4. The Living Temple of the Church
xxi i
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
this temple and in three days I will raise it up'. They understood him literally, but, explains the evangelist, 'he spoke of the temple of his body' (Jn 2:13-18). In Mark's account of Christ's trial his Jewish priestly accusers say, 'We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another not made with hands' (Mk 1458; cf. Mt 26:61; 27:40). The new Temple, the place of the divine presence, is here presented as the incarnate body of Christ.
4. The Living Temple of the Church The Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple were seen, therefore, in the New Testament itself as prefiguring both the eternal heavenly sanctuary, the destined homeland of the faithful into which Christ passed after his atoning sacrifice, and his incarnate body in which that propitiation had been made. The allegorical interpretation of the Temple was further enriched, however, by New Testament texts visualising the Church on earth in terms of architectural images which merged with the Pauline metaphor of the Church as the body of Christ, its various members having different spiritual gifts and functions as the limbs of the body variously serve its head. Two texts are of particular importance here. Ep 2:19-22 describes the formation of the new people of God, gentiles as well as Jews, as an organic building which is still growing, 'built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone, in whom all the building is framed together, grows up into an holy temple to the Lord.. . in whom you also are built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit.'
The second tcxt, 1 P 2:4-10, describes all the members of the Church as inheriting God's promises made to their spiritual ancestors in thc desert before the construction of the Tabernacle: 'You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation' (cf. Ex 19:6). It is therefore the community of the faithful, not a material church building, which forms the new household of God; its members are exhorted to be 'as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ'.
Individual scriptural images offer the possibility of extending the building metaphor still further. Both Ep 2:20 and, more fully, 1 P 2%
8 incorporate the Old Testament image of 'the stone which the builders rejected', destined to become the cornerstone of the build-
INTRODUCTION
xxiii ing (Ps 117:22) and the precious stone laid in the foundation of Zion (Is 28:16), explicitly identified with Christ in the synoptic gospels and Acts. The new 'holy temple to the Lord' built of living stones upon the apostles and prophets also has Christ as its one foundation (1 Co 3:ll).
This spiritual building can be viewed from various perspectives. It is the continuing community of all the faithful on earth, awaiting its completion in the heavenly sanctuary of which it is but a reflection.
But individual Christians can also be seen as building up the Church from the foundation which has been divinely laid (1 Co 3:lO). Each
Christian is exhorted not only to become a living stone or a pillar in the new temple (Ga 2:9; Rv 3:12) but at baptism to become that temple and remain worthy of being so: 'Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?' (1 Co
3:16; 2 Co 6:16). The faithful thus strive to become like Christ whose body, filled with the Holy Spirit, forms the new temple of the divine presence with his chosen people on earth.
It will by now be evident that the great chain of scriptural texts using the architectural metaphor to describe the incorporation of the faithful into Christ reveals insights into the multiple meanings of the term 'the body of Christ' - incarnate, sacramental, ecclesial, mystical.
Though already, through baptism, forming part of the body of Christ, the community of the Church on earth longs to be fully joined with Christ and united with all the faithful who have gone before.
THE TEMPLE THEME IN PATRISTIC EXEGESIS
The interpretation of the Temple as a figure of the incarnate body of Christ, the community of the Church on earth, the individual soul and the heavenly sanctuary or city of the New Jerusalem was therefore not the invention of patristic or medieval exegesis but is already contained within the New Testament. The Fathers were important, however, in demonstrating the simultaneity of these modes of interpretation, and in popularising exegetical chains of texts featuring elements of the image. A few examples must suffice to illustrate something of the range of other scriptural texts to which the Temple exegesis was applied, with a variety of rhetorical approaches and differences of theological emphasis.
