It's typical of Bede to put these words in the mouth of a nobleman. For the church in Anglo-Saxon England was just really a branch of the aristocracy. St Wilfred, the aristocratic Bishop of York, deliberately used part of Hadrian's Wall to build at Hexham a basilica worthy of Roman authority. For Bede and St Wilfred, it was crucial that was the Roman, not the Irish Celtic church that won over Britain. For what they passionately desired was the reconnection of a converted country with its Roman mother. A true homecoming. The authority of the Roman Saxon church, though, didn't guarantee protection. Bede himself had had forebodings before he died in 735.


比德惯于借由贵族之口说出此番话语，盎格鲁-撒克逊时期的英格兰，教会不过是贵族统治的一小分支。约克郡的贵族主教圣威尔弗雷德，特意借用哈德良长城一隅，在赫克瑟姆建起了足以匹配罗马权贵的长方形大教堂。对比德与圣威尔弗雷德而言，罗马战胜爱尔兰的凯尔特教会赢得不列颠，意义非凡。他们醉心与让这个皈依它教的国家，再次回归母国罗马的怀抱，一次真正的回归。然而罗马撒克逊教会却从未保证，保护他们的安全。比德在735年去世前，就曾有预言。