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Also important to the Anglo-Saxons, especially monastic communities such as Bede and Ælfric inhabited, was the apostlic lifestyle or vita apostolica established by the Twelve.1 Christ himself mandated that the apostles lead a humble existence removed from worldly concerns and dependent on the charity of their converts. Mk. 6:9 relates: “And he commanded them that they should take nothing for the way, but a staff only: no scrip, no bread, nor money in their purse, but to be shod with sandals, and that they should not put on two coats.”2 Similarly, Lk. 9:3 recalls: “And he said to them: Take nothing for your journey; neither staff, nor scrip, nor bread, nor money; neither have two coats.”3 The two gospel accounts are close to one another, but not identical. Bede appears to have lost some sleep over the fact that Mark says “but a staff only” and Luke states “neither a staff.” The punctilious exegete was apparently worried about whether or not the Twelve were permitted a staff as they spread Christ’s teachings throughout the world. Luckily, Augustine of Hippo had already wrestled with the matter so that Bede could cite him as an authority.4 Based on what Augustine has to say, Bede concludes that both readings are to be accepted as they represent the seemingly conflicting statements “God tempteth no man” (Jm. 1:13) and “the Lord your God trieth you” (Deut. 13:3). Thus, the having a staff signifies the fact that the Lord may be relied upon not to trick or seduce his followers, while the absence of the

1

On the development of the vita apostolica in early church, cf. K. S. Frank, “Vita apostolica: Ansätze zur apostolischen Lebensform in der alten Kirche,” Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 82.2 (1971), pp. 145-66; idem, “Vita apostolica als Lebensnorm in der Alten Kirche,” Internationale katholische Zeitschrift ‘Communio’ 8 (1979), pp. 106-12.

2 _{Mk. 6:8-9: et praecepit eis ne quid tollerent in via nisi virgam tantum non peram non panem neque in zona aessed}

calciatos sandaliis et ne induerentur duabus tunicis.

3 _{Lk. 9:3: et ait ad illos nihil tuleritis in via neque virgam neque peram neque panem neque pecuniam neque duas}

tunicas habeatis.

4

Bede, In Luc., Bk. III, Ch. 9, pp. 194-95, ll. 1114-62. For Augustine’s original, cf. Aug., De cons. eu., Bk. II, Ch. 30, p. 175, ll. 8-20.

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staff refers to the hardship under which all Christians are tried. Bede’s trouble over the apostloic staff, while enlightening with regards to the scholar’s exegetical methods and dependence on source material, remains somewhat overly literal when trying to gain a sense of how the directives for living received by the apostles were viewed in respect to Anglo-Saxon monastic living.

Anglo-Saxon clerics clearly viewed their monastic life as rooted in the work and life of the apostles. Ælfric draws attention to the fact that monasticism as an institution had its origins in the Twelve’s choice of bishops when establishing new dioceses during the years following Christ’s death. In CH I.22, the homilist relates how the apostles personally installed James the Just as bishop in Jerusalem and that it was his example and that of his successor, Simeon, that inspired the monastic way of life in so far as monks were expected live within the confines of the monastery and lead a life of celibacy.

Đa apostoli syððan ær þan ðe hi toferdon gesetton iacobum þe wæs gehaten rihtwis on cristes setle. 7 eall seo geleafulle gelaþung him gehyrsumode æfter godes tæcunge; he ða gesæt þæt setl þritig geara; 7 æfter him symeon þæs hælendes mæig; Æfter þære gebysnunge wurdon arærede munuclif mid þære gehealdsumnysse þæt hi drohtnion on mynstre be heora ealdres dihte on clænnysse; 7 him beon heora æhta eallum gemæne; swa ða ápostoli hit astealdon.5

Afterwards, [but] before they dispersed, the apostles set James, who was called “the Just,” in Christ’s seat, and all the faithfull congregation obeyed him according to God’s instruction. He then occupied that office thirty years; and after him, Simeon, kinsman of the Lord. In accordance with that example, the [various forms of] monastic life were established with the observance that they [i.e. the monks] dwell in the monastery in celibacy according to the command of their founder and all their possessions be [held] in common among them, just as the apostles established.