The interpretative method of Origen (185-254/5) was of fundamental importance to the history of the allegorical interpretation of
XXiV
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
Scripture. In the first of his sixteen surviving Homilies on the Book of Leviticus, translated by Rufinus, he argued that, just as the human flesh of the Word of God veiled his divinity from most eyes, so the underlying spiritual meaning of the Word of God as expressed in the Old Testament is veiled by the literal letter of the Law and the prophets. It follows that the literal text is inspired and important:
Moses really was shown 'heavenly things' but the Thbernacle and later the Temple and its cult were merely copies of that reality, 'a shadow of things to come', (citing 1 Co 10:1-4; Col 2:17; Heb 10:l).5 The regulations governing the ritual purification, ordination, vestments, sacrifices and altar vessels of the Old Covenant priesthood described in the book of Leviticus therefore have a continuing importance for the Christian because they represent divine precepts to be understood spiritually, although no longer practised literally. Scripture is used to explain Scripture; the Epistle to the Hebrews transformed Origen's reading of Leviticus and the associated Old Testament accounts of the Tabernacle and Temple. Particularly influential was the exposition of the 'twofold sanctuaries' in both buildings: the outer one, visible and open to the Aaronic priesthood, represents the present
Church on earth which is open not only to the ordained but to all the elect through baptism, while the inner sanctuary, invisible and entered only by the Jewish High Priest, is a figure of heaven itself.'
The distinction is a major element in Bede's De templo.
Ambrose (c.339-97) was important in mediating this Alexandrian allegorical interpretation of Scripture to the Latin West. He applied the scriptural texts of the architectural metaphor to the interpretation of the opening chapters of Luke's gospel, which itself uses the image of the Temple in Jerusalem as a means of showing how the Old Covenant priesthood and sacrifices were superseded by Christ.
In the third book of his commentary Ambrose links several key texts concerning the Temple. Christ is 'the priest who is to come. . .who would not offer sacrifice for us in a temple made with human hands
(Heb 9:11, 24; Acts 17:24) but he would offer propitiation for our sins in the temple of his body' (Jn 2:19-22).
He very briefly describes the Temple built by Solomon as the type of the church built by God and describes its origin and nature, its growth and vocation through the New Testament metaphor of the spiritual building
Homilies on Leviticus, Barkley 1990,29, 141-2.205.
Barkley 1990.1954.
INTRODUCTION
xxv formed of living stones (1 P 2:5), built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ as its cornerstone 'in whom all the building framed together grows into a temple' (Eph 2:20-21).
Ambrose applies this exegetical chain, however, not to an exposition of the Old Testament Temple building but to his discussion of the genealogy of Christ in Lk 3:23-38 which immediately follows the account of Christ's baptism?. Bede's commentary on Luke's gospel was influenced by Ambrose's so it may seem surprising that he did not incorporate book three of Ambrose's work in his own discussion of the Lucan genealogy. However, it may well have been an important source of inspiration, particularly its treatment of the faithful who lived before the Incarnation, which is a favourite theme with Bede and is fully integrated into the architectural metaphor of Solomon's
Temple in De templo. Ambrose shows that the royal and priestly human lineage taken on by Christ at his Incarnation is also that of his
Church. Christ's Old Testament ancestors are therefore the spiritual ancestors of all those, whether Jew or gentile, who in baptism share in Christ's anointing as prophet, priest and king and who 'in time past were not a people but are now the people of God' (1 P 2:9-10, citing Ho 1:lO). The pastoral theology of baptism is fundamental to an understanding of De templo where it signifies not only initial conversion into the unity of faith and membership of the household of God but is an image of the process of continuing inner conversion which characterises the Christian life and the monastic vocation in particular.
The Temple metaphor permeates the work of Augustine (354430)' not only in his commentaries on texts such as Jn 2:19-21 which were links in the exegetical chain, but in his influential commentaries on the psalms which in a monastic society were intimately known through the daily divine office. Ps 86:l-2, for example, ('The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains: The Lord loves the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob'), prompts a dazzling rhetorical display.8 Augustine deploys the usual texts, such as Ep 2:19-22,
1 P 25-9, 1 Co 3:11, to reveal the psalm's spiritual allusion to the present Church, the heavenly Jerusalem and Christ himself and its direct relevance to his readers and listeners: 'These words apply to us'. Augustine then stands the figure on its head to show its inconExpositio evangelii secundwn Lucam, Book 3. OReilly 1994,355-69.383-88.
Enarmtiones in psalms, 1198-1203; Ladner 1983,180-81.
