120

DBEDA VENERABILIS IN SPAIN m BY

HELMUT HEIDENREICH m The limited number

of examples to be communicatedhere as illustrationsof Beda's
popularityin the Peninsula were gleaned at random fromvarious
literature. They
branches of sixteenth and seventeenth-century
have not been pointed out before by the authoritieson AngloSpanish literaryrelations nor by students of the English Saint.
The modest object, then,of these notes is to supply some preliminary material for furtherresearchin the widely unexplored field
of Beda's fame in modern times. For, on survey,one finds that
thosescholarswho in recentyearshave dealt withBeda's intellectual
heritageand with the disseminationof his workson the Continent,
like Laistner, Levison, Schreiber,Boyer, and others,' were almost
exclusivelyconcernedwith the Early Middle Ages. It is true that
thereare a fewHispanic voices commentingon thisChurchFather.2
But where the literaryhistoriansare concerned,referencesto him
didactic prose,
as a possible influenceon medieval historiography,
3
and
or modern rhetoricin Spain are verysporadic
usually rather
vague.
1 Cf. D. Whitelock, After Bede, Jarrow Lecture (Newcastle, 1960); W. F.
Bolton, "A Bede Bibliography, 1935-1960,"Traditio, XVIII (1962), 436-445.
2J. S., " El llibre de les Homilies del venerable Beda de Girona," Veil i Nou,
IV (1918), 287-410; G. Sanmiguel, "San Beda el Venerable," Monasticon, II
(1935), 57-64, 110-114;J. M. Sarabia, "La romanidad de S. Beda el Venerable,"
Estudios Eclesidsticos,XIV (1935), 51-74; M. T. Schorer, "Alguns aspectos do
monasticismo irlandes atraves da 'Historia ecclesiastica' do Venerable Beda,"
Revista de Historia, V (1954), 273-301; see also M. Manitius, Handschriften
antiker Autoren in mittlealterlichen Bibliothekskatalogen, 67. Beiheft zum
Zentralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen (Leipzig, 1935), p. 351; M. L. W. Laistner,
"The Spanish Archetypeof MS. Harley 4980," Journal of Theological Studies,
XXXVII (1936), 132-137.
3 Cf. J. Hurtado Jimenez and A. Gonzalez Palencia, Historia de la literatura
espanola [1921], 6a ed. (Madrid, 1949), p. 86, copied by E. Diez-Echarri and
J. M. Roca Franquesa, Historia de la literatura espaiola e hispano-americana
(Madrid, 1960), p. 74; A. Valbuena Prat, Historia de la literatura espafola
[1937], 4a ed. (Barcelona, 1953), I, 185; G. Diaz-Plaja, ed. Historia general de
las literaturashispdnicas (Barcelona, 1953), III, 596; J. Ruiz i Calonja, Historia
de la literatura catalana (Barcelona, 1954), pp. 4, 228-231; M. de Riquer,
Historia de la literatura catalana: Part antiga (Barcelona, 1964), III, 300;
E. R. Curtius, Europdische Literatur und lateinisches Mittlealter [1948], 3.
Aufl. (Minchen, 1961), pp. 279, 289, 303.

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The lively Spanish interestin Beda afterthe Reformationis as

patent as its motives are obvious. In the wake of the religious
controversiesof the time we observe a general Beda revival that
findsexpression in a quick successionof Continental editions of
his works. Some of them were actually printed in the Spanish
Netherlands, a country that was soon to become the principal
asylum of the Catholic refugees from Britain. These modern
editions,along with the endeavoursof the humaniststo trace the
roots of Christianityand of the Primitive Church, must have
helped to spread Beda's fame beyond the Pyrenees (although some
of his workshad been known therethroughoutthe Middle Ages).
The contemporary
European scene,however,promptedin addition
a political interestin him: the Spaniards,seeing themselvesas the
standard-bearers
of the unity of Christendom,could not but welcome Beda as an irrefutablenativewitnessof the conversionof the
English frompaganism and of theirformerstrongties with Rome.
This evangelicalinterestof Spaniards in Britishwitnessesof orthodox faith is confirmedby the warm reception of Thomas More
and othersin sixteenth-century
Spain and theirsubsequentuse for
Allen articulatedthe same
of
William
purposes propaganda fidei.
in
when he encouragedhis
intentions
terms
missionary
unequivocal
at
the
of
to
Douai
pupils
studythoroughlyBeda's
English College
matterto its firstmodem
EcclesiasticalHistory; fromthe prefatory
translationinto English (Antwerp,1565) emergesthe corresponding
of the unadulterconceptionof Beda as the impartialrepresentative
ated teachingof the primitiveChurch in England (as opposed to
"the pretendedreligion of Protestants,"ibid., fol. *3r) .4
Beside these theological and political considerationsconnected
with the Catholic efforts
of bringingthe Britishrenegadesback to
theirfold, theremay have been some underlyingnational motives
that helped deepen Spanish interestin the Church Father from
Northumberland.He was, afterall, the continuatorof Peninsular
classicslike Isidorus of Seville, Orosius,and Prudentius,5a national
tradition to be proud of. More importantstill, it was he who
lived to see the Mahometan conquerors-" gravissimaSarracenorum
4 Cf. P.
Hughes, The Reformation in England (London, 1950-54), III, 292;
P. H. Blair, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation and its Importance Today, Jarrow Lecture (Newcastle, 1959), p. 13 f.; G. Culkin, Saint Bede
(London, 1961), p. 13.
SCf. M. L. W. Laistner, "The Library of the Venerable Bede," in A. H.
Thompson, ed. Bede: His Life, Times, and Writings (Oxford, 1935), 263-266.

