ABSTRACT
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English people tells a story of how king and bishop worked together to create a nation that was christian. Bede imagined the English as such a people and his story looks forward to their formation as a special providence of God. He shows how the real apostle to the English was Pope Gregory I. By repeating Gregory’s advice to the English he shows how the church had strong connections with Rome and at the same time given a local indigenising inspiration. Four modes of this English Christendom illustrate how lay and clerical power worked together for a common good of creating a christian nation. The stories of Edwin, Oswald and Aidan, Oswiu at the synod of Whitby and archbishop Theodore make the point and thus allow a characterisation of Bede’s christendom as a cooperative mission of lay and clerical together.