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
sistencies and even absurdities: how can the prophets and apostles be the foundations of this spiritual building if its one foundation is
Christ? How can Christ possibly be described as a door, such as is made by a carpenter? This introduces the key exegetical concept that divinity is present in all places and the likeness of all things can simultaneously be applied to it, but in reality it is none of these things. Having justified the use and the necessity of paradox and of the mixed metaphor in attempting to give some glimpse of an ultimately unknowable mystery, he shows how the spiritual building of the Church is that part of the body of Christ still in pilgrimage on earth, Christ having 'gone ahead'. The theme, central to Bede's world view, underlies The Cify of God.
Commenting on the idea that Old Testament references to Jerusalem as the city of God seem to be fulfilled when Solomon builds the Temple, but are also a symbol of Jerusalem in heaven,
Augustine notes: 'Now, this class of prophecy in which there is a compounding and commingling, as it were, of both references, is of the greatest importance in the ancient canonical books which contain historical narratives and it still exercises the wits of those who examine sacred S~ripture'.~
The divine promise made to king David about the building of the future Temple, literally fulfilled by Solomon, also refers to 'the one that was to come, who would build God a house not of wood and stone, but of human beings.. .you are that temple'
(cf. 1 Co 3:17). This is very much Bede's approach in De templo.
The influence of Gregory the Great (c.540-604) on Bede's exegesis and his vision of the Church and its reform is well known.".
Arthur Holder has noted some points of comparison between Gregory's homilies on Ezekiel 40 and Bede's De fubemucufo and De templo and the general influence on Bede of Gregory's practical spiritual application of the scriptural text, particularly regarding pastors and teachers."
In a homily on Lk 19:41-47, Gregory noted how Christ's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and his cleansing of the Temple showed that 'the downfall of the people arose principally from the sins of the priests'.12 Bede shared Gregory's view
De ci~iinie Dei. 17.3 (Bettenson 1972, 714, cf 734-35, 768). Temple theme also in Bk
17.20; 18.45; 18.48; 21.26.
'" Thacker IY8.3; 19Y2, 152-59; McClure 1985.17
" Homiliae in Erechielem Bk 2; Holder 1989 244; McClure 1983,81. n 27. l2 Homiliae in euangelia, 39; Hunt 1990,358.
INTRODUCTION
xxvii and incorporated the passage into his own commentary on Luke. In Ezekiel, Gregory found the prophetic figure of a priest aware of the responsibilities and contemporary shortcomings of the pastor. In the context of the Israelites' exile from Jerusalem, Ezekiel's vision is not simply of rebuilding the physically desecrated Temple in Jerusalem abandoned by God, but of reconstituting his people through thoroughgoing religious reform so that God could dwell with them again.
The image of Ezekiel's visionary Temple, partly based on the description of Solomon's Temple in the books of Kings and Chronicles, is called into imaginative being through the incantatory measurement of its features reiterated in the Apocalyptic vision of the new Jerusalem
(Ez 40-42; Rv 21:15-17). Gregory's and Bede's use of the common exegetical tool of numerology in discerning the concealed meanings of architectural features is particularly appropriate in their exposition of the Temple whose dimensions have such an important role in both its historical description and visionary evocations in scripture.
In his preface Gregory notes that Ezekiel's vision of the Temple is veiled in clouds of obscurity. His ten homilies, which are confined to Ez 40 alone, are extremely diffuse and only partly concerned with the interpretation of the Temple's architecture but contain a number of features which were to be assimilated by Bede in De templo. Several parts and dimensions of the Temple, for example, are interpreted as denoting the triad of faith, hope and charity and the numerology of the decalogue is used to expound the perfection of combining the active and contemplative life, the love of God and one's neighbour.
Gregory interprets Ezekiel's reconstituted Temple and city of Jerusalem as both the heavenly Jerusalem and the Church 'which labours on earth before it will reign in heaven'. He cites the usual
New Testament texts to reveal this as a spiritual building made of living stones laid on the foundation of Christ (1 P 25; 1 Co 3:9, 11,17).