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lues," as he calls them in his Historia Ecclesiastica (lib. V, cap.

xxiii) -sweep across the Peninsula up towards France menacing
the early Christian kingdoms of the West.6 Sixteenth-century
humanists and theologians were fully aware of this concern of
Beda's with the fate of Spain. This is borne out by a quotation
fromPlatina which Thomas Stapleton cites in Latin and English
in the "Preface to the Reader " of his translation,The Historyof
the Church of Englande (Antwerp,1565), fol. 2v: "Cum Africa
et Hispania a Sarracenisoccuparetur,Beda, qui eisdem temporibus
fuit, hanc calamitatem literis ad principes Christiani nominis
scriptis,lamentatusest: quo bellum in hostesDei atque hominum
susciperet,"and the translatorgoes on pointing out that " Spayne
offlate only recoveredthe faith againe." At a moment in history
when the Spaniards had only just recovered their full national
integrityand were taking a confidentlook back at the Roman,
Gothic, and Christian beginningsof their civilization,such biographical circumstanceswere of interestnot only to the historians;
theirdiscoveryof Beda as a contemporaryof the national risingof
Covadonga (A. D. 718) and as a spiritualally fortheirReconquest
must have generallyenhanced Spanish sympathiesfor the British
doctormirabilis.
I have not been able to establish whetheror not the growing
Spanish interestin Beda was in any way connectedwith the foundation by Philip II of Jesuit colleges for the British expatriateson
Spanish soil (Valladolid 1589,Madrid 1592,and Seville 1612 under
Philip III). But it seems,on the evidenceof the followingexamples
at least, that it was the Jesuitswho had taken a special liking for
Beda, manyof the authorsto be quoted here being eithermembers,
of that order. We must assume,however,
alumni, or sympathizers
that other religious orders were no less familiarwith his works,7
and some bibliographicalmanuals of the beginningof the seventeenthcenturyprovehow indispensablehe had become not only for
scripturalexegesis but also for other scholarlypursuits.8
6 Cf. C.
Plummer, ed. Venerabilis Baedae opera historica, photogr. repr.
(Oxonii, 1946), II, 338 f.; J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Bede's Europe, JarrowLecture
(Newcastle, 1962), pp. 4, 10-12.
7Cf. G. de la Cruz, "Catalogo de la Biblioteca de los Padres Carmelitas
Descalzos de Barcelona," El Monte Carmelo, LXIX (1961) and subsequent vols.,
esp. LXX (1962), 254-255; C. Baraut, "La bibliotheque ascetique de Garcia
Cisneros,abb6 de Montserrat (1493-1510)," Studia Monastica, IX (1967), 332.
8 Cf. Joannes Molanus, Bibliotheca materiarum
quae, a quibus auctoribus,

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In this paper we set aside worksof divinitywhere the impact of

Beda is likelyto have been strongest.On the otherhand, veryfew
of the textsstudied here belong to belles-lettresproper. Some of
them belong to, or are borderingon, devotional literature,and
nearly all of them serve some instructivepurpose or other. This
does not mean that Beda had been relegated to the extra-literary
fields of learning which lack popular appeal. In an age when
edificationratherthan pleasurewas soughtin reading,when writing
historiesor lives of saintswas a routine task forauthors,and when
even those works writtenfor enjoymenthad to be made morally
useful the borderlinesof literaturewere vaguer than ever. If most
of our examples, then, are taken from didactic literature,our
collectiondoes include some of the leading prosewritersand moral
teachersof the Spanish Golden Age who were widelyknown inside
and outside Spain.
Our firstexamples are thoroughlyinfused with the evangelical
spirit of the Counter-Reformation.In 1585 there was published
in Rome De origine ac progressuschismatisAnglicani,writtenby
Father Nicholas Sanders and posthumouslyfinishedby another
Englishman,Edward Rishton. It contains a succinctsurveyof the
ecclesiasticalhistoryof Britain and a detailed descriptionof the
religious developmentsthere fromthe timesof Henry VIII to the
death of Mary of Scotland. In the year of the Armada the disciple
of Ignatius of Loyola, Pedro de Ribadeneira, published a Spanish
translation,Historia ecclesiasticadel scisma del reynode Inglaterra,
which was printed simultaneouslyin Madrid, Lisbon, Antwerp,
and other capitals of the Spanish realm. In his Prologue Ribadenaeira lamentsthe sorrystateof affairsin Britain,one of the oldest
provincesof the Christian Church as testifiedby Beda, Polydore
Vergil, and Cardinal Pole, which had been obedient to Rome for
nearlya thousandyears (edition of Emberes,1588,fol. 5v), and he
hopes that the disastrous consequences of unbridled passion as
exemplifiedby King Henry's apostasywill have a deterrenteffect
on the reader of his history.
The pedagogic and missionaryzeal of the Jesuit Father is even
cum antiquis, tur recentioribus sint pertractatae (Coloniae, 1618), s.v.
"Anglia," " Boethius," " Britannia," " Martyrologium,"" Miracula," " Schemata,"
"Sermones "; Andreas Schott, Catalogus catholicorum S. Scripturae interpretum
(Coloniae, 1619), "Catologus SS. Patrum," fol. A3v, and "Catologus interpretum," passim.

