Bede's History shows both the sacred and the profane sides of magic--magic acceptable to the Church, and magic that the Church sought to suppress.
Bede's extensive use of astrology demonstrates the importance of this kind of magic in his period. One way to approach astrology that de-emphasizes its modern and dubious reputation, is to think of it in relation to telling time. The connection between the calendar and the Church was very important in the liturgy, as we see in Bede's numerous complaints about the Irish dating of Easter, for example.
Astrology is known as an "occult" science, but we can see that it was also a necessary practice to medieval ecclesiastical life, since without knowledge of the stars it would have been impossible to calculate the Church calendar. It is not widely recognized that the signs for the four Evangelists--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--derive from astrological points. But what is the exact connection between astrology and the Church's need to calculate its calendar? Both required knowledge of the heavenly bodies, but did they believe equally in the power of heavenly bodies to control terrestial life?
One of the most important books on the subject of the early medieval Church's calendar is by Charles Jones: Saints Lives and Chronicles in Early England. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1947; reprinted 1968.
As a way of learning about systems of keeping time in the Middle Ages, you will have to start with basic definitions of some of terms that you recognize and probably think you can already. One is the "year," by which we mean a cycle of 12 months. But you will quickly see that "year," like "calendar," is a term with many different meanings. In another important book, C. R. Cheney notes many different kinds of years; see his Handbook of Dates for Students of English History. (1-11).
When Augustine first comes to Canterbury (his journey, as you know, is traced in the Navigation Module), King Ethelbert is reluctant to meet him because he has heard that the monks might have magical powers! This is an amusing inversion of the traditional Christian denunciation of pagans for believing in magic. In Book 1, Chapter 25, we learn that Ethelbert will only meet Augustine on the island of Thanet (again, see Navigation for its location and importance) and not anywhere near his (the king's) house, evidently because the king thought that the monks' power would be greater if it were exercised on his home territory.
When Pope Boniface writes to Queen Ethelberga (Book 2, Chapter 11), he urges her to superintend the conversion of her husband, King Eadbald (an interesting use of the woman as mediator between two powerful men) and in particular to keep him from idol worship and the use of divinations and instead to see that he relies on Christian faith.
Another instance has already been discussed in SEAFARER, and that is the example of Imma, who is taken in slavery and whose bonds are broken every time his brother, a priest, says Mass in Book 4, Chapter 23. (See Labor Link 4.)
The fullest reference is also in Book 4, Chapter 27; it concerns Cuthbert's teaching of people outside the monastery. Cuthbert finds that they have "recourse to the delusive remedies of idolatry," including "spells, amulets, and other devilish secret arts," almost a textbook definition of "black" magic as we have been learning about it.
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