Of when it was necessary to remind a bishop of his duties: looking into Bede’s letter to Egbert of York

Abstract

Bede’s letter to Bishop Egbert could very well be seen as an urgent call for immediate changes at the Northumbrian Church. In his letter, the monk from Wearmouth-Jarrow denounces a series of abuses which were being committed by ecclesiastical members of his time. Not only does Bede’s writing denounce the clergy’s lack of moral values and negligence towards the preaching of the Word, but it also proposes specific actions to bring these issues to an end. This paper brings out some key elements from the referred historical source and tries to get some glimpses of a couple of Bede’s views on what the real Church should be like. Scholars such as Blair (1990), Brown (2010), DeGregorio (2010), Mayr-Harting (1991) and Yorke (2014) among other ones have helped us to exploit the subjects which are brought here.