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matterto his own continuamore stronglymarkedin the prefatory

tion, Segunda parte de la historia ecclesiastica del scisma de;
Inglaterra (1593, with severalreissues). It coversthe anti-Catholic
policyof Queen Elizabeth until 1592 payingparticularattentionto
the persecutionand martyrdomof the Catholic missionarieswhose
training in Continental seminaries is described at length (cap.
xix-xxix). Refuting the English objections to these colleges,
Ribadeneira refersto the pattern of training English priests set
by Saint Gregory"whom the Venerable Bede so justly calls the
Apostle of England" (ed. of Lisboa, 1594, cap. xix, fol. 83r).
Furtherdown he combineshis attackon the repressivemeasuresof
the Britishgovernmentwith a warningof the dangersof rebellion
by its subjects, and points out that political upheavals in that
country"were usually the consequence of and punishmentfor a
contempt for religion, as can be inferredfrom the writingsof
Gildas the Wise and the Venerable Bede and as has been observed
by other judicious and remarkablehistoriansof English affairs"
(cap. xxvi, fol. 130v). In this capacityof a witnessfor the prosecution the name of Beda recursin the joint Latin editions of the
two partsof the work (1610 and 1628). Apart fromthe frequency
of its re-editionsthe importanceof this book is shown by the fact
that it became the sourceof a drama by Calder6n on the Reformation under Henry VIII, La cisma de Ingalaterra (dated between
1639 and 1651), and that a French edition succeeded in causing a
stir amongstthe clerical circles of England as late as in the days
of Bishop Burnet.9
and conversionRibadeneira
For religiousedification,fortification,
also wrotean even more popular work,Flos sanctorumo libro de las
vidas de los santos (1599-1601). For protectionagainst the " absurditiesand vagariesof the heretics" he has recourseto the established
interpretersof controversialpassages in the Scripturesin whose
list he includes Beda side by side with Gregoryof Tours and
Saint Bernard,as well as other Church authorities. Furtherdown
in his Prologue he speaksof his sourcesin general," the authors. . .
generallyaccepted by the Church of Rome as the gravest,most
authoritative,and best known,"mentioningespeciallythe Martyrologium Romanum of Beda, Usuardus, and Ado Viennensis (fols.
9 Cf. M. Cabantous, " Le schisme
d'Angleterrevu par Calder6n," Les Langues
Neo-Latines, 62e annee, fasc. II (1968), 43-58; A. C. Baugh, ed. A Literary
History of England (New York, 1948), p. 789.

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4r and 4 iiii r in Father Nieremberg'sedition, Barcelona 1643).

This work and othersof Beda's (De locis sanctis,De sex aetatibus,
Retractationes,and variousotherBiblical comments)are frequently
referredto in the courseof the text,above all fordocumentationof
the miraculous events that are related in detail (e. g. the meteorological phenomenaon AscensionDay, p. 41). Dozens of Spanish
and foreigneditions of this book, among them several English
adaptationsbetween 1623 and 1730,were bound to help popularize
Beda's name throughoutEurope. For hagiographicalcalendars of
this kind were in the firstplace destined to become the plain fare
of the general public (although, according to Malon de Chaide's
famousdiatribeagainstromances,readershad by thenmade Amadis
and Diana their Flos sanctorum!). But the influenceof Ribadeneira's work on literatureis stronglyfelt,too: in religious prosewhere Beda often seems to be quoted throughthe Jesuitauthorand above all in a spate of hagiographical plays, Lope de Vega
being the foremostto tap this rich mine.10
Beda figuresalso in the revival of the legend of Saint Patrick's
descentto Purgatory,which had been known in fourteenth-century
Catalonia and Castile both throughhis own works and those of
Hugh of Saltrey,and others. It was also disseminatedby a popular
reportof a pilgrimagefromAragon to Lough Derg in 1397-98,11
of which the Irish Father Philip O'Sullevan availed himselffor
his Historiae catholicae Iberniae compendium (Ulyssipone,1621).
His Latin version included there, "De Purgatorio divi Patricii"
(tom. II, lib. ii, fols. 14r-31r),is precededby a general introduction
to Ireland with frequent quotations from Beda, particularlyhis
famousencomiumof that countryin his Historia ecclesiastica (II,
i): "Ibernia, . . . dives lactis, ac mellis insula, .. ." (fol. 3v).
Before O'Sullevan managed to reissue an extractfromhis compendium, Patritiana decas (Madrid, 1629), the popular novelist and
playwrightJuan Perez de Montalban had made thiswork and that
10Cf. M. Casc6n, "Fuentes
jesuiticas en el teatro de Lope de Vega,"
Boletin de la Biblioteca Menendez Pelayo, XVII (1935), 388-400.
11 Here is a selection from the rich literatureon the
subject: A. G. Solalinde,
"La primera versi6n espafiola de 'El Purgatorio de San Patricio' y la difusi6n
de esta leyenda en Espafia," Homenaje Menendez Pidal, II (1925), 219-257; P.
MacBride, "Saint Patrick's Purgatory in Spanish Literature," Studies [Dublin],
XXV (1936), 277-291; C. Brunel, " Sur la version provensale de la relation du
voyage de Raimon de Perillos au Purgatoire de Saint Patrice," Estudios dedicados
a Menendez Pidal, VI (1956), 3-21; J. Ruiz i Calonja, op. cit., 228-231.

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of another Briton12 the basis for a 'spiritual romance' (novela a

