Clerical Greed, Ecclesiastical Reform, and avaritia in Bede’s Corpus

Abstract This article traces the use of the word avaritia (‘greed’) within Bede’s corpus of exegetical and historical writings. In the Epistola ad Ecgbertum , Bede depicts the Northumbrian church as fundamentally flawed due to the avaritia of bishops who collect money from their parishioners without providing pastoral care. While this use of avaritia is, generally, much more specific than in his exegetical texts, we will argue here that his concerns about clerical greed emerge gradually throughout the latter half of his career. We focus especially on how the Historia ecclesiastica only mentions avaritia three times, each in reference to Irish clerics who did not possess greed. We contend that Bede’s use of avaritia in the Historia prefigures the reform proposed in the Epistola by providing a solution from the past: return to the model of the Irish missionaries to Northumbria who so embodied Gregorian ideals.