As in De templo the faithful are variously described as living stones in the Temple fabric or as being the Temple in which God dwells or as entering the Temple to contemplate their heavenly end. The holy teachers are seen as weighty squared stones supporting others and as builders laying stones in the Temple building. The emphasis is on elucidating the building up of the spiritual life, aspects of which are illustrated from the experience of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. Like Bede in De templo, Gregory shows that 'He enters the building of the heavenly city who meditates by imitating the ways of the good in the Church' and stresses it is the
xxviii
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
function of priests to guard the Temple through keeping watch over the faithful, praying, preaching, administering the sacraments and correcting the lives of the worldly. Preachers in particular are the very gateways into the Temple; like Bede, Gregory is emphatic on the importance of their knowing and interpreting Scripture, the standard of measurement for the spiritual life and good works. Like Bede,
Gregory distinguishes between models of the spiritual life and those still in thrall to their carnal senses who do not know how to bum with inward love and yearning towards the heavenly. He distinguishes between levels of spiritual perfection and between the compunction of fear and love represented by the Temple's two altars of sacrifice and incense but shows that there is one life of blessedness promised to all the faithful, little and great (Ps 113:13) for 'in my Father's house are many mansions' (Jn 14:2). Both quotations are cited in De tabemaculo and resonate through Bede's De ternp10.'~
BEDE'S OBJECTIVES AND APPROACH
What, then, is distinctive about Bede's handling of a traditional theme? In his early handbook on rhetorical figures, De schematibw et trupis (c.700/701), Bede explains that one word or historical event or place in Scripture can at the same time figuratively designate several kinds of understanding. The historical temple built by Solomon, for example, can be seen allegorically as the body of Christ or his
Church; tropologically it can refer to the life of the individual soul, the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, and anagogically, 'leading us to higher things', it can signify the joys of the heavenly dwelling in the new Jerusalem (120-121). He concludes: 'My discussion of the Church in accordance with the allegorical interpretation has followed the example of that most scholarly commentator, Gregory, who in his
Muruliu, while he did not apply the specific name of allegory to those deeds and words about Christ or the Church, nevertheless interpreted them fig~ratively'.'~ Gregory taught the literal meaning of the Old
Testament text, 'its bearing on the mysteries of Christ and the Church, and the sense in which it applies to each of the faithful'. (HE 2.1)
Similarly, although Bede does occasionally use a formal fourfold or threefold interpretation of a scriptural passage, in practice he had a l3 Gray 1990. 184, 197; Holder 1994.22; De templo, Prologue; 11.3, 16.2. 18.14.25.3. l4 Tannenhaus 1973, 121.
INTRODUCTION
x?iix far more flexible approach, particularly in his later work, usually only distinguishing between the historical meaning of the literal text and its underlying spiritual significance for the present reader which he variously termed the allegorical or mystical or figurative sense.15
The opening of Book I of De templo is a tour de force in which Bede succinctly demonstrates his command of the temple metaphor's entire range by citing or alluding to scriptural texts from each level of its traditional interpretation, though without using rhetorical terms.
The house of God built by Solomon in Jerusalem 'was made as a figure of the holy universal Church' built by Christ. The obvious limitations of describing the Church through the static image of a building are immediately confronted. The architectural metaphor spans vast time and space and is animated and articulated through attributing to it the characteristics both of a pilgrim people and the limbs or members of a body. Thus the Church is still in the process of being built, part of it is still in exile in this earthly life, part already
'reigns with him in heaven where, when the last judgment is over, it is to reign completely with him'. It is further shown to be the temple of Christ's incarnate and risen body (Jn 2:21) and the temple of the Holy Spirit dwelling in each of the faithful (1 Co 3:16); thus 'it is quite clear that the material Temple (of Solomon) was a figure of us all, that is, both of the Lord himself and his members which we are. But it was a figure of him as the uniquely chosen and precious cornerstone laid in the foundation (Is 28:16; 1 P 25-10) and of us as the living stones built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ep 2:20), that is, on the Lord himself' (cf. 1 Co 3:ll). The figure of Solomon's Temple can therefore apply to Christ in some respects, in others to all the elect, collectively and individually, both those on earth and those already in heaven.