lo divino) that was to become one of the best sellersof the seventeenthand eighteenthcenturies,Vida y Purgatoriode San Patricio
(Madrid, 1628). In this miraculous life of the Irish Apostle-a
contemporaryof the King of Goths Alarich, the firstto publish
writtenlaws in Spain, as Montalban reminds us (fol. 27r)-the
author makes the most of Patrick'svisionsand miraclesin order to
provide "devout suspense to amuse and terrifythe reader" (Prologue). Between the Saint's biographyand his report from Hell
Montalban wedgesa catalogue of his authoritiesthatincludes Beda
with a referenceto Lib. 3. et 6. de revelat.Sanctae Brigidae (fol.
47v).
Over thirtyeditions of this pious thriller,including two very
popular translationsinto French and several into other languages,
cannot but have cementedBeda's reputationof long standingas a
teller of fabulous stories. The novel was promptlydramatized.
One of the stage verisons,El mayorprodigio o el Purgatorioen la
vida (before1635), is attributedto Lope de Vega; anotherone was
writtenby Calder6n, El Purgatorio de San Patricio (1636). Consideringthe popularityof the subject in both literatureand painting of that time, it is hard to determinethe interdependenceof
thesereligious dramas.13Calder6n's dependence upon Montalban,
however,showsin the bibliographicalepilogue of his play wherehe
enumeratesexactly the same authors,including Bellarmino, Beda,
and Serpi (Comedias I, Biblioteca de Autores Espanioles,VII
[1848], p. 166).
If theseare but isolated examplesof Beda's influenceon imaginative literaturein Spain, thereis anotheroutstandingpoet who had
recourse to him for his religious writings,Francisco de Quevedo.
Some time beforehis death in 1645 he wrote a life of Saint Paul,
firstprintedin 1644,laterincorporatedinto his collectedworkswith
the title Vida de San Pablo Apostol. In this erudite biographyhe
discussesmeticulouslythe opinions of the Church Fathers,citing
repeatedlyBeda's commentson Acts and his Martyrologium(cf.
Obras, ed. F. Foppens [Brusselas 1660-61],II, 3-5, 9, 106). In yet
12Thomas
Messingham, "Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii," in his
Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum (Paris, 1624).
13 Cf. A. Blunt, "El Greco's 'Dream of
Philip II': An Allegory of the Holy
League," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, III (1939-40),
60-61; J. B. Avalle-Arce," Sobre la difusi6n de la leyenda del Purgatorio de San
Patricio en Espaia," Nueva Revista de Filologia Hispdnica, II (1948), 195-196.

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another edifyingwork of his, Virtud militante contra las cuatro

pestes del mundo (begun in 1634, firstprintedin 1651), a moral
tract on the principal evils envy, ingratitude,pride, and avarice,
he quotes at some length an unidentifiedpassage from Beda on
God's example of humility,to which he adds: "Venerable words
indeed, just as theirautor" (ed. cit.,II, 316). Imbued as Quevedo
was with Bible-lore and religious doctrine it is likely that he
consultedthe learned Northumbrianfor related purposesin other
prose worksof his.14
In the field of ecclesiasticalbiographywe often find Beda in
Miguel Baptista de Lanuza, the Aragonese author of half a dozen
lives of local Carmelite nuns. Obviously writtenwith a view to
their prospective canonization, these biographies abound with
colourfuldescriptionsof theirmysticalexperiences. In the firstof
these works,the life historyof the companion of Saint Theresa of
Avila, Vida de la bendita madre Isabel de Santo Domingo (Madrid,
fromSer. 18 de
1638), Lanuza quotes Beda on themeritsof suffering
sanctis: " a Deum crevitpugna, crevitet pugnantiumgloria "; with
a referenceto a Spanish versionof the lives of the saintsof Ireland
he invokeshis authorityto give creditto some miraculous apparitions at funerals; and he cites Beda and other authoritieson the
question of subordinationto the will of the Church (pp. 93, 111,
645). The text of a later biography,Vida de la venerable madre
Geronimade San Estevan (Zaragoza, 1653), is precededby a motto
drawn fromBeda,15and in Lanuza's last work of the series, Vida
de la sierva de Dios Francisca del Santmo. Sacramento (Zaragoza,
1659), he gives Beda's opinion on the duration of Purgatory (lib.
II, cap. i, fromHist. eccles., V, xii), the redemptionof the condemned souls being the special concernof Mother Francisca. This
saintly"slave of God " was particularlydevoted to Saint Thomas
of Canterbury,ihr absonderlicherPatron 'her queer protector'
according to the German translator;as the calendar of her visions
between 1627 and 1629 shows (lib. III, cap. i-v), Saint Thomas
visitedher dozens of timesin her ecstasiesexhortingher to prayfor
the persecutedRoman Church in England and for the conversion
of the English heretics.16
14 Cf. A.
Papell, Quevedo: Su tiempo, su vida, su obra (Barcelona, 1947), p.
556; see also pp. 392, note 1, 530 ff.,and 542 ff.
1 I had no access to this work; cf. J. Sim6n Diaz, Bibliografia de la literatura
hispdnica, VI (1961), no. 3401.
16Cf. Father Gioachimo di Santa Maria, transl. Vita della serva di dio

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Consideringthe influenceof Beda on annalistsduringthe Middle

Ages, one expects to findhim in the four thickvolumes of historic
and topographic descriptions of medieval Spain compiled by
Andreas Schott, Hispaniae illustratae (Francofurti,1603-8). AlthoughBeda's name is not in the Index, thiswitnessof the twilight
of the Visigothkingdomsis cited at least on one occasion: for the
correctspelling of the name of a sixth-century
king, Leovigildus
(" Chronologia: Ordo regum Gothorum Hispaniae," tom. II, p.
23). More Beda allusions are possiblydispersed throughoutthis
standard work of referenceof that period; but the Jesuit Father
does not mention him in his other manuals on Spain, Catalogus
clarorumHispaniae scriptorum(1607) and Hispaniae bibliotheca
(1608), as Nicolas Antonio did later in the century.
Helping to clear up some doubtfulpoints in the early stages of
Christian Spain, Beda is likely to occur in several historiesthat
are dealing with this period, such as Diego Saavedra Fajardo's
Corona Gothica castellana y austriaca (Miinster,1646, and several
re-editions). In this learned account of Gothic Spain Beda's Martyrologiumand his De temporibusare cited a fewtimesas evidence
in connectionwith Arianism and the sixth centurymartyrs(cap.
ii, xii, xiv, xv, xxviii). At one instance some disputed miracles
" because the Venerable Bede and also Sigebertus
gain authentictity
attachedcreditto them" (cap. xii, pp. 191-193). Here as elsewhere,
the referencesto Beda seem to be derived fromsecondarysources
like Baronius and other ecclesiasticalhistorians.
At the beginning of the centuryBeda is also made known in
Spain by one of the earlyencyclopaedias. In the Plaza universalde
todas ciencias y artes (Madrid, 1615) by Dr Suarez de Figueroawho incidentallyquotes a testimonyof Ram6n Lull's reputationin
Britain and refersto Roger Bacon, Occam, Scotus, Linacre, and
Thomas More-Beda is rememberedin three capacities: as an
exegete, as a polymath,and as an historian. As such he is the
of different
methodsof scripturalexposition (discurso
representative
fol.
he
xxiv,
belongs,on account of his thirty-six
96r-v);
works,to
"the famous great authors . . . prodigious for the quantity and
quality of their writings" (disc. xxxii, fol. 127v), a reputation
Francesca del SS.mo Sacramento (Milano, 1673), pp. 17-18, 198, 202, 209;
Johann Georg von Werndle, transl.Leben der gottseeligenMutter Francisca vom
heiligstenSacrament (Minchen, 1680), pp. 41-42, 322, 328, 339. I had no access
to the original nor to Lanuza's other biographies quoted in the Preface.

