenda and Ours’, Haskins Soc. Jnl 2 (1990), 29–45.Google Scholar

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³ Wood, I., ‘The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury to the English’, Speculum 69 (1994), 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴ Campbell, J., ‘Observations on the Conversion of England’, in his Essays in Anglo-Saxon History, pp. 71–3Google Scholar. On the importance of the place-names formed from OE *eccles, see Thomas, C., Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500 (London, 1981), pp. 262–5Google Scholar. Augustine's request for relics of the holy martyr Sixtus, which is left out of Bede's version of the Libellus responsionum but is transmitted in other versions, suggests continuity of British Christianity near Canterbury, as does some archaeological evidence; see Brooks, N., The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066 (Leicester, 1984), pp. 17–21.Google Scholar

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⁶ Ep. xxxiii in Briefe des Bonifatius, Willibalds Leben des Bonifatius, nebst einigen zeitgenössischen Dokumenten, ed. Rau, R., Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters: Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe 4B (Darmstadt, 1968), p. 110Google Scholar: ‘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 investigate studeatis, si illa conscriptio supradicti patris nostri sancti Gregorii esse conprobetur an non, quia in scrinio Romanae ecclesiae ut adfirmant scriniarii, cum ceteris exemplaribus supradicti pontificis quaesita non inveniebatur.’

⁷ Brechter, S., Die Quellen zur Angelsachsenmission Gregors des Grossen: eine historiographische Studie, Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens 22 (Münster, 1941).Google Scholar

⁸ Deanesly, M. and Grosjean, P., ‘The Canterbury Edition of the Answers of Pope Gregory I to St Augustine’, JEH 10 (1959), 1–49, esp. 38.Google Scholar

⁹ Ibid. pp. 38–43.

¹⁰ Meyvaert, P., ‘Bede's Text of the Libellus Responsionum of Gregory the Great to Augustine of Canterbury’, in his Benedict, Gregory, Bede and others (London, 1977)Google Scholar, no. X (originally ptd in England before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Clemoes, P. and Hughes, K. (Cambridge, 1971)), pp. 15–33Google Scholar. He then knew about 130 manuscripts, by now over 200; see Meyvaert, P., ‘Le Libellus Responsionum à Augustin de Cantorbéry: une oeuvre authentique de Saint Grégoire le Grand’, Grégoire le Grand, ed. Fontaine, J. et al. (Paris, 1986), pp. 543–9, esp. 543, n. 1.Google Scholar

¹¹ Meyvaert, P., ‘Diversity within Unity, a Gregorian Theme’, in his Benedict, Gregory, Bede, no. VI (originally ptd Heythrop Jnl 4 (1963), 141–62)Google Scholar and Chadwick, , ‘Gregory the Great and the Mission’, pp. 207–12.Google Scholar

¹² Kottje, R., Studien zum Einfluss des Alten Testamentes auf Recht und Liturgie des früheren Mittelalters (6.–8. Jahrhundert), 2nd ed., Bonner Historische Forschungen (Bonn, 1970), pp. 110–16.Google Scholar

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., Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1971), pp. 106–8Google Scholar; Godfrey, J., The Church in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge, 1962), pp. 80–6Google Scholar; Deanesly, M., The Pre-Conquest Church in England, 2nd ed. (London, 1963)Google Scholar; Blair, P. Hunter, The World of Bede, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 64–5Google Scholar; Prinz, , ‘Von der Bekehrung der Angelsachsen’, pp. 707–8Google Scholar, though rather sceptical on the authenticity of the work as a whole; Mayr-Harting, H., 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 documentGoogle Scholar; the authenticity is also accepted by Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: a Historical Commentary (Oxford, 1988), p. 38Google Scholar. Only Jenal, G., ‘Gregor d. Grosse und die Anfänge der Angelsachsenmission (596–604)’, SettSpol 32 (1986), 793–849, at 810Google Scholar, leaves out a discussion of this text because of the doubts raised about its authenticity.

¹⁵ Hunter, Blair, The World of Bede, p. 64Google Scholar. Cf. Godfrey, , The Church in Anglo-Saxon England, p. 86Google Scholar: ‘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 Deanesly, M., Augustine of Canterbury (London, 1964), pp. 71–2, compared to the detailed analysis of the other topics raised by this document on pp. 63–71Google Scholar. Cf., however, the detailed treatment of these questions in Weiler, A. G., Willibrords missie: Christendom en cultuur in de zevende en acbtste eeuw (met eenvertaling van de voornaamste literaire bronnen door P. Bange) (Hilversum, 1989), pp. 35–42.Google Scholar

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¹⁷ Brechter, , Die Quellen zur Angelsacbsenmission, pp. 98, 100–3 and 289Google Scholar; Deanesly, and Grosjean, , ‘The Canterbury Edition’, pp. 10–12 and 43Google Scholar. On Theodore, see Stenton, , Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 130–42Google Scholar; Mayr-Harting, , The Coming of Christianity, pp. 121–2 and passimGoogle Scholar; Lapidge, M., ‘The School of Theodore and Hadrian’, ASE 15 (1986), 45–72Google Scholar; and Brooks, , Early History, pp. 71–6 and 94–9.Google Scholar

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³³ See, e.g., ch. 106 (ed. Perels, E., MGH, Epist. 4, 599)Google Scholar: ‘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 Heiser, L., Die Responsa ad consulta Bulgarorum des Papsles Nikolaus (858–867) (Trier, 1979)Google Scholar; Heiser points to the fact that around the middle of the ninth century Frankish missionaries were also active among the Bulgars: ibid. p. 37.

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³⁶ See above, n. 2.

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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).