Episode 117n Settling up at the Synod of Whitby

Description: Today we are joined one more time by Dr. Carly McNamara of the University of Glasgow to wrap up our series on the history of the early Church in Ireland and the British Isles. The Synod of Whitby marks the logical place to set our bookmark on the history of Christianity in the British Isles. Don’t worry, we will be back of course. The Synod of Whitby was the event where a number of threads of the story come together. Computus, monastic practices and King Oswiu of Northumbria’s family problems were at least partially settled. Let’s find out how!

About Today’s Guest:
Dr. Carolyn McNamara
On Twitter: @MedievalCarly
Education Evolved: @EducationEvolvd www.educationevolvedltd.com/
Lismore Gaelic Heritage Centre - www.facebook.com/IsleofLismoreGaelicHeritageCentre
www.lismoregaelicheritagecentre.org/

Argyll Archaeology - www.facebook.com/argyllarchaeology
www.argyll-archaeology.co.uk/

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Begin Transcript:
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•Today we are joined one more time by Dr. Carly McNamara of the University of Glasgow to wrap up our series on the history of the early Church in Ireland and the British Isles. The Synod of Whitby marks the logical place to set our bookmark on the history of Christianity in the British Isles. Don’t worry, we will be back of course. The Synod of Whitby was the event where a number of threads of the story come together. Computus, monastic practices and King Oswiu of Northumbria’s family problems were at least partially settled. Let’s find out how!
•With that, here is the next piece of the mosaic of the history of the Popes of Rome and Christian Church.
[00:00:00] We've talked about colo and Colomb Bonis who are some of the other, um, big names we should keep our eyes on. Yeah. So there were. Uh, there's so many saints that you can have a, a look at, um, there's Adam, who is the, the author of the life of St. Columbus. He's a Saint in his own. Right. And he wrote a number of things.
There's of course, bead, uh, there's Malachy of Armand that I am, of course interested in because he spent time as Abbot at banger as well. There's. Um, I'm trying to think. Names have just flown right out of my head. There's St. Brendan who most people will know of as Brendan the navigator. There's kinda, there's more saints than you could shake a stick at, as you like to say, where I grew up Oswalt.
He was the king of Benicia and. Was that a Celtic land? No. So that is, uh, gonna be sex and kingdoms. We [00:01:00] would know them more, uh, generally as Northumbria, but there would've been a certain amount of, uh, crossover because it was so far north. Yeah. So there would be. Crossover you we've got these different kinda kingdoms that are pushing against each other.
And so they're gonna have conflicts, they're gonna have intermarriages, there's gonna be power fluctuations in the area. And the thing about OAL is that he and his brother awe had spent time in Del RDA, or maybe in Ireland as well when they were in exile, their. Side of the family had kind of been overthrown from the throne.
And so they had to go into exile. So they were educated in this kind of Gaelic or Gaelic church situation. And so when OAL regained the throne, you know, he asked Iona to provide a Bishop for not only him self, but also to help with the conversion process for his kingdom. And it [00:02:00] was an Ivan who he then gave land to at Linda's farm to found a monastery there.
So although this was a north kingdom, we're seeing this Iona or this Irish brand of Christianity being the one that's brought in and you'll even see when be talks of a out. The conversion of north embryo. He is very positive and effusive about the Irish. It's almost so the Irish can't do anything wrong, even when they are doing things wrong versus the way he talks about the British church.
You know, he's taking part of it from Gilda who thinks that everyone is terrible all the time, but he's also upset wel or the British or Welsh. If you wanna call em that. Didn't engage in the conversion of the north Umbrians or of the Saxons, but we can wonder, you know, to what degree you would want to be part of the conversion process of your enemy.
If the Saxons had come to conquer your [00:03:00] lands, like, are you gonna turn around and be like, Hey, let's talk about Jesus. So we, all of that going on Oswald is a sax. In an Anglosaxon area that has Celtic in it, but he asks Iona to bring a Bishop Aiden or you pronounced it. Ivan. I Ivan. Yes, Ivan. Um, he, who presumably is Celtic to set up the, this farm in north.
Where does. What kind of flavor does that give the, the Linda's farm monastery when it's getting set up, as far as theology goes, Yeah. So we would really consider that kind of this Irish style, uh, monastery, you know, they would look to Iona for a lot of information and support and so we could consider it very closely, kind of.
I don't wanna say [00:04:00] allies, but I'll, I'll say it anyway, Alli to Iona and of a mind with it. If you like, and this will change very starkly after the Sy of Whitby. And that's when we see it change to this Northumbrian or this more Roben style, because they decide or. Us. We really decides to, you know, we're gonna go with this calculation that Rome is going with, even though Rome had recently changed which calculation they were going with.
And you don't see that mentioned in be, you don't see that mentioned in. The life of Columb Bon, you don't see that mentioned the life of Wilfrid. You know, they're not going, oh, Hey, by the way, Rome just recently changed. They're they're kind of smoothing all of that over to make it seem like Rome was, you know, of the same position the whole time.
That's that's really interesting. One question I have. One is bead writing in comparison to these events that we're talking about. [00:05:00] Yeah. So bead was alive at this time. So he knew Wilfred personally. Um, as far as his specific dates, let me have a quick think. So, yeah, he would've been like late seventh towards like, not quite mid eighth century, but yeah, he is said to have known Adam men personally and Adam men have.
Said to have gone down to visit with him. So yeah, he is. He's talking about a lot of events as far as the Easter controversy goes that he'll have been, you know, really close to. So this isn't the case of like writing a hundred years later or 200 years later. And through beads writing, do we see him as he leaning more towards.
The Roman position or more towards the Iver position, given that he was a Linda farm guy. So he wasn't a Linda's farm guy. He was [00:06:00] born near the, the monastery of Yaro. And so, oh, that's right. Yeah. yeah. So he's north UMBR and he is firmly on the north thumb side as far as school. So he. He's very, you know, we are properly Orthodox and we are following the way of Rome.
And so, yeah, it it's obvious where his kind of proclivities lie if you like, and yeah, that's he likes the Irish, but he is like, oh, well, even when they're wrong, they're still trying really hard to be. Right. So we should still like them, but before we move any of. Um, too much further.