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dating back to the Middle Ages; 17 and he is catalogued according

to Bodin and Zwingliamong the renownedhistoriansof his nation
wherehe is singled out for his annalist method (disc. xxxviii,fols.
171r, 172r). These passages and their sources are taken from
Thomaso Garzoni's La piazza universale (1585, rev. ed. Venetia
1599,pp. 210-211,288, 359, 361), a popular workof referenceseveral
times reissued and subsequentlyadapted in Latin and German.
As Garzoni lists Beda and the above-mentionedcountrymenof his
in the table of authorities (missing in the Spanish adaptation),
theremay be more referencesto him in othersectionsof the book
which I did not check.
A differentaspect of Beda's learning is brought into focus by
Ambrosiode Salazar, one of the language teachersand interpreters
at the courtof Louis XIII. In his bi-lingualprimer,Espexo general
de la gramdticaen didlogos-Miroir general de la grammaireen
dialogues (Rouen, 1614; seven reissues until 1659), the firstdialogue is concerned with the origin and differenceof languages.
Talking about the beginnings of written literature of various
peoples,Salazar has probablyBeda's De orthographiain mind when
he mentions him as the father of Anglo-Saxon writing: "Les
Normans aussi eurent les leurs [scil. lettres]descritespar Bede"
(p. 17). The notion of Beda being an authorityon languages was
currentelsewhere too, as is shown by a passage from Sebastian
Miinster that is quoted in one of the defences of the German
language.18
To judge by the followingset of examples,Beda the rhetorician
was not nearlyas well rememberedas Beda the churchmanand it
looks as thoughthe formerreputationwas a mere side-effect
of the
latter. Although his De arte metricahad been used as a textbook
in NorthernSpain in the Middle Ages,19it remains to be seen to
what degree the Spanish teachers of the art of writing in the
Renaissance were familiarwith or indebted to his workson tropes
17Cf. H. Schreiber, "Beda in
buchgeschichtlicherBetrachtung,"Zentralblatt
fur Bibliothekswesen,LIII (1936), 629.
18J. H. Schill, Der teutschen Sprach Ehren-Krantz (Stra3burg, 1644), pp.
243 if., quoting from Beda's Liber de temporibus via Sebastian Miinster.
19Cf. L. Nicolau d'Olwer, "L'escola poetica de Ripoll en els
segles X-XIII,"
Anuari de l'lnstitut d'Estudis Catalans, VI (1923), 3-84. See also W. F.
Patterson, Three Centuries of French Poetic Theory (Ann Arbor, 1935, reissued
New York, 1966), I, 14, 68; R. B. Palmer, "Beda as a Textbook Writer: A
Study of his De arte metrica," Speculum, XXXIV (1959), 573-584.

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and on versification.In such influentialhandbooks as Francisco

Sanchez Brocense's Minerva (1587) or Alonso Lopez Pinciano's
Philosophia antigua poetica (1596) Beda's name is missing,their
authorsrelyingon classical writersand modernhumanistsfor their
rules and illustrations. The position is probably the same with
thosemanuals on rhetoricand prosodyof the time to which I had
no access.
To one critic,20therefore,
it looks like a surprisinganachronism
to findBeda among the demi-godsof Neo-Aristotelianism
that was
the order of the day. In the Preface to his Arte poetica espanola
(1592) the JesuitJuan Diaz Rengifobegins his list of sourceswith
Aristotle,Saint Augustin,and " the Venerable Bede with his Arte
which he wrote to Wigbertthe Levite" (edition of Madrid, 1606,
fol. 3r), followed by Scaliger and other moderns. In his poetical
theoryand verseillustrations,however,FatherJuan revealshimself
as a discipleof the Italians. Only in his extensiverhymingdictionarydoes he mentionthe " venerabledoctorfromEngland "-amidst
the Spanish words ending in -eda! (pp. 167 and 336). Thus
honoured, Beda survived several re-editionsuntil 1759 of this
popular manual for versifiers.
He faresa little betterwith the rhetoricianBartolome Ximenez
Pat6n. In his firstbook on modern Spanish poetics, Elocuencia
espanola en arte (Toledo, 1604), he mentionsBeda neitherin the
Prologue nor in the chapters dealing with figuresof speech or
allegoricalinterpretationof the Scriptures.Only when Don Bartolome joins this work to two otherson Biblical and Latin rhetoric,
Mercurius Trimegistus,sive de triplicieloquentia sacra, espanola,
romana (Baeza, 1621), he summarilylists the "presbyterBeda"
with thirtyother authorities,ancient and modern,in his Prologue.
In part one, "Liber unicus de eloquentia sacra," the author also
quotes in full Beda's definitionsand paradigmsof onomatopoeia,
tropus,synecdoche,and metonymy(fols. 3r-v,5r, 6v); but in the
other parts he omits him again in the relevantchapters.
The same picture prevailslater in the century.AlthoughE. R.
Curtiusrelates the rhetoricalfashionsof the Spanish manneriststo
the traditionof Beda,21the chiefpreceptorof mannerism,Baltasar
Gracian, does not mention him in his Agudeza y arte de ingenio
20
A. Vilanova, " Preceptistas de los siglos XVI y XVII," in Diaz
Plaja,
op. cit., III, 596.
21
303.
Op. cit., p.