The events of Pentecost were interpreted as significant in their reflection of the monastic hours of prayer. Noting also the influence of Daniel and Christ himself, Bede explains how the descent of the Holy Spirit at the third hour (Acts 2:15) helped to affirm the regimen of prayer honored by the monks:

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Tria enim tempora quibus Danihel in die flectere genua sua et adorare legitur tertia, sexta, et nona hora ab ecclesia intellegitur; quia et dominus tertia hora spiritum sanctum mittens, sexta ipse crucem ascendens, nona animam ponens easdem horas nobis ceteris excellentius intimare et sanctificare dignatus est.6

Now we read that three times a day Daniel bent his knees and prayed, and the church understands these to have been the third, sixth, and ninth hours. Also the Lord sent the Holy Spirit at the third hour, ascended the cross at the sixth, and he yielded up his soul at the ninth. He thus saw fit to enjoin these same hours preeminently upon the rest of us and to sanctify them.7

While sext was made holy by the crucifixion and nones by Christ’s ascension, Bede believed that the apostles’ reception of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost sanctified the liturgical hour of terce

and necessitated its inclusion among the canonical hours of worship.

The monastic life was intended above all to be a modest one, divorced from secular affairs.8 Ælfric’s statement that Christ loved his apostles, but did not establish them as secular rulers was meant to reinforce the humble nature of the apostles and, by extension, monastic living.9 Those monks that belonged to powerful families were expected to give up the comforts of their households and withdraw from the world. The life was not an easy one, but it was one that enjoyed the precedence of Christ and the apostles as Ælfric explains:

Cuð is gehwylcum snoterum mannum þæt seo eald ǽ wæs eaðelicre þonne cristes gesetnys sy; for ðan þe on þære næs micel forhæfednys ne þa gastlican drohtnunga þe crist syððan gesette. 7 his

It is known to every wise man that the old law was easier than Christ’s mandate is, for in it [i.e. the old law] there was no great restraint nor spiritual way of life which Christ and his apostles

6

Bede, Exp. Act., Ch. 2, ll. 110 ff.

7 _{Martin (1989), pp. 31-2.}

8

Bede inteprets Paul’s shipwreck in Acts as indicative of the perils of focusing on worldly matters: Ideo nauis ista periit, quia non leui cursu fluctibus superlapsa est, sed ipso aequoris fundo uiolenter infixa, partim solo retinetur, partim unda uexante confringitur. Talis est profecto casus animi huic saeculo dediti, qui cum mundi desideria calcare neglexerit, quia proram intentionis terrae funditus infigit, totam operum sequentium compagem curarum fluctibus soluit (“This ship perished because it did not glide over the waves with a smooth movement. Rather it became violently stuck upon the sea floor, a part only held fast, while part was broken up by the smashing waves. Such, without a doubt, is the fate of a mind attached to this world. When such a one has made no effort to trample mundane desires underfoot, he fixes the prow of his intention radically upon the earth, and therefore with the waves of cares he dashes to pieces the whole structure of works which follow [from that intention]”). Bede, Exp. Act., Ch. 27, ll. 60 ff. Trans.: Martin (1989), p. 190. Martin is likely in error with his translation of partim solo retinetur as “a part only held fast,” and may be read alternatively as “partly held by the soil,” where solo derives from solum

“soil.”

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apostoli10 later established.

Ælfric viewed the new restraint ushered into the world by Christ and the apostles as a lesson crucial to salvation and would use it as a jumping off point to expound upon the two major forms of restraint, bodily and spiritual, in his homily for the feast of John the Baptist (CH I.25). Should this restraint, however, become overly taxing and threaten the health of one of the monks, then it could be eased. Bede finds a figural example of this need to exercise a compassionate form of restraint in the example of Peter’s incarceration in Jerusalem. Here, Bede responds to the saving angel’s pronouncement to Peter in Acts 12:8 that the apostle should gird himself, put on sandles and wrap himself up in his tunic, imaging why the apostle should have been discovered in such a disheveled state in the first place.