In his homily on Jn 2:12-22 and in two homilies for anniversaries of the dedication of his own monastic church at Jarrow, Bede had already discussed texts in this exegetical chain and had allegorically expounded certain physical features of Solomon's Temple.16 In De templo he proposes a systematic verse-by-verse consideration of Solomon's Temple as it is described in 3 K 51-751, just as in his earlier work De tabemaculo, he had provided a sustained commentary on the description of the Mosaic Tabernacle in Ex 24:12-30:21. Another l5 Jones 1969-70,131-151; Holder 1994, xviii, 25,104. Ward 1990,4147. l6 Homiliae 2.1; 2.24; 2.25.
xxx
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
claim to originality is that Bede established a distinction between Tabernacle and Temple which considerably refined his exegesis of the Tem~1e.l~ Each can show us 'an image of the universal Church which is the one Church of Christ', but whereas the Tabernacle was a temporary portable structure built in the desert 'on the route by which one reaches the promised land', the stone Temple was built in that land of promise, in Jerusalem, so 'the former can be taken to represent the toil and exile of the present Church, the latter the rest and happiness of the future Church' in the heavenly Jerusalem
( 1.1,2). l8 De templo is without the digressions of Gregory's exegesis on the enigmatic 'profound mysteries' of Ezekiel's vision; instead, it is based on a historical account of an actual building, from which it draws mysteries. The Old Testament passage expounded in De templo describes Kmg Solomon building a house for the Lord in fulfilment of his father David's intentions, and God's promise to dwell in the midst of his people Israel if they will keep all his commandments. 3 K 5 describes in detail the provision of the building materials and organisation of the workforce. Ch 6 chronicles the gradual construction of the outer porch, the floors, walls, doors, windows and roof, the building's dimensions and the rich embellishment of all the interior surfaces; it also describes the construction of an inner oracle to house the sacred Ark of the Covenant enshrining the Law and set beneath two golden cherubim. Ch 7 details particular features of the building, notably the two massive pillars set up at its entrance, various Temple furnishings such as the water laver and, finally, the Temple treasure chambers into which, at the completion of the building work, Solomon brings all the precious vessels dedicated by his father. Bede's commentary therefore expounds a description not of the anatomy of a building but of its organic growth through time. The building of Solomon's Temple in seven years and its dedication, presumably in the following year, facilitated its allegorical application not only to the spiritual growth of the individual faithful, but to the whole historical development of the universal Church and its future completion and dedication in the eighth age of the world. It is a remarkably focused, coherent piece of work with persistent themes which further identify it as an original creation within a tradition. l 7 cf. De rahemaculo 2,l; Holder 1994 xv, xiv, 45; Homily 2.25. l8 Numbers given in bold refer to the chapter and section divisions ofDe templo.
INTRODUCTION
xxxi Some insight into these preoccupations is given in the third prologue. It is addressed to Bede's close friend, Acca, who was abbot and bishop of Hexham (709-31). He was a very learned theologian who had built up a large and noble library (HE 5.20) and had for long encouraged Bede in his exegetical writing to help create an educated Anglo-Saxon clergy. Several of the earlier commentaries are dedicated to AccalQ, whom Bede describes as one accustomed in this transitory life to find consolation in the vision of 'the land of the living' revealed in the study of Scripture and the writings of the Fathers.
Bede sent De templo in spiritual friendship to this seasoned monastic reader, who fulfilled the Gregorian ideal of the teacher and of those in spiritual authority by combining the active and contemplative life.
Concern for orthodoxy and authorial humility alike prompted Bede to describe the work as following in the footsteps of the Fathers yet it is also self-confessedly 'novel', designed to present afresh familiar truths whose contemplation would then reveal further consolatory mysteries of Christ, the Church and of the heavenly mansions (Jn
14.2) which are the desire and the destination of the Christian life and the monastic vocation. Acca is invited to emulate the example of St John, the author of the Apocalypse, whose intense contemplation of 'the heavenly mansions' of the new Jerusalem enabled him while still in his literal exile on Patmos and the figurative exile of this earthly life, to share in the angelic discourse of heaven. Patristic and early medieval exegesis interpreted the Apocalypse ecclesiologically, that is, as a commentary on the contemporary Church.20 Bede in De templo paradoxically seeks 'the spiritual mansion of God in the material structure' of Solomon's Temple (2.1).