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(1648), nor is he referredto in the earlier Libro de la erudicidn

poetica (1611) by Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor.Anothercompilerof
and
metricaland stylisticsubtleties,the zealous Counter-Reformer
sometimesAbbot of Melrose, Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, does
use verse illustrationsfor religious propaganda against the British
hereticsin his Primus calamus: ob oculos ponens metametricam
(Romae, 1663), pp. 19-21,without,however,rememberingBeda.
Only in the second part of this fat, badly organized, and truly
Caramuel copies the
baroque compilationof modernverbal artistry,
whole passage on sources fromDiaz Rengifo; again like him, he
includes Beda in the list of rhymingwords. He also includes him
in his Index of names. Cf. Primus calamus tomus secundus: ob
oculos exhibens rhythmicam,
ed. 2a (Campaniae, 1668), " Proemium. Epistola I," p. 2; lib. III " De sylvis,"p. 431; " Nomina patrum
etc.," p. xxxix.
There is an ambiguousreferenceto Beda by anothersympathizer
of the Gongorists,Saavedra Fajardo, in his Repuzblica literaria
(1670, begun in 1612, posth. ed. with a differenttitle in 1655).
This workbelongsto the hybridgenreknownas " criticapoetica" 22
where in literarydisguise arts and sciences are subjected to a
scepticalreview. At the end of this dream voyage to an allegorical
city of learning, the critic Scaliger is dragged before a tribunal;
there,Ovid denounces his pedantic and arrogantattacksnot only
on profane poets but also on "pious and religious authors like
Sannazaro,Beda, Pontano, Fracastoro,and others" (ed. G. Mayans,
Madrid, 1735, p. 108). In this curiousjuxtapositionwith less holy
writerswe find the venerable churchman also in the eighteenth
century23which had a special liking forSaavedra's good-humoured
debunkingas is proved by the number of re-editionsof this work
and by the translationsinto English (1705 and 1727), Italian, and
French.
22 Cf.

F. de Figueiredo, "Uma forma hibrida de critica," in his Pyrene

(Lisboa, 1935), pp. 146-180.
23
In other versions the name reads Veda, Viva, or Vida. Cf. V. Garcia de
Diego, ed. Repu'blica literaria (Madrid, 1922), pp. 225 and 222, note; A.
Gonzalez Palencia, ed. Obras completas (Madrid, 1946), pp. 1190a and 1189a,
note. The inclusion of Girolamo Vida, like Sannazaro the author of a religious
epic, as opposed to Pontano, the writerof erotic verse,and to Fracastoro,author
of an epic on venereal disease, seems to make better sense. What matters,however, is that Spanish editors of the time immediately thought of Beda as a
paragon of piety and as a writer of poetics in this context.

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It looks like a confirmationof Beda's universal authoritythat

we meethim as a recurringtestimony
in Spanish arttracts.Whether
these referencesare directlytaken from his works is a different
matter. Probably they are currentslogans liftedout of some Tridentine art preceptor (e. g. Molanus, Possevino, Paleotti), out of
some Italian theoreticianof fine arts, or out of other secondary
sources. In a eulogistic treatiseon the respectabilityof arts and
sciencesby Gaspar Gutierrezde los Rios, Noticia general para la
estimacionde las artes (Madrid, 1600), we finda quotation in Latin
and Spanish fromBeda's De Templo Salomonis,VIII, ix. It occurs
in a chapter on the emulation between fine arts and philosophy
(lib. III, cap. xvi) when he triesto prove the usefulnessof works
of art forreligiouspurposes: " Beda makes this admirablyclear in
theseterms: ' Imaginum aspectussaepe multumcompunctionissolet
praestare contuentibus,et eis quoque qui literas ignorant,quasi
vivam Dominicae Historiae pandere, lectionem.'" (p. 189 f, followed by its Spanish translation).
The historicalcontext of these tractsis ratherquaint. Spanish
artistshad for some while been subject to the same tax as house
fromthe mechanic arts
painters. In order to prove theirdifference
to
obtain
from
this artisan's duty)
(and consequently
exemption
several
made
efforts
to
demonstrate
their
they
equal rank with the
liberal arts,an appeal that did not succeed beforethe reign of the
art-loverPhilip IV. In one of these works, the legal report in
defence of the art of painting,Discursos apologeticos en que se
defiendela ingenuidad del arte de la pintura (Madrid, 1626), the
Professorof Law, Juan de Butr6n,firstcites John of Salisburyin a
comparisonof painting and astronomy(discursox, fol. 28r); later
on he copies the Latin passage fromBeda quoted by Gutierrezon
the usefulnessof picturesforthereligiousinstructionof theilliterate
(disc. xii, ? 2, fol. 37v).
Literallytranslatedinto Spanish,thisveryjustificationis repeated
by anotherapologist,the courtpainterVincenico Carducho. When
dealing with the painting of sacred subjects in his Didlogos de la
pintura (Madrid, 1633-34),he lines up Beda beside Saint Gregory,
Saint Basil, and other ecclesiasticaltestimoniesfor the educational
value of the finearts (dialogo vii, fol. 120r-v). The same arguments
are taken up with slightmodificationsby different
expertswho in
an appendix to Carducho support his plea for the
recognitionof
painting as a liberal art. One of the seven memoranda is a

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"Memorial informatorio" (dated 1628) by the amateur painter