Et prophetas et apostolos cingulis usos fuisse legimus, cuius sibi Petrus ligamenta propter rigorem carceris ad horam laxauerat, ut tunica circa pedes dimissa frigus noctis utcumque temperaret, exemplum praebens infirmis, cum uel molestia corporali uel iniuria temptemur humana licere nobis aliquid de nostri propositi rigore laxare.11

We read that both the prophets and the apostles made use of waistbands. Peter had undone the ties of his <for a while> on account of the chilliness of the prison, so that his tunic, lowered about his feet, might lessen somewhat the cold of the night. This provides an example to the weak—when we are tried by bodily affliction or unjust treatment by men, we are permitted to relax somewhat our intended rigor.12

Since the lure of money and earthly possessions was such a terrible temptation, monastic communities sought to hold their property in common. This measure was naturally based on the example of the apostles. Drawing upon the assertion in Acts 2:44 that the apostles shared all things in common, Bede contends that such a system reflects a sense of community and mutual respect: ... magnumque est fraterni amoris indicium omnia possidere nihil proprium habentes (“... and the possession of everything without [anyone] having anything of his own is a great

10 _{Ælfric, CH I.25, p. 384, ll. 153-56.}

11 _{Bede, Exp. Act., Ch. 12, ll. 33 ff.}

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token of brotherly love”).13 Money, of course, was a troublesome necessity for both apostles and monasteries to survive. Hence, Bede cites Arator in showing how the apostles approved of Barnabas donating of all his wealth to the Twelve (Acts 4:36-37), but still reminding his reader in the same breath that they generally shunned riches:

Destitui debere probant, quod tangere uitant, | Calcandum que docent, quod subdunt gressibus aurum; | De quo terrenae ueniunt ad pectora curae | Consimili iactatur humo.14

They [the apostles] approved of the abandonment of that which they avoided touching, and they taught that gold, which they spurned, should be trampled under foot. Anything from which earthly cares come to the heart is in the same way cast to the ground.15

Whatever surplus of money a monastery may have acquired should be given to the poor and needy. Bede uses the example of Peter and John’s encounter with the crippled beggar in front of the temple as an example of this generosity. Peter, of course, does not have any money to give (Acts 3:6), but vows to give whatever he can—a miraculous healing:

Alioquin beatus Petrus dominici memor praecepti quod dicitur: Nolite possidere aurum et argentum, pecuniam quae ad pedes apostolorum ponebatur non sibi recondere, sed ad usus pauperum qui sua patrimonia reliquerant, reseruare solebat.16

In any case, blessed Peter, mindful of the Lord’s command which was spoken, Do not possess gold and silver [Mt 10:9], did not hoard for himself the money which was put at the feet of the apostles, but he was wont to reserve it for the use of the poor who had lost their birthright.17

The vita apostolica, so perfectly embodied by the Twelve and their practice of self- denial, was a constant source of inspiration to devout monastic communities. It is little wonder, therefore, that Ælfric, in ending his most extensive homily addressing the monastic life (CH I.27 for the feast of St. Paul), should choose to close his work with an exortation that those belonging to monastic orders should seek to emulate the apostles:

13 _{Bede, Exp. Act., Ch. 2, ll. 236 ff. Trans.: Martin (1989), p. 37.}

14 _{Bede, Exp. Act., Ch. 4, ll. 97 ff. Cp. Arator, Hist. apost., I, p. 254, ll. 407-10.}

15 _{Martin (1989), p. 53.}

16 _{Bede, Exp. Act., Ch. 3, ll. 28 ff.}

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Is nu for þy munuchades mannum mid micelre gecnyrdnysse to forbugenne þas yfelan gebysnunga; 7 geeuenlæcan þam apostolum. þæt hi mid him 7 mid gode þæt ece lif habban moton.18

For this reason it is now [fit] for the men of the monastic state to shun those evil examples with great eagerness and imitate the apostles so that they may be permitted to have that eternal life with them and with God.

18

Ælfric, CH I.27, p. 409, ll. 248-50. For Ælfric’s fuller appeal to the monastic life, cf. idem, p. 407, l. 193 – 408, l. 246.

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