Bede, the Papacy, and the Emperors of Constantinople

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that the historical writings of the Venerable Bede (d. 735) can also be used by scholars examining the political history of the Eastern Roman Empire in the seventh and eighth centuries. Although Byzantinists have increasingly drawn upon texts written in Syriac, Arabic, and other eastern languages in their scholarship, sources composed in the post-Roman West have yet to be utilised to the same extent. Bede is particularly informative for the reigns of Phocas (602–10), Constans II (641–68), and Justinian II (685–95, 705–11), three emperors who were vilified in later Greek sources. By considering the near-contemporary perspectives preserved in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History and Chronicle alongside the eastern evidence, a more nuanced understanding can be reached for these emperors’ final years. Moreover, Bede’s unique reports strengthen the view that papal history should be integrated into studies of imperial politics. The papacy emerges as a loyal partisan of Phocas in 610 and an institution linked to the growing unrest against Constans in the 660s, while in the eighth century Bede recounted that Pope Constantine gave unheeded advice to Justinian prior to his downfall. In all three cases, Bede yields new insights into the ties that bound together Rome and Constantinople, further demonstrating the utility of Latin sources for reconstructing events in the Mediterranean, even at the end of Late Antiquity.