Lope de Vega, who summarilyderivesfromBeda and otherChurch
Fathersthe idea that picturesare a kind of Biblia pauperum (fol.
165r). In another of these documentsthe poet and painterJuan
de Jauregui produces evidence from the Scripturesof the high
regard for the arts; the paramount example being Psalm 73, he
quotes Beda's and Genebrardus'commenton the destructionof the
Temple: "Januas vel picturas eius simul in securi, et malleis
conquassant." He also gives these words an anti-Protestanttwist
when he takes them as a forebodingof the contemporarydestructions by the hereticiconoclasts (fol. 194v). Once again Beda has
and the protectionof the
become the champion of orthodoxy,24
arts shines as a Catholic virtue-even though the primaryobject of
thesepious commentswas but the concessionof legal and financial
benefits.
The only one to cite Beda in purely aestheticcontextsis VelazFrancisco Pacheco. In his Arte de la pintura
quez's father-in-law,
in 1638) he uses the same illustrationas his
written
1649,
(Sevilla,
from
Beda, adding: " A vivid lesson,thatis what
predecessorsquote
he calls painting!" (lib. III, cap. x, p. 466). Unswervinglyloyal
to the Tridentine art doctrine the Seville Art Inspector of the
Inquisition refersto him also in his general chapterson the kinds
of painting and theirdecorum (lib. II, cap. i-iv,pp. 177, 208, 212)
as well as in his specificinstructionsfor the painting of sacred
subjects (lib. III, cap. xi-xiv,pp. 487-592). Demonstratingtherethe
of individual pictureswith the Biblical textand proving
conformity
thus their'historical truth' he refersthe reader to Beda's Martyrologium, De locis sanctis, In Lucae Evangelium, Homeliae super
Lucam, and Collectanea et floribus.25Seeing the importanceof
Pacheco in his time his allusions to Beda may have been handed
down to later art writersthroughhim.
When towards the end of Spain's Golden Age the erudite
Nicolas Antonio surveysin his monumentalbibliographythe literary achievementsof the Spaniards, the Venerable Bede is well
established as an authorityon the early stages of the Peninsular
civilizations. In those sections of Antonio's Bibliotheca Hispana
24
Incidentally Thomas More is cited in a similar capacity in the testimonyof
the Court Chaplain, Juan Rodriguez de Le6n (ibid., fol. 222r).
25 For the complete list of Beda allusions see the modern edition of Pacheco's
book by F. J. Sanchez Cant6n (Madrid, 1956), Index.

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vetus (posth. ed. Romae, 1696), that deal with the sixth,seventh,
and eighthcenturies,Beda givesvariousevidencein connectionwith
several churchmen: Leander of Seville (lib. IV, cap. iv, no. 94),
Felix of Urgel and Elipandus of Toledo (lib. VI, cap. ii, no. 41),
but particularlyIsidore of Seville (lib. V, cap. iv, nos. 116 and 140142) to confirmthe genuinenessof some work of Isidore's and to
clear up some bibliographical confusionabout the authorshipof
These
the Biblical commentsby Isidore and Beda respectively.26
conof
interest
as
well
as
others
facts,
Anglo-Spanish
bibliographical
MSS.
Isidore's
of
of
William
Malmesbury,
cerningJohn Salisbury,
in Oxfordand Cambridge,Leofridof Exeter,etc. (tom. I, pp. 181b,
249b, 256a, 256b), are probablyderivedfromsome of the secondary
sourceslisted in the " Praefatio" and comprisingJohn Bale, John
Leland, John Pits, Thomas Dempster,James Usher, and James
Ware (I, xxix, reprintedfromAntonio's earlier Bibliotheca Hispana, 1672,fol. f2v).
We have to consider here a learned poet from Portugal, who
in fact belongs to both Spanish and Portuguese literature,Dom
Francisco Manuel de Melo. We include him in our surveynot so
much because he edited and was inspired by Quevedo's Life of
Saint Paul and other works of his,27but because he holds in his
countrya position of similarrenownas his idol Quevedo holds in
Spanish letters.At his death in 1666, Melo leftamong his MSS. a
treatiseon cabalism, Tratado da sciencia cabala ou noticia da arte
(posth. ed. Lisboa, 1724), which also deals with the symbolismof
names. He once cites Saint Augustin,Saint Cyprian,and Beda for
their solution of the tetragramA. D.A.M. as an illustrationof
" cabala resolutoria" (p. 55). In another passage on the magical
virtuesof names (p. 115) he mentionsSaint Paul's interpretation
of JESUSand quotes from Beda's In Lucam: " Hujus sacrosancti
nominisJesu,non tantumethimologia,sed et ipse, qui literiscomprehenditurnumerusperpetuaesalutis nostraemysteriaredolet."28
We may assume that Beda turnsup in other fieldsof Portuguese
literaturetoo. Not only because the political union of Spain and
26Tom. I, pp. 224b, 250b, 256a-b, 261-262a, 326a. Some of these biblio.
graphical details are correctedin the critical edition of 1788 by F. Perez Bayer.
27 Cf. L. Astrana Marin, ed. Francisco de Quevedo: Obras en
prosa (Madrid,
1932), pp. 1085, note 1, and 1089; Obras en verso (Madrid, 1943), pp. lix f. and
1194-1200.
28 For Beda on symbolic names see C.
Jenkins," Bede as Exegete and Theologian," in A. H. Thompson, pp. 189-192.