The sublime objective of the work is pursued through the exposition of the scriptural account of Solomon's Temple, its construction, materials, layout, dimensions, its decoration and liturgical furnishings and vessels. Although the Temple had long since been superseded by the Church and indeed physically destroyed, like the earlier
Tabernacle its original construction had been divinely ordered and planned. The prologue opens with St Paul: 'Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction' (Rom 15:4).21 Even circumstantial details are therefore of importance: 'the writing of lQ McClure 1985,17-20; Ward 1990.51-73.
2o Matter 1992.49.
21 cf. the opening of De tabemaculo.
xxxii
BEDE: ON THE TEMPLE
the Old Testament overflows with such perfection that, if one considers it properly, it contains in itself all the mysteries of the New
Testament' (5.2). Bede shows respect for the inspired literal text and its historical meaning, trying to resolve any ambiguities or apparent inconsistencies between the descriptions of the Temple in the Book of Kings and in Chronicles and consulting the work of the Jewish scholar Josephus and of Cassiodorus for clarification of particular features of the building (8.2; 17.1-3).
In his homily on the cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem, Bede had already explained that because 'that temple made with hands prefigured our Lord's most sacred body (Jn 2:19-21). . .and likewise pointed to his body the Church', he would like to record some details of its construction so that 'this fraternal gathering may recognise how everything that is written about it is applicable to Christ's Church'.
Bede's description of the building contains echoes of other scriptural accounts of the Temple. As in De femplo 8.1, for example, the door to the spiral stairway on the right side of Solomon's Temple suggests the means of spiritual ascent offered to the faithful by the wound opening Christ's side, the source of the sacraments, an allusion to the water of life which flowed from the right side of the Temple in Ezekiel's vision.22
The idea of expounding Solomon's Temple, sketched in the Lenten homily, grows immeasurably in De fempfo in concept and technique.
The mental tour of the great building opens vistas on the historical journey of the chosen people journeying to the Promised Land, on the continuing journey of the new people of God towards the heavenly
Jerusalem, a journey accomplished by the individual believer at death but continuing for the Church as a whole until the end of time. The work describes how the Church on earth can be built up spiritually to become more like that heavenly dwelling. It ends where it begins with the longing for the heavenly mansions but with the reader's understanding of that image extraordinarily enriched.
Bede does not simply treat the figure of the Temple as a mnemonic framework but exploits the function of its architectural components and the characteristics of its building materials. The initial straightforward exposition of the portico and outer part of the Temple respectively as the faithful of old and the faithful born after the Incarnation, for example, is transformed by the information that access to the in22 Homily 2.1; Ezk 47:l; O'Reilly (1992) 173-4.
INTRODUCTION
xxxiii ner Holy of Holies, representing the joys of the heavenly kingdom, is granted to both groups. The same lesson is then differently taught by exposition of the three materials from which the walls and floors of the building are constructed, 'for in the different materials there is a manifold repetition of the same figures': stone, denoting the ancient people of God and the Law, a timber lining, representing the new chosen people and the Gospel, and finally gold leaf covering all surfaces and symbolising the heavenly reward open to all. The reader is drawn into a deeper understanding that these three categories do not merely refer to three different periods of time. Some people who lived 'before the era of the Gospel led the life of the Gospel', while there are 'a great many at the present time who are content with the precepts of the Law' (i.e. with its literal observance, not its spiritual interpretation); they 'are but at the beginning of spiritual life' (11.3).
The historical function of the Temple's structure in delineating areas accessible only to certain categories of people has been quite overturned to reveal spiritual truths about the nature of the universal
Church. Similarly the Old Covenant priests who were ritually purified in the bronze water laver and could alone enter the Temple court do not just represent ordained Christian priests or religious but prefigure all those who, through baptism, share in Christ's priesthood (19.1);
'After all, it was not only to bishops and priests but to all God's children that the Apostle Peter was speaking when he said, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood"' (17.4; 1 P 2:9).
DE TEMPLO AND THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
There is here no debate over the dating of Easter, the nature of Petrine authority or the rites of baptism and consecration; there is no discussion of synods and councils, the creation of dioceses or the rules of abbatial succession. There is only a brief commendation of the role of kings in increasing and supporting the Church (2.2).
Bede's vision of the building up of the universal Church in De templo is, however, of the greatest interest in casting light on his account of the building of the Church among the gens Anglomm in HE.23
23 Mayr-Harting 1976,1%22.