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Portugal between 1580 and 1640 favouredthe book-tradeand the

interchangeof ideas, but chieflybecause of the commonrootsof the
twin cultures. If the single example of Melo's use of Beda looks
like a literaryfreak it is worth rememberingthat the medieval
mathematicianand scientistwas well-knownto seventeenth-century
writerson "natural magic" and secret sciences,as is proved by
some Jesuitwritingsof those years.29
When in 1733 a compendiousrifacimentoof Suarez de Figueroa's
Plaza universalwas published,Beda was retained thereliterallyas
an exegeteof the Bible (p. 180); but the entryon Beda the prolific
author had disappeared fromthe correspondingsection on writers
and writing. He was obviouslyno longer required now, as he had
been in the apology of 1615, to provide a shiningexample of the
editors being
edifying value of letters, the eighteenth-century
convincedthat " books are an indubitable source of wisdom" that
could do withouta theologicaljustification(p. 595). Instead,Beda
is placed among the historians somewhere between Sulpicius
Severus and Paulus Diaconus (p. 620); there, the reader gets
succinctinformationon his life and worksof theology,philosophy,
De sex aetatimathematics,and in the humanities (Martyrologium,
Baronius
"and
all
from
drawn
others in eight volumes"),
bus,
and Vossius.
informationof this last example
Judging by the matter-of-fact
it looks as if Beda had now found his last resting-place.No longer
used as a spearheadforheated argumentsin controversies
now dead,
he had been relegated to his niche in the pantheon of Western
learning. However, in spite of the unfavourabletendenciesof the
Age of Illumination the memoryof the medical scholar was not
entirelyblotted out in Spain. One of the men of lettersto keep
it alive was the learned antiquarian Gregorio Mayans i Siscar.
When talkingabout the stateof medieval Latin in his Origenesde
la lengua espanola (1737), he explains the identityof Alcuin by
calling him a pupil of the Venerable Bede, a name apparentlymore
29 Cf.
Aspasius Caramuel (i. e., Caspar Schott), Joco-seriorumnaturae et artis
(1666), a diverting collection of anecdotes, experiments,tricks,secret remedies,
etc., where we find Beda mentioned side by side with Girolamo Cardano and
other occult writers who indulged in conundrums and mathematical jokes.
Referringto Father Athanasius Kircher's work Oedipus Aegyptiacus and to his
own Technica curiosa, Schott quotes a long passage from Beda describing a
magic wheel of prediction (Germ. ed. Bamberg, 1677, pp. 172 f. and 215-217).

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familiar to the reader.30And near the end of the centuryit was

once again a Jesuitwho had recourseto Beda, in this case to his
mathematicaltreatiseDe computationeand his Liber de loquela
per gestum digitorum,on which the exiled Father and freakish
writeron music, Vicente Requeno y Vives, based his book on the
pantomime of the ancients, Scoperta della chironomia (Parma,
1797) .31 Apart fromthe re-editionof older works as cited above
thereare likelyto be more referencesto Beda buried in the literatureof the eighteenthcenturywhile Latin was still the language of
teachingin colleges.
I did not examine the works surveyedhere for unacknowledged
Beda quotations. Neithercould I establishwhetherthe otherswere
takendirectlyfromhis worksor mechanicallycopied fromsecondary
sources. A studyof these mighttell us somethingabout the principal vehicles of divulgationof Beda's European fame. Our sumin fact,raises more questions than can possibly
mary cross-section,
be answered within the scope of this paper: in what Spanish
libraries and on which curricula was the Venerable Northerner
represented? How does the resuscitationof this scholar from
ChristianAntiquity,if we may say so, fitinto the patternof Renaissance and Counter-Reformation?More especially, how does his
of some of his
medieval reputationcompare with the re-emergence
worksand the neglectof othersin modern times? How is his image
in Spain related to that in neighbouringcountries? Above all, in
what way did the Catholic predilectionfor him differfrom that
of the Protestants,particularlyin England? And was he more of a
literaryinfluenceelsewherethan in Spain?
On the narrowevidenceof our materialit would be prematureto
draw any definiteand general conclusions. But a more thorough
investigationwould probably confirmthe tendenciesonly just apparent in our survey. In spite of our examples being few and
scatteredacross more than a century,they at least indicate the
rangeof theBeda traditionin Spain. If he was not preciselya household name there,he was widely known to scholars as well as to
artists,to the foremostliteraryfiguresas much as to the occasional
and pedestrianwriter. Being chieflyrenownedas a churchman,his
80 Ed. J. E. Hartzenbusch and E. de Mier (Madrid, 1873), II, 356 f., where a
long footnote is deemed necessary to remind the nineteenth-centuryreader of
this historical figure.
81Cf. M. Menendez Pelayo, Historia de las ideas esteticas en Espaia, Edici6n
Nacional, III (Santander, 1947), p. 648.

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moral guidance was used in equally distant fields ranging from

religious propaganda to criticism;he put in an appearance in
rhetoric,and bibliography;and he turnedup in less
historiography,
and occultism. Most
such as language-teaching
quarters
predictable
significantof all, his presence was felt beyond the boundaries of
divinityand otherspheresof eruditionin the neighbouringregions
of literature. Altogethera remarkable achievement,one should
think,for an English scholarwho has never been printedor translated in Spain, and that at a timewhen beside a fewothermedieval
ecclesiasticsThomas More and John Barclay were almost the only
Britishnames commonlyknown in that country.
Looking back it is a gratifying
thoughtthatin an age of political
and religiousantagonismsthatwere to poison the relationsbetween
the two nations for centuries,the voice of Britain was still heard
in the Peninsula. It is as well that it was the voice of her saintly
men that was listenedto above the clamour of national ambitions
In his own days Beda had held
and religious self-righteousness.
up the torch of ancient learning spreadingits light across Europe
fromits peripheryto the new civilizationsthat were emergingfrom
the downfallof the Roman Empire. If he had then contributedto
the reconcilationof the pagan and the Christian worlds, he was
now, in a way, fulfillinganother conciliatorymission: helping
to bridge the gap between the rivalling nations by knottingthe
ties, howeverfeeble,of a Christianbrotherhood,howeverbiassed.
This deepening of the feelingof a common traditionhappened at
the same time when Spanish devotional literaturewas favourably
received in Stuart England under comparable, though different,
when medieval attitudeswere still largelythe same in
circumstances
countries.32
both
Freie UniversitiitBerlin

s2Cf. P. E. Russell, " English SeventeenthCentury Interpretationsof Spanish

Literature," Atlante, I (1953), 66-69.

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